Warren M. Bodie

This is an enthusiast's book written by a P-38 enthusiast with deep family ties to the aircraft and to Lockheed. Such a description does not necessarily damn a book, but on this occasion it does. This book is a combined technical and operational history, but there are problems with the author's approach to both those disciplines.

The enthusiasm Mr. Bodie brings to this work is certainly commendable as it gives the reader insights that a more conventional author could not provide. However, Mr. Bodie's lack of objectivity detracts from the potential of his work.

The first problem is the book's structure. As noted in the author's biography on the end flap, Bodie wrote many articles for "Wings" and "Airpower" magazines. This work appears to be a hodgepodge of those magazine articles that related to the P-38. The book editors at Widewing Publications did not do Mr. Bodie any favors in their handling of the resulting mess. There is needless repetition throughout the 258 pages indicative of articles that were slapped together haphazardly. The book is arranged roughly in chronological order, although one could question that judgement given the author's extensive use of flashbacks and flash forwards. He tries to give a theater-by-theater review of the P-38's operational history, bt Bodie has a tough time keeping within the lines.

The second problem is tied to the enthusiast's label I apply to the author. A child of the Depression and a teen during World War Two, Mr. Bodie is clearly addicted to hero worship. Part of this perspective is due to his father's association with the Lightning during the war, and part is due to the author's long employment history at Lockheed. In the author's eyes, clearly Kelly Johnson, Lockheed's legendary design engineer, could do no wrong, and the early U.S. Army Air Corps proponent for the P-38, Benjamin Kelsey, held a similar place in Bodie's heart. In a similar fashion, those pilots and leaders that accepted the challenge of flying and fighting the Lightning were heroes, while those who failed to do so in the author's eyes or did not accept the brilliance of the P-38 design were goats and are treated as such in this work.

A third and most fundamental problem with this book is the lack of scholarship. As I recall from my youthful dalliances with "Wings", "Airpower", "Air Classics" and the like was the lack of sourcing Much of the material in those magazine articles (and by extension this book) appear to come from interviews or oral histories. While those sources certainly have their place in historical scholarship, the lack of notes for those sources put the reader in a bind as to the credibility of those sources. An interview made immediately after an event is far more valuable than one conducted decades after the fact, when time, memory, and collective thinking erode the truth.

Bodie makes (or implies) a number of controversial points in his work--the insistence that Lockheed continue use of the inferior Allison engines instead of giving the Lightning a Packard Merlin redo is but one of them. However Bodie never seals the deal on these controversial points as they are modified by the author's repeated use of conjecture and innuendo instead of sourced facts. Without documentary evidence, these possibly valid and valuable contentions are simply wasted.

As a redeeming feature, this book does have some good photographs not seen elsewhere. The various pilots' accounts do make entertaining reading, although, again, the lack of sourcing limit their value. This is not a Roger Freeman work, so potential readers are forewarned.… (altro)

Not so much a operational history(the author admits as much)as the story of the development and refinement of the P-38 Lightning.
The definitive story of the World War II fighter which the Germans dubbed "the fork-tailed devil" includes line drawings, photos of prototypes and coverage of Lockheed proposals.
Warren Bodie's book is a marvel of completeness, including photos of all series and one-offs, and favorably presents what was arguably the best all-around fighter of World War Two. All the subjective criticisms of the famous Lockheed twin-boom plane are clearly discussed in their proper historical context, with ample support from the main historical actors. The book also demonstrates that the P-38, as a good child of Clarence "Kelly" Johnson's genius, was several years ahead of its time both in its technology and in the capacity of air strategists and pilots to fully exploit the advances it had over current aviation designs, as well as to foresee its potential. For example, the P-51 Mustang was a pig (and used the same Allison engine of the P-38) before being refitted with the famous Rolls-Royce Merlin engine which made it the masterpiece we know; just imagine a P-38 with two Merlins, something that never happened but that could have dramatically changed the air war before 1944 in all theaters. Bodie demonstrates that the P-38 was already the long-range fighter the Allies needed a couple of years before the P-51D and P-47N, but was stupidly underused and underdeveloped; its firepower was overwhelming and almost unparalleled throughout the war; it could turn with any enemy fighter and outrun most of them and, finally, having another engine was a priceless safeguard in the long flights over the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean. Highly recommended reading about my favorite fighter plane.… (altro)