No, his nose was up to turn and it obscured his line of sight. He probably saw him earlier, but lost him or was looking for the other plane.
The P-51 was designed to do that sort of thing. Such an approach would be normal for an intercept.
“No, his nose was up to turn and it obscured his line of sight. He probably saw him earlier, but lost him or was looking for the other plane.”
I agree. Looks like he was starting a bank and lost his line of sight with a rapid closing speed. Some other comments about suicide don’t make sense at all. Why would the pilot take others with him?
And he was the last of 3 or 4 fighters off to his left. Probably had his eyes on the fighter he was trailing as number 4... lost track of the bomber. And it’s possible the bomber was out of it’s planned position too.
The flight brief was blown by someone...