34 HEAVY FIGHTERS OF WW2
Above: Lightnings blast Japanese positions with
early use of napalm bombs near the Ipo Dam in
the Philippine Islands.Left: Miraculous escape. A dramatic picture of
Lt S. F. Ford walking dazed but unharmed from
his Lockheed P-38 Lightning just moments after
he had crash landed having been shot down
by a Japanese Zero pilot over Mindoro Island,
Philippines.Right: ‘Rosie the Riveter’. A Lockheed employee
works on the P-38 Lightning in Burbank,
California, 1944. Although this photograph was
undoubtedly staged for propaganda purposes,
it nevertheless represents the vital role played
by women in the construction of military aircraft
during the conflict.
Below: P-38 pilots shot down more Japanese
aircraft than any other fighter. The American ace
of aces was Maj Richard I. ‘Dick’ Bong who scored
40 kills in his Lightning and was awarded the
Medal of Honor. He was rotated back to the US
to become a test pilot but was killed on 6 August
1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on
Japan, when his Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet
fighter flamed out on take off.