They Mocked the P-38 — Then Japanese Pilots Called It the “Two-Tailed Devil” скачать в хорошем качестве

They Mocked the P-38 — Then Japanese Pilots Called It the “Two-Tailed Devil”

☕ Creating these videos takes hours of research, writing, and editing. If you enjoy this content and want to see more stories like this, consider buying me a coffee ❤ 👉 Support the channel here: buymeacoffee.com/wartimeaviationtales Every coffee directly supports the next video. Thank you for keeping these stories alive. 🚀 And if you're not subscribed yet, consider joining the channel and helping us reach our first 100 subscribers. Every subscription truly makes a difference! During the early years of World War II, Japanese naval aviation dominated the skies of the Pacific. The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was feared across Asia and the Pacific, and many Japanese fighter pilots believed no American aircraft could truly challenge their superiority. Then a strange twin-engine fighter began appearing over New Guinea and Guadalcanal. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning did not maneuver like a Zero. It was larger, heavier, and unlike anything Japanese pilots had seen before. At first, some dismissed it as awkward and vulnerable. They were wrong. This documentary tells the story of the P-38 Lightning entirely through Japanese eyes — using combat accounts, tactical bulletins, ace testimonies, and post-war interviews. From early encounters in 1942 to the growing alarm of 1943, we follow the transformation from confidence to dread as the aircraft Japanese pilots came to call the “Two-Tailed Devil” began systematically dismantling Japan’s air superiority. At the center of this story is April 18, 1943 — Operation Vengeance — the long-range P-38 interception that shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over Bougainville. Through the testimony of surviving escort pilot Lt. Kenji Yanagiya and Japanese naval records, we reconstruct the mission from the Japanese perspective: the sudden appearance of twin-boom fighters at treetop level, the chaos, and the psychological shock that followed. Drawing on sources including Saburo Sakai’s memoir Samurai!, Henry Sakaida’s research on Imperial Japanese Navy aces, John Lundstrom’s studies of the Pacific air war, and archival Japanese tactical documents, this film examines how Japanese Army and Navy pilots were instructed to avoid high-speed dives, altitude engagements, and energy fighting against the P-38 — warnings that reflected a painful tactical reality. By 1944, spotting the silhouette of twin tails on the horizon triggered an immediate and involuntary reaction among surviving Japanese pilots. The war in the air had fundamentally changed. This is not a story of celebration, but of transformation — of skilled aviators confronting a new kind of opponent, and of how a single aircraft altered the psychological balance of the Pacific War. Chapters: ACT 1: 03:00 - THE MYTH OF THE ZERO SKY — 1941–1942 ACT 2: 09:44 - THE TACTICAL RECKONING — 1943 ACT 3: 17:26 - OPERATION VENGEANCE — APRIL 18, 1943 ACT 4: 26:39 - THE FAILED COUNTERS — 1943–1944 ACT 5: 37:24 - THE DREAD THAT LASTED — 1944–1945 AND AFTER World War II history, Pacific Theater air combat, Japanese fighter pilots, and the legend of the P-38 Lightning — as experienced by the men who faced it.