what about this???

'The pilot of the P-38 threw up both of his hands to gesture that he understood and, shoving his throttle ahead, flew around us. He then took up a position directly in front of us, matched our airspeed, and guided us through the treacherous mountain range. the P-38 had more sophisticated radar and sonar equipment aboard than a B-24 and he was better able to judge how far away those jabbed and deadly peaks were. If it were not for the P-38 's courageous pilot leading us through the small openings in the Alps, I am sure we would have crashed into the side of the mountains.' <<<Robert Dyas of the 15th Air Force>>>

Radar in a regular P-38? Or even more...sonar????!!!...my opionion it that this is BS, but big time one....any reasons or info why not this shouldn't be BS?

Alex,

First, it did not say it was a regular P-38. Now, it did say 'sonar', which, unless they made a sub-surface version of the P-38 (it was a REAL capable fighter, but not THAT capable), then he just does not remember very well what happened many years ago.. But, there were night figher P-38s, and it is possible it was one of them. Still, I wonder how a B-24 would not have a navigator on board with radio directional gear.

The crew of the B-24 may have been very inexperienced and the pilot of the 38 an experienced hand at flying over the Alps.

'A> Radar in a regular P-38? Or even more...sonar????!!!...my opionion it that

Yes, there were a few two-seat P-38M Lightnings that were used as night fighters in WW2. The P-38M carried a radar under the nose- the AN/APS-6.

bshatzer pustulated:

But what about the 'Mickey' P-38s

No, IIRC, it was designed to present a fairly two dimensional 'flat' PPI presentation emphasising rivers, etc. and was purely 'look down' (and the pathfinder/'Bomb on me' a/c themselves flew on one or more of the 'beam-rider' navigational schemes.

The question remains. With more comm and radio navaids plus a dedicated navigator and radioman, whu would any operational B-24 need to depend upon a P-38 for nav help avoiding mountains? The P-38 would be no better able to than the B-24 (and if overcast was the problem, subject to the same limitations during descent and far less likely to be able to establish a radio or beam fix). Bombers found there way home evry day and night with overcasts, and bomber navigators would have had far more time and resources to devote to DR Nav than a P-38 driver.

As for your analysis of celestial nav time requirements, if you're in the overcast in the mountains, none of the fixes or P- 38s in the world are going to help, only rapidly climbing and hoping, while if you're above the overcast, any mountains tall enough to rise above it become amazingly visible, and while I'll admit that most USAAC/USAAF navigators were not celestial aces, a few minutes above the ceiling ought to allow adequate time for some sort of combination celestial/radio navaid fix. Then you fly to where the mountains are not for let down.

.....but then I was the assistant navigator on a CV and right confident of my capacity as such.

I saw night fighters on Leyte in late 1944. They had the profile of a P 38 but as I recall they were referred to as P 61. Of course we also had P 38s their also. Seen a few of each in action.

The summer of 1945 was a little late. We had night fighters on Leyte in late 1944 that looked similar to a P38. That was Northrup P 61. It was a larger aircraft and had 6 machine guns and 4 mm cannons. It was known as the black widow. Of course we had P 38s there also. I have seen them both in action..