How Did The Allies Use The P-51 Mustang

Around the beginning of World War II (WWII), the German Air Force, or “Luftwaffe” (Wikipedia), controlled the skies over Germany, and most of the European theatre. Most other countries lacked the technology, firepower, and number of aircraft to challenge the Luftwaffe for air superiority. German manufacturing, oil and fuel reserves, and supply routes remained mostly untouched, and intact. Allied forces began to increase their focus on bombing raids to cripple Germany’s manufacturing and supply machine, hoping to pave the way for the D-Day offensive. Allied bombing campaigns took heavy losses and were mostly ineffective, because allied fighters did not have the range to escort the bombers, and could not match up to Germany’s fighters in combat. The introduction of the P-51 Mustang, with its better maneuverability, longer range, and greater firepower,
The P-51A performed primarily low altitude missions until a RAF pilot got an idea to put a more powerful Rolls Royce Merlin Supercharged engine into it. Rolls Royce engineers formulated a plan, carried it out, modified the Mustang with the new engine, and produced the P-51B. They solved the problem, placed the modified aircraft into action, and knew right away that the true potential of the Mustang had been unleashed. “In a memoir, Mustang ace Col. Clarence E. ‘Bud’ Anderson wrote that the Mustang ‘went like hell’ because ‘the Merlin had great gobs of power and was equally at home high or low, thanks to its two-stage, two speed supercharger.’” (Dorr, 2012). The P-51B with the powerful Merlin engine was much faster, lighter, and had better armament the ME-109. Most of all it had much better fuel economy, which meant they now had the long-range fighter they