<text id=00he0819><title>Enter the Mustang</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Enter the Mustang</hdr><body>
<p>The Cinderella story subject was North American's P-51 Mustang, whose fighting potential was first realized by the British. It had the promise of greater range and maneuverability than anything before it. Compared to the P-38, the P-51 cost less to build and to maintain; it had half the number of engines, for one thing.
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<p>In September 1943, General Arnold suggested to the RAF that it would be a nice gesture were they to make some of their Mustang squadrons available to escort the heavies of VIII Bomber Command. Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal agreed and assigned four squadrons to the task, beginning in January 1944.
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<p>One AAF P-51 unit, the 354th Fighter Group, had landed in Europe, fitted itself into the Ninth Air Force structure, and was waiting assignment. They drew escort on a 5 December mission, taking a bomber force to Poix, south of Amiens, as their baptism of battle. On 13 December, they went with the big birds to Kiel, some 430 miles (692 km) away. They might have done that trip on internal fuel only, as the Mustang could escort out to about 475 miles (765 km) from home that way. With two 75-US gal wing tanks, it had a 650-mile (1,045-km) escort radius. With two 108-US gal (409-liter) wing tanks, the combat radius became a phenomenal 850 miles (1,368 km).
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<p>The second development that improved bomber performance was the use of radar blind-bombing systems. It was, like so many of the developments of that war, a British concept. They called it H2S, and made some sets available for combat trials in a few B-17s of the 482nd Bomb Group for the Emden raid in September 1943. The results were impressive. US radar development also was well along, but H2S offered a quick solution to an immediate need. The Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, assigned to improve the system for American production, hand-built a pre-production run of 20 sets, enough to equip a dozen B-17s and provide adequate spares.
