At the moment I am reworking an old unreleased campaign for the Hungarian 101st Fighter Group, that fought against the 15th Air Force in the summer of 1944.

My question is, during which month did the 15th Air Force start to use the P-51D, P-38L and P-47D27?

I hope one of our USAAF experts can answer this question.

Regarding the P-38 i can only speak for the 82nd FG as there's a special osprey edition covering this unit. The first P-38L (loss) mentioned is dated december 7th 1944. All lightnings mentioned before are of the P-38J type.
Delivery of the P-38L started in june 1944 but it did rarely see frontline service before august 1944. The 8th AF units started receiving the L-type in october 1944.
The 31st FG converted from spitfires to Mustangs in march/april 1944 and began to receive the D-mustang on june 17th 1944.
Before april 6th 1943 it flew the P-40. after this date it converted to spits.
The 332nd FG started tansition from P-39 to P-47 in april/may 1944 flying them in frontline service from june onwards. t the end of this month bubbletops were recieved to replace the razorbacks. P-51B/C were received in july 1944, the D-type started service with the unit in december 1944.

ATB
Armin

Thanks Armin. Official loss reports are usually the best way to answer such questions, I used this methode when I worked on my Solomons campaign, but so far I haven't found a detailed list with aircraft losses for the 15th Air Force.

Here's some more info which i had to collect from my various books:

325th FG (checkertails) flew P-40 until september 1943. They converted to razorbacks during october 1943 and the group was transferred from the 12th to the 15th AF. P-51B/C substituted the P-47 in may 1944. Found nothing concrete regarding the first D-models, most likely they were received first in july 1944 and gradually substituted the older variants, the B- and C-variants were flown as well unitl fall of 1944.
The 52nd FG transitioned from spitfires to P-51 in may 1944. D-variant replacements received from early july 1944 onwards and flown alongside with earlier variants into fall of 1944.
The 1st FG appears in the MACR lists with it's first P-38L loss on november 16th 1944. Thereafter L-variant losses only.
The 14th FG's first P-38L loss is listed on september 18th 1944, the list goes on throughgout 1944 with a mix of J and L variant losses.

Hope this helps

ATB
Armin

Again thank you Armin.

The info on this side answered most of my questions:
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/db.asp

The accident reports show that the 15th Air Force lost the first P-51D in June 1944 and the first P-38L in August 1944. The MACR lists show the first P-47D-27 loss in Italy in October 1944.

At the moment I am reworking an old unreleased campaign for the Hungarian 101st Fighter Group, that fought against the 15th Air Force in the summer of 1944.

My question is, during which month did the 15th Air Force start to use the P-51D, P-38L and P-47D27?

I hope one of our USAAF experts can answer this question.

Juri_JS

P-51Bs arrived to the 15th AF in April 1944, the D model came along in heavy numbers during July 1944 from reading my book "Mustang Ace" by Robert J. Goebel. Though the first few P-51Ds arrived in June.

Thanks 78thFG_Doodle, the information from the official accident reports show exactly the same. The first P-51B was lost in a crash on 10 April.