P-51 Mustang

Overview

Suffering unprecedented losses by 1944, the US Air Force's daylight bombing campaign over Nazi occupied Europe was in danger of collapse. A fighter escort was needed--and urgently. North America's P-51 was originally built for Britain's RAF. Now fitted with the Packard Merlin it was drafted in and immediately made a difference. Taking on the worst that the Luftwaffe had to offer, the Mustang fighter pilots of the 8th Air Force dramatically turned the tide of the air war in Europe earning themselves the nickname 'Little Friends.'