PC Gamer interview.

[Sokol1]

This P-38 history is Martin Caiden fiction, the real Itlian P-38:

"On June 12, 1943, a USAAF P-38G, while on a flight from Gibraltar to Malta, suffered compass problems and landed by mistake at Capoterra, Sardinia. The Lightning was painted in Italian markings, and transferred to the Italian Test Center at Guidonia. On August 11, 1943, chief test pilot Col. Angelo Tondi used the P-38 to intercept USAAF bombers on their way to attack targets in central Italy. Tondi shot down a B-17F, "Bonnie Sue", of the 419th BS, 301st BG. This was the only successful interception achieved by the P-38G, which was soon grounded due to the poor quality of Italian gasoline, which corroded the fuel tanks. I believe that this is the only documented example of a captured US fighter being used to shoot down a US aircraft during WW2."

Sokol1

[Krt_Bong]

Since I have now located two stories of slightly different accounts of the same incident it is indeed possible that this is not a true story, I have never read Forked Tailed Devil by Caidin or I certainly would have recognised the story, I have read The Last Dogfight and Cyborg (the basis for the Six-Million-Dollar-Man) which were works of fiction and I also read Samurai! but as I now know there were a lot of inaccuracies in that book that Saburo Sakai wasn't aware of before the book was published and it is certainly known that Caidin liked to embellish.

[White Owl]

I recall reading something very similar - presented as a true story - in which the B-17 that shot down the P-38 was Old 666, and both the American and German pilots involved became friends after the war's end. Now I can't find where I read that. I wonder if any of these stories have basis in factual history.