WWII Fighter Bombers

I read a book recently about a fighter group who flew with one under wing
tank, and a bomb under the other, with P51's, the drag must have been
hellish!
The U.S. used the P47, and the P38's to great advantake for ground attack,
the RAF used the typhoon, the tempest, the beaufort, these are the most
prominent ones i can remember.
The P51's mainly carried two under wing tanks, which they used first, them
when the time came to dog fight, they would let them go; they had a big fuel
tank in behind the pilot to fall back on.
Any fighter bomber that had say small bombs would execute their primary
objectives first,i.e. drop the bombs first because to dog fight with a bomb
under neath could be too risky, the drag, extra weight, and the damger of
the bombs being hit while still attached., they would not be required to go
any great distance with the bombs; this was the medium, and heavy bombers
task, if the fighters carried a bomb or two they would be used to soften a
target with aswell as others straffing, and perhaps those doing the
straffing would cover thos carrying the bombs.
"zxcv" wrote in message
...
Would a fighter plane (say a P-51 or P-40 for example) that was on mission
to drop some tactgical bombs and encountered some any fighters generally
drop its bombs before engaging the enemy? or just try to run away? or
fight
with them still hanging on (sounds pretty dangerous to me with the extra
weight and the BOMBs hanging under their wings)?