The Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the Messerschmitt Bf 109 are two of the most iconic fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to different requirements, these two aircraft clashed over North Africa, Sicily and Italy during 1942–43 in duels that have not heretofore been analyzed in detail. The standard narrative is that the twin-engine P-38 more than held its own against the Luftwaffe’s single-engine fighters. However, recent research on Allied and Axis claims and losses, particularly the work of Christopher Shores and his colleagues in their monumental A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945, and that of Jochen Prien and his colleagues in their Die Jagdfliegerverbände der Deutchen Luftwaffe, supports the argument that the P-38’s success over the Luftwaffe may not have been so assured. The objective of this Duel volume was to review the combats between these aircraft to determine how well the P-38 fared against the Bf 109. An analysis of claims versus losses, using newly available data, suggested that the P-38 pilots did not, in all likelihood, shoot down as many Bf 109s as claimed and that the Luftwaffe’s Bf 109 pilots established a victory-to-loss ratio of nearly three P-38s for every Bf 109 lost in combat. How and why this happened is the question this volume attempts to answer.

The Lockheed P-38 and the Messerschmitt Bf 109G series, the version most frequently encountered over North Africa, Sicily and Italy, had roughly comparable performance. Reviewing the air combats between these two fighters indicates that there were three factors involved that often gave the advantage in combat to the Bf 109 pilots: American combat tactics, certain flying characteristics of the P-38,  and the difference in combat experience between American and Luftwaffe pilots. The primary mission of the P-38 groups in the Mediterranean Theater was to escort American heavy and medium bombers using close escort tactics that tied the P-38s to the bomber formations. This often gave the advantage to the Bf 109 pilots who could attack with an altitude advantage, diving down on the P-38s and quickly breaking away. Countering the Luftwaffe tactics proved difficult for P-38 pilots, who were admonished not to leave the bomber formations they were charged with protecting. In addition, while the P-38 had the maneuverability to stay with a Bf 109 in a turn, the P-38’s longer wingspan and twin boom configuration gave it a slower rate of roll than that of the Bf 109. When attacked from above, a P-38 could not quickly roll away to avoid the attack or pursue the enemy fighter.

There was a vast difference in the level of combat experience between the American P-38 pilots and their Luftwaffe opponents. When the P-38 squadrons entered combat in North Africa in November 1942, they had neither combat experience nor tactics proven in air combat. In contrast, many of their Bf 109 adversaries had been flying in combat for a year or more. The leading Bf 109 pilots scoring victories against the P-38 during this period had an average of 46 victory claims prior to their first claim against the P-38.

More important than a simple calculation of claims and losses was the success of the mission assigned to American and Luftwaffe fighter pilots. In this regard, and as this Duel volume argues, the American P-38 pilots were far more successful than the Luftwaffe Bf 109 pilots, albeit at a higher cost. While the Bf 109s shot down many more P-38s than they lost to the American fighters, the Bf 109 Jagdgruppen failed to prevent American bombers from interdicting supplies to North Africa and bringing about devesting losses to Axis air power in Sicily and Italy prior to the invasions. The P-38 pilots escorting the American bomber formations prevented the Bf 109s from consistently inflicting serious losses on the bombers. Throughout this period, American Twelfth Air Force bomber losses were substantially smaller than losses the Eighth Air Force’s unescorted bomber formations experienced in their missions over France and Germany.

Find out more in P-38 Lightning vs Bf 109: North Africa, Sicily and Italy 1942–43