Two men with Lockheed P-39 Lightning fighter plane
View of two men with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane. One man sits on motor scooter. Label on back: "Lightning strikes the foe. After being held back for months while the highly secret invasion of North Africa was being planned and put into execution, swarms of Lockheed 'Lightning' P-38 fighters struck hard blows at the enemy in Tunis. Teaming with B-17 Flying Fortresses, the speedy twin-engine fighters devastated German and Italian strongholds and because of their versatility and long range were proclaimed of inestimable. value in the African campaign. Already famed as the world's fastest airplane, the 'Lightning' was used for the first time as a medium bomber in Africa. It was also used as a ground strafer, tank destroyer and convoy for big bombers. The P-38 will climb faster than any other ship, and even without its droppable gas tanks has the longest range of any fighter in the world. Both in the Aleutians and the Solomon Island the Lockheed 'Lightning' is striking at the Japs, and everywhere it has won favor among RAF flyers because it has brought back with one engine disabled many boys who would have been lost but for the safety feature of two engines." Handwritten on back: "Aircraft in action."
- Resource ID:
- na032524
- Subject:
- Lightning (Fighter plane)
- Lockheed aircraft
- Motor scooters
- Automotive Council for War Production--Archives
- Photographic prints
- Date:
- 1942-1945
- Format:
- 1 photographic print ; 8 x 10 in.
- Department:
- National Automotive History Collection
- Location:
- MS84/Automotive Council for War Production, Aircraft in action, 85:11
- Copyright:
- Physical rights are retained by DPL. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. copyright laws.