I just finished reading Robin Olds' autobiography, Fighter Pilot. Olds loved the P38 and had several victories in it in Europe before it was replaced by the P51, which he considered a far superior fighter. He didn't get too technical about it, but he did touch on the topic of how tricky the P38 was to fly and fight in.
a number of pilots in the Pacific Theater were saved a swim due to that second engine.....it had its quirks but given it did ok to great at everything thrown at it EXCEPT the one thing it was designed for cause Germany never made any high altitude bombers its a hell of a plane....it was given a wide variety of jobs to due over its life in WWII
