Two decal sheets with 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32 individual markings for 8 P-38 Lightnings with sexy nose art. The decal sheets were printed by Cartograf. Each painting scheme is depicted on beautifully drawn 4-view color profiles and described in the 18 page guidebook with English and Polish text. The authors selected the following aircraft: - P-38G-15-LO; s/n 43-2384, coded 'I' of 80th FS / 8th FG, Dobodura, New Guinea, autumn 1943, - P-38E-LO; s/n 41-2221, 'Spirit of 76', coded '76', flown by 2nd Lt. John S. Mackey of 54th FS / 343rd FG, Attu, Aleutian Islands, winter of 1943/1944, - P-38L-5-LO, s/n 44-27132, 'Ready Maid', coded 'M', flown by Capt. Phil McLain of 36th FS / 8th FG, San Jose, Mindoro, the Philippines, spring 1945, - P-38L-5-LO, probable s/n 44-25133, 'Peck's Bad Girl', coded 'V', flown by 2nd Lt. Charles I. Peck of 36th FS / 8th FG, San Jose, Mindoro, the Philippines, spring 1945, - P-38L-5-LO; s/n 44-26302, 'Hazel', coded '413', flown by 1st Lt. Warren E. 'Whip' Whipple of 44th FS / 18th FG, the Philippines, summer 1945, - P-38L-5-LO, s/n unknown, 'Glamour Puss II', coded 'L', flown by 1st Lt. Chester L. Schachterle of 80th FS / 8th FG, Ie Shima, Ryukyu Islands, August 1945, - P-38L-5-LO, probable s/n 44-25161, 'Wishful Thinking', coded 'N', flown by Lt. Royce H. Hendrickson of 36th FS / 8th FG, Ie Shima, Ryukyu Islands, August 1945, - P-38L-5-LO, s/n 44-26412, 'Shady's Lady', coded 'P', flown by 1st Lt. William R. Pruner of 80th FS / 8th FG, Ie Shima, Ryukyu Islands, August 1945.

Table of contents

The P-38 was used on virtually every front to which the USAAF were committed, but enjoyed its greatest successes in the Pacific and China-Burma-India (CBI) theatres. The speed, range and firepower of the P-38 made it the favourite of nearly all aircrew fighting in the Solomons, New Guinea and the Philippines, and over 1800 Japanese aircraft fell to its guns. From the first encounters at the end of 1942 until the Lightning scored the final Fifth Air force victories in August 1945, these pilots made the Pacific skies very much their own battleground.

This classic title traces the history of the Lightning from the earliest Lockheed "Model 22" through the severe compressibility problems of the prototype YP-38, to the P-38L-5, the fighter-bomber-reconnaissance aircraft of the USAAF in Italy and the Pacific. Graphically illustrated with over 200 action photographs and many eyewitness accounts, this book tells the story of a unique and innovative aircraft, revered for its adaptability and ability to limp home on one engine where other aircraft would have been destroyed.

The P-38 made its combat debut in Europe in mid-1942, the first American fighters being flown to the UK before heading further east to Twelfth Air Force units in North Africa. Its service in this theatre, and later over the heartland of Germany itself, earned the P-38 the nickname 'der gabelschwanzer Teufel' (the 'fork-tailed' devil). This volume traces the careers of many previously unknown aces within the USAAF in Europe, and helps redress the balance which has in the past seen all the 'glory' for the fighter victories in this theatre shared between the pilots of the P-47 and P-51. Some 17 pilots scored 7 or more kills on the P-38 in the ETO/MTO.

No fewer than 25 pilots from the 82nd FG became aces, and 55 others scored three or four kills. This book looks at the unit's history through the eyes of its most successful pilots and leaders, detailing both their exploits and their personal experiences. When the 82nd Fighter Group was organized in March 1942, most of its initial pilot cadre was comprised of newly graduated staff sergeant pilots of Class 42-C – enlisted men! They learned to fly the P-38 at Muroc, in California's Mojave Desert, and then moved to the Los Angeles area to continue their training and to serve as part of its air defence. In September 1942 the group was transported to the East Coast, from where it shipped out to Ireland on the Queen Mary. By this time all its remaining sergeant pilots had been commissioned. As this book outlines, as of VE-Day the 82nd Fighter Group's score of confirmed aerial victories stood at 548 aircraft shot down, plus a huge amount of enemy materiel – including aircraft – destroyed on the ground and the sea. It had been awarded three Distinguished Unit Citations. The cost of this success was high, however, for around 250 of the group's pilots had either been killed in action or captured.