In this video, we talk about the North American A36 Mustang, officially known as the Apache, but colloquially known as the Mustang and by some that flew it as the Invader. We talk about the early beginnings of the more famous Mustang, the P51, and its initial use over in Britain as part of the precursor to LendLease, the CashandCarry policy. We talk about these British Mustangs, known as the Mark 1 over there, their successes and their shortcomings. We then talk about Americas desire to build their own Mustang aircraft as fighters and how the A36, a dive bomber and ground attacker, came about as a temporary workaround.
We then compare and contrast the A36 and the successive, earlier model P51 fighters and how the design of the A36 was altered for the role it had. We talk about its eventual production and shipping over to Europe for the Italian Campaign, its combat experience there, and what ended up happening to them by the end of the war after more prominent Mustang variants, like the P51D, came about.