5 Things You Never Knew About the P-51 Mustang

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[lunaticfringe]

You neglected to mention that the Jima Islands were used by the Japanese as an early warning station for mainland Japan of incoming bombing strikes. They also launched fighters to attack B-29 bases from there. But most importantly, taking the island helped save hundreds of lives of bomber crews, whose B-29s were too shot up or too low on fuel to make it back to base.

[TJ]

Thanks for watching! Now I know there are tons of P-51 experts who love to criticize every detail of my videos, (lol). But I really just did my best to try and present 5 interesting stories or facts from the Mustang that you might not have heard before. Hope you all enjoyed!

[chriscarbaugh]

Iwo Jima was also “needed” as a airfield to receive damaged B-29s that could not make it home. This saving bomber crews.

[timenginemannd]

P-51 Mustangs & Iwo Jima: Firstly there were continued daylight raids that happened at irregular intervals, Secondly They also took off from Iwo Jima to do strafing missions on various areas. Including going after ocean going fishing boats after it was discovered that they were being used to ferry cargo, since the US Navy's Submarines wouldn't waste a torpedo on one. Thirdly B-29s regularly did forced landings at Iwo Jima due to damage from flack and fighters (yes, the Japanese did have both day and night fighters...and although the night fighters had limited effectiveness at first, they realized that the low flying (due to their increased bomb load of incendiaries) B-29s would be silhouetted by the burning city/cities below the bombers.

And Finally: Iwo Jima was being used by the Japanese for: Radar spotting of the B-29s flying up toward the big islands of Japan, launching fighters against the B-29s as they flew pass, and for the occasional Kamikaze Attacks on anything that was within range!!!

[weissrw]

People use the word "decimate" when they mean "obliterate." Decimate means to take a tenth. The origin is from Roman times. If a village gave refuge to highway robbers or other fugitives and would not give them up, then the Roman soldiers would line up all the villagers and have them count off, one to ten. Then the Romans would have a child draw a number from a pot. Everybody with that number was executed. That is decimation. A tenth of the village was executed!

[robertberger]

The best value of IWO JIMA is was that over. 2000 B29 crew were saved by being able to land there when they were too damaged to fly back to the Mariana’s!

[cfzippo]

From a former USAF F-16 pilot who still flys the P-51 and P-38. This is a pretty good overview. The P-51 is the fighter people seen to dislike, perhaps because so much was written about it? But it is a EXCELLENT air to air fighter. It’s maneuverable, fast, and has the range and endurance to get to and fight most of its opponents over their own bases. Most who flew several types air to air, Zemke, Mahurin, Olds, Ilfrey, all noted the P-51 was probably better in air to air than their previous types. Hub Zemke said in his book “Zemke’s Wolfpack” though lacking the firepower of the 38 and 47, in air to air against the Luftwaffe the P-51 was “superior on every other count.” Was it as good air to ground? No, not in my opinion. But the P-51 was the best, by far, air to air superiority fighter the US ARMY fielded during the war.

[estellemelodimitchell]

The P-51 Mustang was built in response to a requirement from the British Purchasing Commission.
The initial model was fitted with Allison engines and the aircraft had lacklustre performance at high altitude. The later model was replaced with RR Merlin engine and with it, the Mustang performed to the full potential.
This aircraft was a showcase of the great cooperation and sharing of knowledge between US and UK in the fight against the common enemy.

[rayb]

I see you keep using red tail mustangs when not commenting on the Best record of the Red Tail Tuskegee Squadron of not losing one bomber on any of their escort missions, and who made the red tail mustangs famous. I realize that other squadrons did paint their rudder red but it was the Tuskegee airmen who made the enemy sometimes not engage when they saw the red tail mustangs.
I do enjoy your channel and look forward to more.

[conroypawgmail]

The airfield at Iwo Jima (actually Iwo To) was also used for B-29s that needed to abort enroute or were too heavily damaged to fly all the way back to their home bases. I wouldn't say that the effort to capture it was a waste or "least valuable". The Japanese presence on that island was significant and probably could not be bypassed.

[cgirl]

The vast advantage the allies had in fuel octane also made a big difference.

[marshallmonroe]

Good video another interesting fact that few know is that as ironic as it may be the American P-51 was actually designed by a German named Edgar Schmued!

[iansmith]

During the 1956 Sinai/Suez War low flying Israeli P-51 Mustangs cut Egyptian telephone lines with their spinning propellers.

[kevinyoung]

You failed to mention that it was designed for the RAF at the request of the British Air Ministry and that it had serious issues when being used at anything other than low level until it was fitted with the Roll Royce Merlin engine.

[AviatorJ]

Pretty good stuff! There's a P-51D at the airport nearest my house and I'll go look at it, touch it, climb on and sit inside it because it's just too cool. Someday maybe I'll get to fly it (luckily it's modded just enough to have 2 seats, otherwise it's almost all original). It's always been one of my favorite planes so it's never a bad thing to get to see one in person!

[FrankieAngels]

“Red Leader” was used by more pilots than Gen Loving. It was common, in fact.

[johnharris]

The last true prop plane dog fight was in 1969. El Salvador was using P-51 and Honduras was using Corsairs. The Corsairs won.

[manniegalindo]

Good Video, but one interesting story of the P-51 Mustangs are the Red Tails, you are using examples of red tails in this video and the bombings of Germany, you should of included the African Americans that helped escort and secure the b-29 pilots to come back home, real heroes.

[MrOlgrumpy]

The initial purchase by Britain of the P51 was called the Apache, a private venture by the North American Aviation co and unwanted by the USA.This was found lacking at high altitude and was used in the ground attack role until a Rolls Royce Merlin engine was fitted as an experiment and the rest as is said is history.🙃

[somebloke]

Just a point, but the Mustang was originally built for the RAF to an RAF specification. The American name is the P-51. Mustang is the RAF name.