"Jo Ann Kathy" P-38, what happened?

[Bilbo_Baggins]

Anyone know the history behind this machine? Remarkable damage...

 

Regards

 

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Bilbo_Baggins

[Bremspropeller]

Supposedly 364th Fighter Group.

 

I haven't been able to find any pictoral evidence on either the 364th FG Group History, nor on Littlefriends (for any 8th AF fighter group flying the P-38 for that matter).

In the 364th history, there's a somewhat fitting story, though, of a P-38 having the wing outside the aileron missing and barely making it home. The airplane is mentioned bellying-in in manston as it would swap ends below 150mph. The missing R/H prop isn't mentioned, though, and in fact the pilot was said to use asymmetric power during the flight home.

 

Note the scraping-marks on the R/H main gear door and the squared-off lower vertical tail.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Bremspropeller

[ZachariasX]

4 hours ago, Bilbo_Baggins said:

Anyone know the combat report behind this machine? Remarkable damage...

 

Regards

 

My bet is that he made a belly landing. You can see the his main wheel covers severd in a way that indicates a belly landing. Also, it apears that the right engine was not rotating and maybe had some fire damage as well. It was broken off at the prop gearing during the landing indicating fixed position. The rotating port propeller was bent in a way a rotating prop is bent during a belly landing. Wether the wingtip was lost during the incident(s) that killed his starboard engine or if he ran into something hard during the belly landing remains an open question. But since the front beam in the wing spar is bent backwards, I'd say that he ran into something hard upon landing.

Edited June 23, 2020 by ZachariasX

[Hook_Echo]

Youtube video posted today of this plane, claiming it landed with no pilot and a German logbook in the empty cockpit. Smelled fishy, so I tried to look it up, and to my surprise the only reference I found was our forum. Awesome. I asked for a source in the comments which has been ignored, and appears to have been removed now. Not sure if the channel or youtube shenanigans, which to be fair is not a fan of my comments in general.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Hook_Echo

[Supercharger]

22 hours ago, Hook_Echo said:

Youtube video posted today of this plane, claiming it landed with no pilot and a German logbook in the empty cockpit. Smelled fishy, so I tried to look it up, and to my surprise the only reference I found was our forum. Awesome. I asked for a source in the comments which has been ignored, and appears to have been removed now. Not sure if the channel or youtube shenanigans, which to be fair is not a fan of my comment

I don't like this channel, it is just clickbait, he is explaining BS in every single video. But my biggest concern is that some poor guys believe in this s.... 

[357th_KW]

Yeah that channel is really bad - the first video I saw was supposedly telling the story of some Mustang that went missing, but a letter from some old Luftwaffe pilot told the story of how the guy was actually a hero.  He had the date, name and rank of the pilot, even the serial number of the aircraft, which seemed like a shocking level of detail.  And then his story opened with “most of the B-17s had been shot down over Berlin, and the survivors radioed ahead to RAF Manston where Spitfire’s were scrambling to their rescue, but they were at least an hour away”.  This instantly struck me as complete nonsense, so I did some digging.  The Missing Aircrew Report was available on fold3.com, and all the info was correct, except he left out the part where the guy radioed to Air Sea Rescue to try and get picked up, as he had an engine failure and was bailing out into the channel.  And the raid that day only lost 3 bombers, all to flak, and the Luftwaffe never made contact and suffered no losses.

 

Frankly it p***** me off, because it’s one thing to spin a vague yarn, but it’s a whole different animal when you’re making up a BS story about an actual person and putting in the real details out of the guy’s casualty report to make it sound plausible.

 

20 hours ago, Supercharger said:

I don't like this channel, it is just clickbait, he is explaining BS in every single video. But my biggest concern is that some poor guys believe in this s.... 

 

[ST_Catchov]

MASSIVE FAIL from the Web Master. He knows people will fall for anything and does nothing. Well, by jingo he'll not get another cent out of me. Subscription cancelled!