United Kingdom operational service The Mustang was initially developed for the RAF, which was its first user. As the first Mustangs were built to British requirements, these aircraft used factory numbers and were not P-51s; the order comprised 320 NA-73s, followed by 300 NA-83s, all of which were designated Mustang Mark I by the RAF. The first RAF Mustangs supplied under
Lend-Lease were 93 Mk Ia designated as P-51s by the USAAF, followed by 50 P-51As used as Mustang Mk IIs. Aircraft supplied to Britain under Lend-Lease were required for accounting purposes to be on the
USAAC's books before they could be supplied to Britain, but the British Aircraft Purchasing Commission signed its first contract for the North American NA-73 on 24 April 1940, before Lend-Lease was in effect. After the arrival of the initial aircraft in the UK in October 1941, the first squadron of Mustang Mk Is entered service in January 1942, the first being
No. 26 Squadron RAF. Due to poor high-altitude performance, the Mustangs were used by
Army Co-operation Command, rather than Fighter Command, and were used for tactical reconnaissance and ground-attack duties. On 10 May 1942, Mustangs first flew over France, near
Berck-sur-Mer. On 27 July 1942, 16 RAF Mustangs undertook their first long-range reconnaissance mission over Germany. During the amphibious
Dieppe Raid on the French coast (19 August 1942), four British and Canadian Mustang squadrons, including 26 Squadron, saw action covering the assault on the ground. By 1943–1944, British Mustangs were used extensively to seek out
V-1 flying bomb sites. The last RAF Mustang Mk I and Mustang Mk II aircraft were struck off charge in 1945. Army Co-operation Command used the Mustang's superior speed and long range to conduct low-altitude "
Rhubarb" raids over continental Europe, sometimes penetrating German airspace. The V-1710 engine ran smoothly at 1,100 rpm, versus 1,600 for the Merlin, enabling long flights over water at altitude before approaching the enemy coastline. Over land, these flights followed a zig-zag course, turning every six minutes to foil enemy attempts at plotting an interception. During the first 18 months of Rhubarb raids, RAF Mustang Mk.Is and Mk.Ias destroyed or heavily damaged 200 locomotives, over 200 canal barges, and an unknown number of enemy aircraft parked on the ground, for a loss of eight Mustangs. At sea level, the Mustangs were able to outrun all enemy aircraft encountered. The RAF gained a significant performance enhancement at low altitude by removing or resetting the engine's manifold pressure regulator to allow overboosting, raising output as high as 1,780 horsepower at 70 in Hg. In December 1942, Allison approved only 1,570 horsepower at 60 in Hg manifold pressure for the V-1710-39. which were known in RAF service as Mustang Mk IIIs; the first units converted to the type in late 1943 and early 1944. Mustang Mk III units were operational until the end of World War II, though many units had already converted to the Mustang Mk IV (P-51D) and Mk IVa (P-51K) (828 in total, comprising 282 Mk IV and 600 Mk IVa). As all except the earliest aircraft were obtained under Lend-Lease, all Mustang aircraft still on RAF charge at the end of the war were either returned to the USAAF "on paper" or retained by the RAF for scrapping. The last RAF Mustangs were retired from service in 1947. Despite RAF and Luftwaffe experience with daylight bombing, the USAAF still incorrectly believed in 1942 that
tightly packed formations of bombers would have so much firepower that they could fend off fighters on their own. A single-engined, high-speed fighter with the range of a bomber was thought to be an engineering impossibility.
Eighth Air Force bomber operations 1942–1943 ,
Eighth Air Force mid-1944 The
8th Air Force started operations from Britain in August 1942. At first, because of the limited scale of operations, no conclusive evidence showed American doctrine was failing. In the 26 operations flown to the end of 1942, the loss rate had been under 2%. In January 1943, at the
Casablanca Conference, the Allies formulated the
Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) plan for "round-the-clock" bombing – USAAF daytime operations complementing the RAF nighttime raids on industrial centers. In June 1943, the
Combined Chiefs of Staff issued the
Pointblank Directive to destroy the Luftwaffe's capacity before the planned invasion of Europe, putting the CBO into full implementation. German daytime fighter efforts were, at that time, focused on the Eastern Front and several other distant locations. Initial efforts by the 8th met limited and unorganized resistance, but with every mission, the Luftwaffe moved more aircraft to the west and quickly improved their battle direction. In late 1943, the 8th Air Force's heavy bombers conducted a series of deep penetration raids into Germany, beyond the range of escort fighters. The
Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission in August lost 60 B-17s of a force of 376, the
14 October attack lost 77 of a force of 291—26% of the attacking force. For the US, the very concept of self-defending bombers was called into question, but instead of abandoning daylight raids and turning to night bombing, as the RAF suggested, they chose other paths; at first, bombers converted to gunships (the
Boeing YB-40) were believed to be able to escort the bomber formations, but when the concept proved to be unsuccessful, thoughts then turned to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. In early 1943, the USAAF also decided that the
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51B be considered for the roles of smaller escort fighters, and in July, a report stated that the P-51B was "the most promising plane" with an endurance of 4 hours 45 minutes with the standard internal fuel of plus carried externally. In August, a P-51B was fitted with an extra internal tank, but problems with longitudinal stability occurred, so some compromises in performance with the full tank were made. Since the fuel from the fuselage tank was used during the initial stages of a mission, the fuel tank would be fitted in all Mustangs destined for
VIII Fighter Command.
P-51 introduction The P-51 Mustang was a solution to the need for an effective bomber escort. It used a common, reliable engine and had internal space for a larger-than-average fuel load. With external fuel tanks, it could accompany the bombers from England to Germany and back. By the time the Pointblank offensive resumed in early 1944, matters had changed. Bomber escort defenses were initially layered, using the shorter-range P-38s and P-47s to escort the bombers during the initial stages of the raid before handing over to the P-51s when they were forced to turn for home. This provided continuous coverage during the raid. The Mustang was so clearly superior to earlier US designs that the 8th Air Force began to steadily switch its fighter groups to the Mustang, first swapping arriving P-47 groups to the 9th Air Force in exchange for those that were using P-51s, then gradually converting its Thunderbolt and Lightning groups. By the end of 1944, 14 of its 15 groups flew Mustangs.
Fighting the Luftwaffe (the
Tuskegee Airmen) at Ramitelli, Italy: From left, Lt.
Dempsey W. Morgran, Lt.
Carroll S. Woods, Lt.
Robert H. Nelron, Jr., Capt.
Andrew D. Turner, and Lt.
Clarence D. Lester At the start of 1944, Major General
James Doolittle, the new commander of the 8th Air Force, released most fighters from the requirement of flying in close formation with the bombers, allowing them free rein to attack the Luftwaffe wherever it could be found. The aim was to achieve
air supremacy. Mustang groups were sent far ahead of the bombers in a "fighter sweep" to intercept German fighters. Bomber crews complained, but by June, supremacy was achieved. The Luftwaffe's twin-engined
Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer heavy fighters brought up to deal with the bombers proved to be easy prey for the Mustangs, and had to be quickly withdrawn from combat. The
Focke-Wulf Fw 190A, already suffering from poor high-altitude performance, was outperformed by the Mustang at the B-17's altitude, and when laden with
heavy bomber-hunting weapons and extra armor as a replacement for the more vulnerable twin-engined
Zerstörer heavy fighters, these variants had poor manuverability and suffered heavy losses. The
Messerschmitt Bf 109 had comparable performance to the P-51 at high altitudes, but its lightweight airframe was even more affected by increases in armament. The
Luftwaffe answered with the
Gefechtsverband ("battle formation"). This consisted of a
Sturmgruppe of heavily armed and armored Fw 190As escorted by two
Begleitgruppen of Bf 109s, whose task was to keep the Mustangs away from the Fw 190s as they attacked the bombers. This strategy proved to be problematic, as the large German formation took a long time to assemble and was difficult to maneuver. It was often intercepted by the P-51 "fighter sweeps" before it could attack the bombers. However, German attacks against bombers could be effective when they did occur; the bomber-destroyer Fw 190As swept in from astern and often pressed their attacks to within . ,
332nd Fighter Group, 15th US Air Force checks ammunition belts of the .50 caliber (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the wings of a North American P-51B Mustang in Italy,
circa September 1944 While not always able to avoid contact with the escorts, the threat of mass attacks and later the "company front" (eight abreast) assaults by armored
Sturmgruppe Fw 190As brought an urgency to attacking the
Luftwaffe wherever it could be found, either in the air or on the ground. Beginning
in late February 1944, 8th Air Force fighter units began systematic strafing attacks on German airfields with increasing frequency and intensity, with the objective of gaining air supremacy over the
Normandy battlefield. In general, these were conducted by units returning from escort missions, but beginning in March, many groups also were assigned airfield attacks instead of bomber support. The P-51, particularly with the advent of the K-14
gyro gunsight and the development of "Clobber Colleges" for the training of fighter pilots in late 1944, was a decisive element in Allied countermeasures against the
Jagdverbände. The numerical superiority of the USAAF fighters, superb flying characteristics of the P-51, and pilot proficiency helped cripple the
Luftwaffes fighter force. As a result, the fighter threat to the US, and later British, bombers was greatly diminished by July 1944. The RAF, long proponents of night bombing for protection, were able to reopen daylight bombing in 1944 as a result of the crippling of the
Luftwaffe fighter arm.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, commander of the
Luftwaffe during the war, was quoted as saying, "When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up." The P-51 excelled at this mission, although losses were much higher on strafing missions than in air-to-air combat, partially because the Mustang's Merlin engine, being liquid cooled, was vulnerable to radiator and coolant line damage from small-arms gunfire. On the other hand, the Mustang’s stablemate, the
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, being powered by an
air-cooled radial engine, could usually shrug off small-arms fire, and thus was regularly tasked with ground-strafing missions. flew this aircraft in late 1944 and shot down six German aircraft, including two jet-powered
Me 262s in a single mission. Given the overwhelming Allied
air superiority, the Luftwaffe put its effort into the development of aircraft of such high performance that they could operate with impunity, but which also made bomber attack much more difficult, merely from the flight velocities they achieved. Foremost among these were the
Messerschmitt Me 163B point-defense rocket interceptors, which started their operations with
JG 400 near the end of July 1944, and the longer-endurance
Messerschmitt Me 262A jet fighter, first flying with the
Gruppe-strength
Kommando Nowotny unit by the end of September 1944. In action, the Me 163 proved to be
more dangerous to the Luftwaffe than to the Allies and was never a serious threat. The Me 262A was a serious threat, but attacks on their airfields neutralized them. The pioneering
Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow jet engines of the Me 262As needed careful nursing by their pilots, and these aircraft were particularly vulnerable during takeoff and landing. Lt.
Chuck Yeager of the
357th Fighter Group was one of the first American pilots to shoot down an Me 262, which he caught during its landing approach. On 7 October 1944, Lt.
Urban L. Drew of the
361st Fighter Group shot down two Me 262s that were taking off, while on the same day, Lt. Col.
Hubert Zemke, who had transferred to the Mustang-equipped
479th Fighter Group, shot down what he thought was a Bf 109, only to have his gun camera film reveal that it may have been an Me 262. On 25 February 1945, Mustangs of the
55th Fighter Group surprised an entire
Staffel of Me 262As at takeoff and destroyed six jets. By 8 May 1945, the
8th,
9th, and
15th Air Force's P-51 groups claimed some 4,950 aircraft shot down (about half of all USAAF claims in the European theater, the most claimed by any Allied fighter in air-to-air combat) In air combat, the top-scoring P-51 units (both of which exclusively flew Mustangs) were the 357th Fighter Group of the 8th Air Force with 565 air-to-air combat victories and the 9th Air Force's 354th Fighter Group with 664, which made it one of the top-scoring fighter groups. The top Mustang ace was the USAAF's
George Preddy, whose final tally stood at 26.83 victories (a number that includes shared one half- and one third victory credits), 23 of which were scored with the P-51. Preddy was shot down and killed by
friendly fire on Christmas Day 1944 during the
Battle of the Bulge. The P-51 was a relative latecomer to the Pacific theater, due largely to the need for the aircraft in Europe, plus the P-38 was already successful in the Pacific since its twin-engined design was considered a safety advantage for long, over-water flights. The first P-51s were deployed in the Far East later in 1944, operating in close-support and escort missions, as well as tactical photoreconnaissance. As the war in Europe wound down, the P-51 became more common in the Far East. With the
capture of Iwo Jima, USAAF P-51 Mustang fighters of the VII Fighter Command were stationed on that island starting in March 1945, being initially tasked with escorting
Boeing B-29 Superfortress missions
against the Japanese homeland. Iwo Jima's extreme humidity and blowing volcanic dust made aircraft maintenance challenging. To achieve the range required on very-long range missions, the P-51's engine was operated for very long periods at minimum power settings, leading to lead fouling of the spark plugs which had to be replaced after each mission. P-51s would fly round trips of 1,500 miles, mostly flown over water with minimal navigation equipment, and these escort missions would take seven or eight hours. While P-51s used drop tanks over Europe, for Japan they frequently used drop tanks which allowed more loitering time over Japan. While USAAF B-17 and B-24 bombers in Europe were arranged in
combat box formations, over Japan the B-29s formed a stream that could stretch up to 200 miles. The escorting P-51s formed three Tar-Cap (Target
Combat Air Patrol) squadrons, two squadrons flying on one side of the B-29 stream and the third on the other side, each squadron being 2,000 feet above and 4,000 to 5,000 feet laterally from the bomber stream. Compared to its Japanese adversaries, the P-51 largely outclassed the
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's aging
A6M Zero (the most numerous Japanese fighter available), as the A6M's poor high-altitude performance put it at a disadvantage in the P-51's favorable performance envelope. When the P-51 was used for interdiction or strike missions, the A6M was slower but could still out-turn or out climb the P-51 at low to medium altitude. Newer Japanese designs were potent but too few in number. The
Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden was fast and agile, but not effective as an
interceptor due to a poor
rate of climb and reduced engine performance at high altitude. The
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's
Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate had performance and an operation ceiling that could match the P-51, however the Ki-84 suffered from manufacturing defects, and its high-maintenance
Nakajima Homare engine could not reach its full potential due to lack of ample high-octane fuel. In actual practice, the P-51 escorts proved both impractical and unnecessary, and only ten such missions were flown from Iwo Jima. The actual threat to American bombers from Japanese interceptor fighters continued to diminish, as all that remained in the Japanese inventory were mostly obsolescent types, exacerbated by numerous quality control issues and fuel shortages as well as insufficient pilot training, and soon the Japanese were saving their remaining planes and fuel for kamikazes. By the time Iwo Jima had been captured, the bombing campaign against Japan had switched from daylight precision bombing to nighttime incendiary attacks, so fighter escorts were of limited utility. The command's last major raid of May was a daylight incendiary attack on Yokohama on 29 May conducted by 517 B-29s escorted by 101 P-51s. This force was intercepted by 150
A6M Zero fighters, sparking an intense air battle in which five B-29s were shot down and another 175 damaged. In return, the P-51 pilots claimed 26 "kills" and 23 "probables" for the loss of three fighters. The 454 B-29s that reached Yokohama struck the city's main business district and destroyed of buildings; over 1000 Japanese were killed. Overall, the attacks in May destroyed of buildings, which was equivalent to one-seventh of Japan's total urban area. The
minister of home affairs,
Iwao Yamazaki, concluded after these raids that Japan's civil defense arrangements were "considered to be futile". On the first day of June, which would be known as "Black Friday", 521 B-29s escorted by 148 P-51s were dispatched in a daylight raid against Osaka. While en route to the city, the Mustangs flew through thick clouds, and 27 of the fighters were destroyed in collisions. Nevertheless, 458 heavy bombers and 27 P-51s reached the city, and the bombardment killed 3,960 Japanese and destroyed of buildings. On 5 June 473 B-29s struck Kobe by day and destroyed of buildings for the loss of 11 bombers. A force of 409 B-29s attacked Osaka again on 7 June; during this attack, of buildings were burnt out and the Americans did not suffer any losses. Osaka was bombed for the fourth time that month, on 15 June, when 444 B-29s destroyed of the city and another of nearby
Amagasaki; 300,000 houses were destroyed in Osaka. This attack marked the end of the first phase of XXI Bomber Command's attack on Japan's cities. During May and June, the bombers had destroyed much of the country's six largest cities, killing between 112,000 and 126,762 people and rendering millions homeless. The widespread destruction and high number of casualties from these raids caused many Japanese to realize that their country's military was no longer able to defend the home islands. American losses were low compared to Japanese casualties; 136 B-29s were downed during the campaign. In Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Kobe, and Kawasaki, "over 126,762 people were killed ... and a million and a half dwellings and over of urban space were destroyed." In Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, "the areas leveled (almost ) exceeded the areas
destroyed in all
German cities by both the
American and
British air forces (about )." The first of these operations took place on 16 April, when 57 P-51s strafed
Kanoya Air Field in Kyushu. In operations conducted between 26 April and 22 June, the American fighter pilots claimed the destruction of 64 Japanese aircraft and damage to another 180 on the ground, as well as a further 10 shot down in flight; these claims were lower than the American planners had expected, however, and the raids were considered unsuccessful. USAAF losses were 11 P-51s to enemy action and seven to other causes. Due to the lack of Japanese air opposition to the American bomber raids, VII Fighter Command was solely tasked with ground-attack missions from July. These raids were frequently made against airfields to destroy aircraft being held in reserve to attack the expected Allied invasion fleet. While the P-51 pilots only occasionally encountered Japanese fighters in the air, the airfields were protected by antiaircraft batteries and
barrage balloons. By the end of the war, VII Fighter Command had conducted 51 ground-attack raids, of which 41 were considered successful. The fighter pilots claimed to have destroyed or damaged 1,062 aircraft and 254 ships, along with large numbers of buildings and railway rolling stock. American losses were 91 pilots killed and 157 Mustangs destroyed. Overall, P-51 pilots on Iwo Jima flew 51 missions (4,172 sorties) over Japan during their VLR campaign of 1945, including both bomber escort and independent ground-attack missions, encountering enemy aircraft on 33 occasions.
Medal of Honor recipients Two P-51 pilots received the
Medal of Honor during World War II: • USAAF Lt Col.
James H. Howard of the
356th Fighter Squadron,
354th Fighter Group was awarded the Medal of Honor for his action during a bomber escort mission near
Oschersleben, Germany on 11 January 1944, flying P-51B, serial number nicknamed "Ding Hao". Despite being outnumbered, Howard shot down three German planes and continued to defend the bombers even when his guns went out of action and fuel supply became dangerously low. • USAAF Maj.
William A. Shomo of the
82nd Reconnaissance Squadron,
71st Reconnaissance Group was awarded the Medal of Honor for his action during a mission over
Luzon, Philippines on 11 January 1945, flying an F-6D, the armed photo reconnaissance variant of the P-51, serial number nicknamed "Snooks the 5th". On that mission, Shomo shot down seven Japanese planes and became an "
ace in a day".
Pilot observations Chief Naval Test Pilot and C.O. Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight Capt.
Eric Brown,
RN, tested the Mustang at
RAE Farnborough in March 1944 and noted: The US Air Forces, Flight Test Engineering, assessed the Mustang B on 24 April 1944 thus:
Kurt Bühligen, the third-highest scoring German fighter pilot of World War II's Western Front (with 112 confirmed victories, three against Mustangs), later stated: German fighter ace
Heinz Bär said that the P-51:
After World War II F-51Ds at
Alameda for the Korean theater, in July 1950. In the aftermath of World War II, the USAAF consolidated much of its wartime combat force and selected the P-51 as a "standard" piston-engined fighter, while other types, such as the P-38 and P-47, were withdrawn or given substantially reduced roles. As the more advanced (
P-80 and
P-84) jet fighters were introduced, the P-51 was also relegated to secondary duties. In 1947, the newly formed
USAF Strategic Air Command employed fighter Mustangs alongside F-6 Mustangs and
F-82 Twin Mustangs, due to their range capabilities. In 1948 a new designation scheme for USAF aircraft was introduced, with the prefix "P-" for "pursuit" changed to "F-" for "fighter" and the existing "F-" designation for photographic reconnaissance replaced with "RF-;" Mustang variants still in service in the USAF or
Air National Guard (ANG) when the system was changed included:
F-51B,
F-51D,
F-51K,
RF-51D (formerly
F-6D),
RF-51K (formerly
F-6K) and
TRF-51D (two-seat trainer conversions of F-6Ds). By 1950, the majority of the USAF's Mustangs had become surplus to requirements and had been placed in storage or transferred to the
Air Force Reserve and the ANG. On 5 August 1950, Major
Louis J. Sebille of the
67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron attacked a North Korean armored column advancing on
United Nations military units during the
Battle of Pusan Perimeter. Though his aircraft was heavily damaged and he was wounded during the first pass on the column, he turned his F-51 around and deliberately crashed into the convoy at the cost of his life, and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Mustangs continued flying with USAF and ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until 1953 when they were largely replaced as fighter-bombers by USAF F-84s and by
United States Navy (USN)
Grumman F9F Panthers. Other air forces and units using the Mustang included the
Royal Australian Air Force's
77 Squadron, which flew Australian-built Mustangs as part of
British Commonwealth Forces Korea. The Mustangs were replaced by
Gloster Meteor F8s in 1951. F-51s flew in the Air Force Reserve and ANG throughout the 1950s; the very last Mustang in this role was F-51D-30-NA AF serial no. , which was finally withdrawn from the
West Virginia Air National Guard's
167th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in January 1957 and retired to what was then called the Air Force Central Museum, although it was briefly reactivated to fly at the 50th anniversary of the Air Force Aerial Firepower Demonstration at the Air Proving Ground,
Eglin AFB, Florida, on 6 May 1957. This aircraft, painted as P-51D-15-NA serial no. , is on display at the
National Museum of the United States Air Force,
Wright-Patterson AFB, in
Dayton, Ohio. The final withdrawal of the Mustang from USAF placed hundreds of P-51s onto the civilian market. The rights to the Mustang design were purchased from North American by the
Cavalier Aircraft Corporation, which attempted to market the surplus Mustang aircraft in the US and overseas. In 1967 and again in 1972, the USAF procured batches of remanufactured Mustangs from Cavalier, most of them destined for air forces in South America and Asia that were participating in the
Military Assistance Program (MAP). These aircraft were remanufactured from existing original F-51D airframes fitted with new V-1650-7 engines, a new radio, tall F-51H-type vertical tails, and a stronger wing that could carry six machine guns and a total of eight underwing hardpoints. Two bombs and six rockets could be carried. They all had an original F-51D-type canopy but carried a second seat for an observer behind the pilot. One additional Mustang was a two-seat, dual-control TF-51D (67-14866) with an enlarged canopy and only four wing guns. Although these remanufactured Mustangs were intended for sale to South American and Asian nations through the MAP, they were delivered to the USAF with full USAF markings. They were, however, allocated new serial numbers (, and ). Cavalier Mustang 68-15796 survives at the
Air Force Armament Museum,
Eglin AFB, Florida, displayed indoors in World War II markings. The F-51 was adopted by many foreign air forces and continued to be an effective fighter into the mid-1980s with smaller air arms. The last Mustang ever downed in battle occurred during
Operation Power Pack in the
Dominican Republic in 1965, with the last aircraft finally being retired by the
Dominican Air Force in 1984.
Service with other air forces After World War II, the P-51 Mustang served in the air arms of more than 25 nations. while many hundreds were sold postwar for the nominal price of one dollar to signatories of the
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, ratified in
Rio de Janeiro in 1947. These countries used the P-51 Mustang: ;Australia , in 1947 :In November 1944,
3 Squadron RAAF became the first Royal Australian Air Force unit to use Mustangs. At the time of its conversion from the P-40 to the Mustang, the squadron was based in Italy with the RAF's
Desert Air Force. :3 Squadron was renumbered
4 Squadron after returning to Australia from Italy, and converted to P-51Ds. Several other Australian or Pacific-based squadrons converted to either
CAC-built Mustangs or to imported P-51Ks from July 1945, having been equipped with P-40s or Boomerangs for wartime service; these units were:
76,
77,
82,
83,
84 and
86 squadrons. Only 17 Mustangs reached the RAAF's
First Tactical Air Force front-line squadrons by the time World War II ended in August 1945. :76, 77 and 82 squadrons were formed into
81 Fighter Wing of the
British Commonwealth Air Force, which was part of the
British Commonwealth Occupation Force stationed in Japan from February 1946. 77 Squadron used its P-51s extensively during the first months of the Korean War, before converting to
Gloster Meteor jets. :Five reserve units from the Citizen Air Force also operated Mustangs.
21 "City of Melbourne" Squadron, based in the state of
Victoria;
22 "City of Sydney" Squadron, based in
New South Wales;
23 "City of Brisbane" Squadron, based in Queensland;
24 "City of Adelaide" Squadron, based in South Australia; and
25 "City of Perth" Squadron, based in Western Australia; all of these units were equipped with CAC Mustangs, rather than P-51D or Ks. The last Mustangs were retired from these units in 1960 when CAF units adopted a nonflying role. ;Bolivia : Nine
Cavalier F-51D (including the two TF-51s) were given to Bolivia, under a program called Peace Condor. In August 1949, the
People's Liberation Army Air Force formed its first P-51 squadron at
Beijing Nanyuan Airport and were tasked of the defending Beijing's airspace from Nationalist Air Force aircraft. On 1 October 1949, when
Mao Zedong proclaimed the
founding of the People's Republic of China, nine P-51s conducted a fly-past during the military parade in Beijing. By 1950, when
Soviet Union began supplying modern military equipment to China, surviving P-51s were relegated to PLAAF's aviation school and 13 P-51s were modified as two-seat trainers. By September 1953, most P-51s were retired from service and only eight P-51s remained in service to teach
Ilyushin Il-10 pilots on how to taxi aircraft. ;Costa Rica :The
Costa Rican Air Force flew four P-51Ds from 1955 to 1964. ;Dominican Republic : The
Dominican Republic was the largest Latin American air force to employ the P-51D, with six aircraft acquired in 1948, 44 ex-Swedish F-51Ds purchased in 1948, and a further Mustang obtained from an unknown source. It was the last nation to have any Mustangs in service, with some remaining in use as late as 1984. Nine of the final 10 aircraft were sold back to American collectors in 1988. ;France : In late 1944, the first French unit began its transition to reconnaissance Mustangs. In January 1945, the Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 2/33 of the French Air Force took their F-6Cs and F-6Ds over Germany on photographic mapping missions. The Mustangs remained in service until the early 1950s, when they were replaced by jet fighters. Some of these P-51s were found by Allied forces at the end of the war; others crashed during testing. The Mustang is also listed in the appendix to the novel
KG 200 as having been flown by the German secret operations unit
KG 200, which tested, evaluated, and sometimes clandestinely operated captured enemy aircraft during World War II. ;Guatemala : The
Guatemalan Air Force had 30 P-51D Mustangs in service from 1954 to the early 1970s. ;Indonesia : Indonesia acquired 26 P-51D/Ks from the departing Netherlands East Indies Air Force in 1949–1950 and later received 35 P-51Ds from the United States in 1960–1961. The Mustangs were used against numerous rebellions during the 1950s, such as the
CIA-backed
Permesta rebels in 1958–1961. During this period, the Mustang scored the first and (as of 2022) the only aerial victory of the Indonesian Air Force, when on 18 May 1958, a P-51D Mustang piloted by Capt. Ignatius Dewanto shot down a Permesta's Revolutionary Air Force
B-26 Invader piloted by
Allen Lawrence Pope near
Ambon. They were also used against Commonwealth (RAF, RAAF, and RNZAF) forces during the
Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in the early 1960s. Indonesia received a shipment of five or seven
Cavalier II Mustangs and one TF-51D (without tip tanks) delivered in 1972–1973 as part of "Peace Pony" program under the
Mutual Defense Assistance Act. The last time Mustangs were deployed for military purposes was during the "Wibawa V" exercise at
Mount Lawu,
Magetan in February 1975. The Indonesian Mustangs were also used for filming
Janur Kuning, which was released in 1980. The Mustangs were replaced in 1976. ;Israel : The marking beneath the cockpit notes its participation in the wire-cutting operation at the onset of the Suez Crisis. : A few P-51 Mustangs were illegally bought by Israel in 1948, crated, and smuggled into the country as agricultural equipment for use in the
1947–1949 Palestine war, serving alongside upwards of 23
Avia S-199 fighters (Czech-built Messerschmitt Bf 109Gs) in Israeli service, with the Mustangs quickly establishing themselves as the best fighter in the Israeli inventory. Further aircraft were bought from Sweden and were replaced by jets at the end of the 1950s, but not before the type was used in the
Suez Crisis, at the opening of
Operation Kadesh. In conjunction with a surprise parachute drop at the
Mitla Pass, four P-51s were specially detailed to cut telephone and telegraph wires using their wings in extreme low level runs, which resulted in major interruptions to Egyptian communications. ;Italy : Italy was a postwar operator of P-51Ds; deliveries were slowed by the Korean War, but between September 1947 and January 1951, by MDAP count, 173 examples were delivered. They were used in all the AMI fighter units: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 51
Stormo (wing), plus some employed in schools and experimental units. Considered a "glamorous" fighter, P-51s were even used as personal aircraft by several Italian commanders. Some restrictions were placed on its use due to unfavorable flying characteristics. Handling had to be done with much care when fuel tanks were fully used, and several aerobatic maneuvers were forbidden. Overall, the P-51D was highly rated even compared to the other primary postwar fighter in Italian service, the Supermarine Spitfire, partly because these P-51Ds were in very good condition in contrast to all other Allied fighters supplied to Italy. Phasing out of the Mustang began in mid-1958. ;Japan : The P-51C-11-NT
Evalina, marked as "278" (former USAAF serial: ) and flown by 26th FS, 51st FG, was hit by gunfire on 16 January 1945 and belly-landed on Suchon Airfield in China, which was held by the Japanese. The Japanese repaired the aircraft, roughly applied
Hinomaru roundels and flew the aircraft to the Fussa evaluation center (now
Yokota Air Base) in Japan. When the conflict was over, Indonesia received 26 of these Mustangs. The original 30 were being shipped as the war ended in August 1945; these were stored in their packing cases, and the order for the additional Mustangs was canceled. In 1951, the stored Mustangs entered service in
1 (Auckland),
2 (Wellington),
3 (Canterbury), and
4 (Otago) squadrons of the
Territorial Air Force (TAF). The Mustangs remained in service until they were prematurely retired in August 1955 following a series of problems with undercarriage and coolant-system corrosion problems. Four Mustangs served on as target tugs until the TAF was disbanded in 1957. These became the backbone of the postwar
Philippine Army Air Corps and
Philippine Air Force, and were used extensively during the
Huk campaign, fighting against communist insurgents, as well as the suppression of Moro rebels led by Hadji Kamlon in southern Philippines until 1955. The Mustangs were also the first aircraft of the Philippine air demonstration team, which was formed in 1953 and given the name the
Blue Diamonds the following year. The Mustangs were replaced by 56 F-86 Sabres in the late 1950s, but some were still in service for COIN roles up to the early 1980s. ;Poland :During World War II, five
Polish Air Force in Great Britain squadrons used Mustangs. The first Polish unit equipped (7 June 1942) with Mustang Mk Is was "B" Flight of
309 "Ziemi Czerwieńskiej" Squadron (an Army Co-Operation Command unit), followed by "A" Flight in March 1943. Subsequently, 309 Squadron was redesignated a fighter/reconnaissance unit and became part of Fighter Command. On 13 March 1944,
316 "Warszawski" Squadron received their first Mustang Mk IIIs; rearming of the unit was completed by the end of April. By 26 March 1944,
306 "Toruński" Sqn and
315 "Dębliński" Sqn received Mustangs Mk IIIs (the whole operation took 12 days). On 20 October 1944, Mustang Mk Is in 309 Squadron were replaced by Mk IIIs. On 11 December 1944, the unit was again renamed, becoming 309
Dywizjon Myśliwski "
Ziemi Czerwieńskiej" or 309 "Land of Czerwien" Polish Fighter Squadron. In 1945,
303 "Kościuszko" Sqn received 20 Mustangs Mk IV/Mk IVA replacements. Postwar, between 6 December 1946 and 6 January 1947, all five Polish squadrons equipped with Mustangs were disbanded. Poland returned about 80 Mustang Mk IIIs and 20 Mustangs Mk IV/IVAs to the RAF, which transferred them to the US government. ;Somalia : The
Somalian Air Force operated eight P-51Ds in post-World War II service. ;South Africa :No.5 Squadron
South African Air Force operated Mustang Mk IIIs (P-51B/C) and Mk IVs (P-51D/K) in Italy during World War II, beginning in September 1944, when the squadron converted to the Mustang Mk III from Kittyhawks. The Mk IV and Mk IVA came into SA service in March 1945. These aircraft were generally camouflaged in the British style, having been drawn from RAF stocks; all carried RAF serial numbers and were struck off charge and scrapped in October 1945. In 1950, 2 Squadron SAAF was supplied with F-51D Mustangs by the United States for Korean War service. The type performed well in South African hands before being replaced by the F-86 Sabre in 1952 and 1953. The J 26s were replaced by
De Havilland Vampires around 1950. The S 26s were replaced by
S 29Cs in the early 1950s. ;Uruguay : The
Uruguayan Air Force used 25 P-51D Mustangs from 1950 to 1960; some were subsequently sold to Bolivia. One of the most significant Mustangs involved in air racing was serial number , a surplus P-51C-10-NT purchased by film stunt pilot
Paul Mantz. He modified the wings, sealing them to create a giant fuel tank in each one; these "wet wings" reduced the need for fuel stops or drag-inducing drop tanks. Named
Blaze of Noon after the film
Blaze of Noon, the aircraft won the 1946 and 1947 Bendix Air Races, took second in the 1948 Bendix, and placed third in the 1949 Bendix. Mantz also set a US coast-to-coast record in 1947. He sold the Mustang to
Charles F. Blair Jr (future husband of
Maureen O'Hara), who renamed it
Excalibur III and used it to set a New York-to-London (about ) record in 1951: 7 hr 48 min from takeoff at
Idlewild to overhead London Airport. Later that year, Blair flew from Norway to Fairbanks, Alaska, via the North Pole (about ), proving that navigation via sun sights was possible over the magnetic North Pole region. For this feat, he was awarded the
Harmon Trophy and the Air Force was forced to change its thoughts on a possible Soviet air strike from the north. This Mustang now sits in the
National Air and Space Museum's
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. of the 487 FS, 352 FG, on aerial display in 2007: It is the last original 352 FG P-51 known to exist. In 1958, the RCAF retired its 78 remaining Mustangs. RCAF pilot
Lynn Garrison ferried them from their various storage locations to
Canastota, New York, where the American buyers were based. Garrison flew each of the surviving aircraft at least once. These aircraft make up a large percentage of the aircraft presently flying worldwide. There were 204 privately owned P-51s in the US on the
FAA registry in 2011, most of which are still flying, often associated with organizations such as the
Commemorative Air Force (formerly the Confederate Air Force). In May 2013,
Doug Matthews set an altitude record of in a P-51 named
The Rebel for piston-powered aircraft weighing . Flying from a grass runway at Florida's
Indiantown airport and over
Lake Okeechobee, Matthews set world records for time to reach altitudes of , 18 minutes and , 31 minutes. He set a level-flight altitude record of in level flight and an absolute altitude record of , breaking the previous record of set in 1954.
Incidents • On 9 June 1973,
William Penn Patrick (43) a certified pilot and his passenger, Christian Hagert, died when Patrick's P-51 Mustang crashed in
Lakeport, California. • On 1 July 1990 at the National Capital Air Show (
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), Harry E. Tope was killed when his P-51 Mustang crashed. • On 16 September 2011
The Galloping Ghost, a modified P-51 piloted by Jimmy Leeward of Ocala, Florida,
crashed during an air race in Reno, Nevada. Leeward and at least nine people on the ground were killed when the racer suddenly crashed near the edge of the grandstand. ==Variants==