However, while the P-38 was nimble at low altitude, it grew sluggish higher up and suffered heavy losses dogfighting more agile Me-109G and Fw-190 fighters while escorting heavy B-17 bombers over Europe. That winter, Lightnings decimated air and sea transports supplying (and later evacuating) German forces in North Africa, earning the grudging nickname Gabelschwanz Teufel-“Fork-tailed Devil”-their nose-mounted guns proving more accurate and hard-hitting than the wing-mounted weapons of most American fighters. Five days later, an Iceland-based Lightning claimed the Air Corps first German aerial kill, an Fw-200 Condor maritime patrol plane. On August 9, 1942, two Lightning’s engaged in the “ Thousand Mile War” for the Alaskan Aleutian Islands shot down the type’s first kill, an H6K seaplane.
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