Contrary to what many sources claim, the P-38 Lightning did not shoot down more Japanese aircraft in World War Two than any other American or Allied aircraft.  The numbers do not support that statement. (In red below)  Even when combining the number of victories in PTO - Pacific Theatre of Operations and  CBI - China-Burma-India, the P-38, with a total of 1,857 victories, came in third place behind the F6F Hellcat with 5,160 and the F4U Corsair with 2,140.  Since the F6F and the F4U were both USN/USMC aircraft, it would be accurate to state that the P-38 shot down more Japanese aircraft only if the statement is qualified for United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft ONLY.  Speaking strictly about USAAF victories, the P-38 Lightening wins with 1,857, with the P-40 running a close second at 1,633.5.

The best I can tell, one author many years ago stated that the P-38 shot down more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF aircraft.  Later, another author took this information but just stated that P-38 shot down more Japanese aircraft than any other aircraft.  The important qualifier of USAAF was deleted.  Then it has become the classic case of other author's using the second author's information without doing the necessary historical research.  Therefore, this incorrect information has been incorrectly re-quoted in many publications since then.  I have even heard airshow announcers make this error. 

Even though the F6F did not start reaching Naval and Marine units in the Pacific until late 1943, once it did it came in prodigious numbers.  The Naval carrier forces and Marine land-based units concentrated on the destruction of both the Japanese Naval and Army Air Forces in that theater.  In the Battle of the Marianas, on June 11, 1944, Hellcats shot down 70 Japanese aircraft.  Six days later on June 19th, they shot down another 354 enemy planes in "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".  In two days, the F6F destroyed 23% of what it took the P-38 the entire conflict in the Pacific to do.  The F6F Hellcat has been somewhat forgotten and overlooked, considering it was the top US fighter in the Pacific and second only to the P-51 Mustang for total victories in the war.  The F4U Corsair, another Marine and Navy fighter and the second place finisher in the destruction of Japanese warplanes in air to air combat, was used more by the US Marines than the Navy.  For the most part. the F4U Corsair operated from land bases in the Pacific and did not have the opportunities that the F6F had.

Two other aircraft that have been overlooked are the P-47's and P-51B/C's importance to the invasion of Western Europe at Normandy on June 6, 1944.  In order for the landings to be successful, air supremacy over the Luftwaffe had to be obtained.  It was the early P-51B/Cs and P-47s that accomplished this task.  Although the later P-51D Mustang may have captured the honors, it  did not arrive in significant quantities until the time of the Normandy invasion.  These two aircraft have been over looked for their contribution to the successful Allied invasion on D-Day.

Also note the 138 victories by the Douglas SBD Dauntless.  The 1942 book "Queen of the Flattops" by Stanley Johnston, which is the story of the original USS Lexington on her final cruise into the South Pacific and her eventual loss at the Battle of the Coral Sea, documents that the SBDs on that cruise were very active in engaging enemy aircraft of all types in air-to-air combat during combat and scouting missions.  One such air battle was with the Japanese Zero.  In the final air battle defending the ship, SBDs were launched along with the F4F Wildcats to defend the ship as the low altitude air defense screen.  At the end of the battle, Ensign John Leppla, an SBD Scout Bomber Pilot, along with his gunner, were credited with seven kills.  This was more than any of the fighter pilots on the USS Lexington had at the time.