P-38 Lightning by Larry Grossman

A beautiful twin-boom Lockheed P-38 Lightning banks low over the Pacific as the sun sets on the horizon. The P-38 saw action in both the European and Pacific theatres of war, but was most effective against the Japanese in the Pacific. Tipped off by an intercepted Japanese message, on April 18th 1943 sixteen P-38’s flew 435 miles at very low altitude to intercept Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” bomber. Yamamoto had been the chief architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, so it was sweet revenge when the P-38’s sent his plane down in flames to the jungle below. His death was a major psychological blow to the Japanese.