N Africa: Downed German Pilot points to sky and only mutters “Der Gabelshwanz Teufel!” –  [The Forked-Tail Devil]

Japanese Empire Admiral Yamamoto, Harvard Graduate and the architect of Pearl Harbor –

The above downed German Fighter Pilot in Tunisia, North Africa during WWII doesn’t ask about the prisoner conditions he is facing, or anything else, he just points to the sky and keeps muttering, “”Der Gabelshwanz Teufel!” or, in English, “The Fork-Tailed Devil,” which was the German name for the renowned Lockheed P-38  “Lightning.”  Admiral Yamamoto would surely have understood that German phrase, too.  It was the same American weapon that ended his colorful and wicked life.  It was our only fighter aircraft that was in continuous production from

It was the product of Kelly Johnson and his “Skunk Works” that removed this talented Japanese Admiral from WWII.

before the war’s start to its bloody end in 1945. The 25:17-minute video below tells that story and also the story of the fighter’s origins, as well. Don’t forget to open the video to full-size by clicking on the small double-arrowed icon in the lower right of the video’s image, once it starts, and then be sure that your sound is on, too. The shorter video, “Operation Vengeance,” is immediately below the main documentary, and is only 6:33 long.

On April 17, Squadron 339 commander Maj. John Mitchell, USAAF (photo below), found himself assisting Vice Adm. Marc Mitscher and other senior commanders in planning the attack. The intercept would occur over the island of Bougainville. A 1,000-mile round trip was plotted, with a roundabout approach route of 600 miles from the south. Eighteen P-38s (sixteen for the attack, two spares) were selected and equipped with special drop tanks. A “killer” flight of four fighters led by Capt. Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr. would attack the two Betty bombers containing Yamamoto and his staff while the others attacked the fighter escorts.

USAAF Maj. John Mitchell, CO Operation Vengeance Squadron

United States Army Air Forces Major John Mitchell (L), circa 1944. Major Mitchell planned and led the Admiral  Yamamoto mission on 18 Apr 1943. Note the Navy Cross ribbon on his uniform, awarded for the Yamamoto mission.  Capt. Tom Lanphier, below.

Captain Thomas G. Lanphier, USAAF

339th Fighter Squadron personnel of the mission. Back row (l to r): Ames, Graebner, Lanphier, Goerke, Jacobson, Stratton, Long, Anglin. Front row (l to r): Smith, Canning, Holmes, Barber, Mitchell, Kittel, Whitakker. Not pictured: Hine (MIA).