Yo whats going on everybody, it’s Biggie cheese. When I’m not telling the world about how people call me Mr. Boombastic while calling me fantastic, I keep my mind thinking about straight tragedies from the past that we can’t undo, and it gets me down like “Damn, that really happened like that, and there ain’t nothin’ I can do a bout it” (Biggie Cheese et. al 2006). S*** like the Library of Alexandria; like why they put ALL the knowledge in the world in one place? The world would be straight future and S*** if we knew everything that was in there. Or what was going on in Napoleon’s mind when he went to Russia like dog, they got the infinite manpower cheatcode and got the weather tamed like a pitbull named galaxy destroyer; you ain’t winning. But what keeps me up at night, no matter how fantastic I am, it’s the tragedy of the same tired old glazing of American fighters in WW2 like guys, I get it, the P-51D “Mustang” was a fire plane, but hear me out, there are 3 planes that did more heavy lifting and ain’t nobody care; that’s what keeps me up at night. So to set the record straight, we got the top 3 underratted U.S fighters in WW2 here, so lets get started.
#3: The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk/Kittyhawk/Tomahawk
This aircraft may be one of the most underrated American planes ever. I mean, this thing was straight up epic, starting service in 1938 and ending in 1944, like this thing was doing heavy lifting like Ronnie Coleman, straight up “Lightweight baby!” The P-40 was designed and built by Curtiss as a versatile fighter-bomber, and let me just say, it was kinda a banger. It was such a banger that it served in every front with ALL of the allied powers. Let me say that again, it served in every front and theater with ALL the allied powers. Russia, on lock, they loved it; the British, banger; the French, masterpiece, the Chinese, oh lord, if only they had more of them. And don’t let me forget about our boys down under, cuz even the Australians and New Zealanders loved it, I mean, name another plane that cool. And you wanna know why everyone loved it? Cuz it just got the job done. You need to intercept incoming bombers? You got it boss. You need a train blown up? You got it boss. Is that ship over there looking at you funny? Let’s blow that b**** up. And on top of that, it could tank hits like a tank. This thing could have been looking like a cartoon character getting shredded like cheese and it would still make it back home being able to be used for new replacement parts but most importantly, keeping experienced pilots alive for a lot longer. And for the record, there were between 200 and 250 allied pilots that became aces in the P-40. Need I say more?
So let me spit some bars here, single seater, 361 mph top speed (F*** metric) cruise speed, 308 mph, service ceiling, 29,100 ft, and we got six .50 caliber machine guns on this B*****while being able to carry 2,000 lbs of payload. You want proof that this thing was good? How about 1,800-2,000 aerial victories, cuz they come up to the warhawk, they may as well just leave or be filled with lead on the way out. And with a nickname like Tomahawk? Yeah you couldn’t pay me to fight that thing.
#2: The Grumman F4F “Wildcat”
Without this bad boy, we would have straight up lost the Pacific Theater dawg. Because we were shifting into a new era of carrier based naval warfare, we needed a reliable naval fighter to survive the onslaught of the Japanese, and Grumman said, I gotchu U.S navy.
The F4F was designed in the 1930’s to replace the aging F3F which was the first carrier based fighter designed by Grumman, and boy was it an upgrade. Went from biplane to monoplane, armor like a rhino, armed to the teeth with six .50 caliber machine guns, all things considered decently agile for its weight and most crucially, it could fly long distances without refueling which was crucial in the vast Pacific Ocean. But man, when Pearl Harbor got smoked in December 1941, (breaks my heart every time I think about it. Lost so many real ones that day R.I.P.)
The U.S navy had to lock in or we were cooked. And spearheading the defense was the Wildcat. We had to lock in cuz the Japanese had the A6M “Zero” or “Zeke” and that b**** was straight up flying circles around us. But none of that mattered because despite the A6M having two 20mm cannons, the Wildcat really was just like “is that all you got?” And would keep flying. The name of the game is survival, and the Wildcat was a straight up tank. You thought the P-40 was a tank? Nah, the Wildcat was even tankier only being superseded by the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt in survivability. The name of the game was getting our pilots back in one piece to take the lesson learned in combat and teach new pilots how not to get smoked, and it worked. All throughout 1942 and into 1943, the Wildcat was really doing the heavy lifting in the pacific until it’s beefier older brother the F6F “Hellcat” and the Vought F4U “Corsair” pulled up and just started smoking the Japanese planes wherever they went. Just massacre after massacre. And most of the pilots that became aces in the Pacific likely started in the Wildcat, and because they were able to survive, get experienced, and once the Wildcats were replaced with Hellcats and corsairs, it was over for the Japanese. And for everyone glazing the A6M, check yourself, sure on paper it wins the matchup 100% of the time, the fact that the Wildcat didn’t burst into flames when a bullet looks at it like was the case for the A6M was what made it better overall. You can’t win an air war if your pilots are getting barbecued instantly.
Honorable mentions
Brewster F2A “Buffalo”
While it was not the best of aircraft, it was a good enough stopgap aircraft and most importantly was piloted by John Thach who became an ace early in the war and pioneered the tactic called the Thach weave which was crucial in helping American pilots survive the early Japanese onslaught. Thach is a straight up gangsta who saved a lot of lives, and because he did it in a Buffalo, we’ll give it an honorable mention.
#1: Lockeed P-38 “Lightning”
If you are a F-35 Lightning II enjoyer, then you will absolutely be a fan of it’s god tier predecessor. Straight up, if not for government and military bureaucracy, this thing could have and would have saved a lot of American lives because it is straight up insane. The engineering behind this thing and its performance in the Pacific and Mediterranean is a testament to this.
So lets start with the stats, two Allison V-1710 V12 liquid cooled turbo-supercharged piston engines with 1,600 hp each giving it a top speed of 414 mph, a range of 1,300 miles and service ceiling of 44,000 ft. Those are some crazy movement stats but wait until you hear about what it is packing. One 20mm cannon and four .50 cal machine guns with hardpoints being able to carry 2,000 pounds of payload underneath. What makes this thing so scary is that for a twin engine fighter, it has the speed to chase down it’s target, the maneuverability of a single engine fighter, and the firepower of a heavy fighter. The fact that it’s nickname given to it by the German pilots it faced was the “Fork tailed devil” should tell you all you need to know about it.
So all that is straight up scary to think about fighting, and it sounds overpowered, so why is it underrated? Because classic bureaucracy held it back thanks to a group of men called the bomber mafia. (No, I did not give them that goofy ahh name.) Essentially, they were in the mindset that bombers did not need fighter protection when the 8th air force began bombing Germany in 1943 and that the air force did not have a fighter capable of escorting the bombers across the English channel and back. Well… this just was not true because the P-38 Lightning certainly had the range to escort all the way into Germany and back again without a problem, but basically, these guys said “Nah, the bombers will be fine”. The 8th airforce then spent the next year getting absolutely smoked by the German airforce and anti air defences until the much overglazed P-51 “Mustang” was developed and upgraded to fly with the bombers all the way into Germany all the while there was a perfectly capable and dangerous aircraft that could have done the job from day one and likely saved a lot of bomber crews from a fiery death.
If only we unleashed the “Lightning” on the Germans we could have mopped them up quicker. However, there was no such problem in the Pacific because the Japanese airforce got absolutely smoked by P-38s that were in the Pacific.
The main issue with the P-38 is that the aircraft had a problem where the best pilots had crazy high K/D ratios and lesser skilled pilots were getting smoked and dragging the reputation down. Make no mistake, it was a feared aircraft and very much deserves the respect in a contemporary sense rather than continuing the glaze train on the P-51 (Which was a good aircraft but not the best the USAAF used in WW2) Now you can spit some bars about some underrated U.S aircraft, don’t fall for the glaze, stay strong kings.