82nd FIGHTER GROUP’S ‘FORK-TAILED DEVILS’

Two former 82nd Fighter Group P-38 Lightning fighter pilots graphically recall memorable missions over North Africa and Italy. Warren Thompson reports.

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was one of World War Two’s finest fighters. Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson was the designer of the first twinengine fighter to go into mass production, with 10,037 built.

It was the only American fighter manufactured throughout the US’s involvement in the war from 1941 through to Victory over Japan on August 15, 1945.

The Lightnings first saw action in the North African campaigns and eventually moved up into Italy. They also had the range to fly to Russian bases escorting Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators that flew long-range missions deep into enemy territory. Such was the reputation of the aircraft that German pilots referred to as the ‘fork-tailed devil’. The 82nd Fighter Group (FG), consisting of the 95th, 96th and 97th Fighter Squadrons, started war operations from Telergma in Algeria. It then moved to nearby Berteaux. Lt Phil Taback recalled one of the most important missions he flew with the 82nd FG which was from this location. “It was on January 8th [1943], my second combat mission. I was orig…

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