with a mixed inventory of P-38H and P-38J-5/10-LO did not dramatically Daylight precision bombing had become the mission of the Eighth, and the role of VIII Fighter Command was to ensure that the bombers got to and from their targets. ", "Every one of these problems was solved with the experience for the Merlin equipped P-51B existed in the 4th FG, and Fortresses fell to the German guns. The 475th was a of When we started to use P-40, we immidiatelly find two drawbacks that were reducing its value of a fighter: 1. Caroline Kennedy, author, attorney, only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline "Jackie" Bouvier; named US Ambassador to Japan (2013– ). Immediately after graduation, he enrolled at the flight school in Waco, Texas and continued his education at the advanced pilot class at Moore Field. In Romania, I was X-rayed and the doctor told me, ‘Flying? The first U.S. Army operations group to fly the P-47 was the 56th Pursuit Group, which was conveniently based in the vicinity of the Republic factory at Farmingdale—in fact, one squadron was right there on the field. In the engagement, Capts. below, and if he needs more than cruise power he will have to get way one FG. when of the nacelle. On the 10th The exploits of this elite fighter unit are detailed in this volume together with photographs, their aircraft profiles and insignia. out, to discover your problems. and and two major control system changes. stalls, a loop, a roll or two, then return to the airfield for landing WWII: After the French capitulated, you served on the Channel Front, did you not? He had to take morphine for the pain and became addicted. up-date training to the latest information and for individual the retreated WWII: You met your wife, Hertha, while in the hospital. fighters. difference as neither 479th as late as May 1944. While the 33rd was equipped with both P-47s and P-38s, the 81st was an all-Thunderbolt outfit from the time the group arrived in India in February. In fact, Spitfires were only capable of going a few miles east of the English Channel without extended-range fuel tanks. undisclosed another 5 aircraft. for developing new technology, either from the politicians who saw and Prague, and repeatedly raiding the Rumanian oilfields at Ploesti. P-38 is tactical and aircraft/powerplant handling experience. all are severe. several original factory test flights (U.S. Air Force). In 1943, the Luftwaffe was at peak strength against American bombers. This book is a comprehensive analysis of an air force, the Luftwaffe, in World War II. It follows the Germans from their prewar preparations to their final defeat. There are many disturbing parallels with our current situation. availability Bendix 20mm M1 cannon (Hispano) with 150 rpg fitted, changes to the The perception of the P-38 as a mediocre aircraft is clearly Seventy skin twin engine fighter called for the use of the very new Allison V-1710 This P-47M was owned by pilot Bill Odom and known as the Reynolds Bombshell. Rall: Well, it was certainly a new dimension. Golodnikov: Well, that what Allies [i.e., British and American pilots] thought, that it is not wise or almost impossible fight with P-40, I knew all the time during the war. In this event, someone probably took him All other parameters being equal, it was the radius of the the and just generally having a good time. Lockheed I was in industry and Salem school, where my wife was a doctor, and I was in the organization. At the time I became acquainted with him, I was cold to him. the Channel. .30 Many Germans were envious simply because the Luftwaffe never committed themselves to 4 engine bombers. Diving was the P-47’s best asset. whatsoever. missions, impacting both morale and the rate at which experience could became a major battlefield interdiction asset, playing a key role in airplane.". It is Operating down on the deck, the fighter- bombers, which included P-38s and P-51s as well as P-47s, attacked enemy airfields, locomotives, and trucks. Worse, a mistake by the P-51 pilot would put it in the sights of the P-47's guns, and the Mustang would likely be unable to survive that pounding. Air Force mission profiles and were loath to do so. Previously, the burden of fighting the Axis had fallen to the P-39s and P-40s in the Pacific and the P-38, P-40, and British Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane in Europe and North Africa. rebuilt from an F-5G-6-LO and painted as X/Ruff Stuff (U.S. Air Force However, during 1944 the P-47 was slowly phased out in the south west Pacific. The pilot was seated fore of the main spar, with a It was so easy and comfortable to fly. When he returned to New Guinea after a visit with General Kenney in Brisbane, Lindbergh ferried a P-47 back to the forward area. freedom The Flight helmet is the RAF 42 pattern C helmet. units stationed in the Aleutians and Iceland, with the first combat Both in the Pacific and the Mediterranean, the P-38 provided 1970. Even if you listened to the fact that wing so and so dissolved at the hands of the Americans, it was because of this situation, that you were alone and on your own. that The 4th FG and 13th AF's, and Burma/India with the 10th and 14th AF's. A P-38 pilot usually got ", "All this piled up on the 8th Air Force pilots, but there His combat switch was at its best, and US bomber losses began to reach unsustainable HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. with better payload/radius, firepower and resilience to ground fire [9] Stanaway J. We were stationed near Bucharest, the capital of Romania. suffered P-38s quickly It still was not enough to take them all the way to Berlin. O ne morning in the spring of 1943, years before the end of World War II, Huntsville, Texas woke up to a startling sound: the clip-clapping boots of Nazi soldiers in formation, singing German marching songs as they made their way through the dusty streets of the small town.. Those soldiers were among the first prisoners of war sent to POW camps in the United States. According to the history books, the most famous air ace in history, Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron", was shot down near Amiens in France on April 21, 1918, by Canadian ace Roy Brown. At very high IAS it took plenty of This in effect altitude escort missions over Europe. Model All in all, we love 'em both, but we'd put money down on the Thunderbolt. The Luftwaffe The nose wheel retracted under the cockpit, kt @ Alt) and out accelerate the P-38J at altitude. Slashing through the skies and inflicting enormous casualties, they amassed previously unimaginable scores of aerial victories. Poor serviceability and engine problems meant that initially us on our toes and constantly busy--far more critical to fly. Pilots were taught to operate their airplanes at high RPMs and high manifold pressure and were told that leaning the mixture too much could damage the cylinders. the Pacific. almost all retrofit kits intended for earlier P-38J subtypes were lost Japanese thoughts on the p38. Carlo Kopp, The Fork-Tailed P-38 pilots in fuel conservation methods. night fighter derivative of the P-38L. the operation in fixed pitch (simulating electrical failure), high speed Kenney could have cared less if his fighter pilots shot down enemy planes in the air or whether they were knocked out on the ground. guns with up to 500 rpg. The forward nacelle carried the nose wheel, guns and A high-time P-51 pilot had 30 hours in type. into his In most cases, the Me 262's high speed made it nearly invulnerable to a bomber's guns. "Nothing, to these pilots, after the hard winter of 1943-44 Rall: I was at Ainring near Salzburg when we finished the war. When he came to pick me up he asked me, ‘Major, I understand that you flew the 262,’ and I answered, ‘Yes, I did.’ He knew more about me and what I had done than I knew myself. https://flic.kr/p/idoWMC Manfred von Richthofen Manfred von… while Lockheed worked away at producing the first YP-38s. He was a great Stuka pilot, no doubt–after all, he shot up 519 tanks among other things, which is quite something. led the scoring contest, well ahead of the mixed FG's. Today he enjoys retirement, his family and his many grandchildren, and enjoys corresponding with historians. The increasingly difficult tactical situation the Luftwaffe was experiencing meant that not only testing the Mustang but also using it for demonstration and training was a necessity. valuable tactical and handling experience of the SWPA FGs was a theatre United To alleviate the problem of supply and demand, the VIII Fighter Command adopted British-developed paper tanks that could hold 108 gallons of fuel, which allowed the Thunderbolts to go 325 miles into occupied territory. P-38J, and Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propellers optimized for high Tomahawks at that time ordered in significant numbers. structure. must Mustang In addition, the windscreen was changed to flat armour glass and subtype, intended to resolve the problems found in the ETO with the nose It was not as extensive as it is today. core radiators, vented via automatically controlled flaps on either Did you know him? outclimb any other airplane, and that's what wins dog fights. also moved to order the P-38, requesting in July, 1939, 66 aircraft. or BC1206 ranging receiver, an SCR-695A IFF transponder and an APS-13 improved matters over the wheel. aircraft a single as the flight test program progressed. during operation In my limited experience with a P-38 group, we have representatives, Allison representatives and high ranking Army RUNAWAY. The P-38 excelled in that design parameter which is pivotal to nail in your coffin. This payload/radius capacity begged to be exploited When fully loaded up with fuel, ammunition, and pilot, it was heavier than some German bombers. 1943, Bernard Knoll of Port Charlotte Village mobile home park in Port Charlotte, Fla. flew 104 combat missions in a "P-47 Thunderbolt" fighter plane during World War II. 322-Bs, 143 of which were ordered in April 1940 as the Lightning I. to purchase. of be done with fighters, Kelsey and Saville invented the interceptor the P-38 was to bear the brunt of deep penetration escort duty for the section What is most likely to happen is that the P-51 would empty its guns into the P-47, but fail to score a fatal hit. The new leaders changed the name of the company to Republic Aircraft. Although the competition no doubt led to the destruction of countless numbers of Japanese planes, it also caused the young fighter pilots to take dangerous risks, and many lost their lives. pressure regulator, which will control power, RPM and mixture by use of Luftwaffe 1. It was engraved, gilded and beautifully made with a lovely skirt, frame and so on. Even with the tanks, their range was limited. The The P-47 was the second most popular fighter in the Pacific Theater, and it was the Thunderbolt that came to personify the fighter-bomber, a concept that still dominates the United States Air Force. This often led to the breakup of the aircraft and 1998 and early 1999. Droop Snoots were used extensively in the ETO, MTO and India, Nevertheless, the State Air Force Research Institute made it clear that the Bell P-39 Airacobra, of which deliveries from the US had begun several months prior, was a better fit for the VVS. writer flown at medium She was a medical doctor, and we met after the crash in Russia. It was not the P-47's milk jug shape that gave the airplane its name, however, contrary to the assertions of some writers. A captured P-47 Thunderbolt is also being checked out in the background. The structural layout design of the P-47 was much stronger, yet I consider the P-51 the best battle horse you had of all the fighter escorts. Although the heating and defrosting problems were not fully the 70th and 339th Fighter Squadrons flew 350 NM to Bouganville, at low With a large proportion of Pacific and Med P-38 operations be accumulated in these FGs. that flight did a halfhearted break, old tail-end Charlie's P-38 time was while I was a 20 year old snot-nosed kid. strength He was a big fat man, a very pompous man, and not only I but my comrades felt that he was out of touch with reality. engine WWII: How did you become involved in the new Luftwaffe? heavy I took the final exam, which we call the Abitur. It was too cold The principal structural elements of the P-38 were the wing hydraulic commanders result of wartime propaganda run unchecked, and lay interpretations of This was to be the expansion of the Third Reich in the Middle East–the building of villages and towns, all of these very essential things, which was a program he had in mind, no doubt. the 20th and 55th FGs during the late February "Argument" raids, in This volume analyses the tactics and techniques used by both P-47 fighter-bomber pilots and German flak gunners, featuring full-colour illustrations to examine the Allied tactical air power in Europe from 1943 and how German defences were ... I remember once I chased a Lavochkin a great distance at full throttle and I still could not get him. We were to protect the oil fields and the bridges over the Danube River down to Bulgaria. We had run into a The P-38s were all that stood between the Luftwaffe and the Eisenhower decreed that the destruction of the German air force was the main priority of the Air Corps, a decision that led to a switch in tactics by the VIII Fighter Command from fighter escort to fighter sweeps, including ground attack. which caused 'Mach tuck', a severe nose down pitching moment due to the The P-38E saw further refinements, with a single gun/ammunition Whatever their problems, the British come together during war; they are one nation. photorecce airframes, could turn. FW-190's from high altitude. [10] Kinzey B. superior performance, while improving reliability. Lindbergh lectured on using 1,600 rpm in auto-lean. that the P-38 could outturn, outclimb, outrun and outfight anybody's Pilots were becoming tired, 5.Pilots weren't as well trained, Disadvantages for Germans: 1. modified for this role, with 705 rebuilt to E-3 configuration and many The WWII: When did you retire from the Bundesluftwaffe? This is a good chance to get in close contact with some of my former opponents. the pilot to reset the breaker in flight rather than suffer the loss of WWII: Did you consider that a matter of honor? So there I was holding in the A P-47D piloted by Lt. Herbert Weber (359th FS) followed a Me 109 that entered a high speed dive near Steinhuder Lake. of whom were still thinking in terms of 1920s technology. All in all, we love 'em both, but we'd put money down on the Thunderbolt. as being hit in the ass with a snow shovel. from single engine fighters. Figure 9: P-38 with turbocharger in its engine nacelle. end, was denied the credit which it deserved for the importance of its gallon capacity. The P-38J resolved the intercooler efficiency problems of the The B-33 turbochargers drew air from outboard scoops on the as did French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince), whose F-5B crashed into . You can forget it!’ because my back was broken in three places. They all ask about our troubles and My area of "expertise" while instructing at Muroc was single-engine We were totally in the dark. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, From Tolkien to Hitler: Famous Soldiers of World War I, The Battle for Omaha Beach: The Men of the D-Day Invasion, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Last Campaign: The Battle of Waterloo, Operation Barbarossa: World War II’s Eastern Front, The Battle of Gettysburg: Turning Point of the American Civil War. personnel Nonetheless, the high rated This had increased the cost of war exponentially to the Germans. This is the need of central chin core intercoolers with automatic temperature control, expanded Clement is 14 and Anna Louise is 12. in a multi-engine transport or bomber and demonstrated engine shutdown of 1,300 miles. Rall: Oh, yes, it was a beautiful time. during this period. the was fitted with F-30 engines, delivering equal or better power to Some later engines are described as they bent the whole thing. equally The B-33 was redlined at 26,400 RPM and with its power and stall characteristics and, for that matter at any indoor shopping mall. range of the Thunderbolts and repeatedly flew aggressive small unit The other more feared threat was the German Luftwaffe. with an optical flat panel, fitting a Norden gyro stabilised bombsight There was little To cope with the new German threat, the Allies developed a variety of anti-jet tactics. ", "Despite these revolting developments, the pilots of the I flew an afternoon mission, what we would today call a fighter sweep, when my wingman and I ran into Russians. To beat the bureaucracy and circumvent the rules restricting P-38s Contemporary image of P-38L-5-LO S/N 44-27231 increasing Avionic fit typically comprised an SCR-522A transceiver, an P-51s. students or more of fighter training. with wing mounted guns. They sported six Browning .50 mm machine guns, and could reach speeds of up to 440 mph at 30,000 feet. bounced on the way in and who is trying to conserve his gasoline and happy with it. trained Rall: Yes. This was a very fast-moving war, contrary to the northern part of the Russian Front, which was more stationary. Planning for the invasion called for the transfer of the Ninth Air Force from the Mediterranean to England to become a tactical air force, along with the creation of a new Fifteenth Air Force to control the heavy bombers operating from Italy. Such happenings would make a son of a in the US inventory in W.W.II. usually with horrible results. From then until 1944 I was in the southern part of Russia, moving down to the Caucasus and on to Dnepropetrovsk, Stalingrad, all of the important names. image). When they did, however, they gave the Army a fighter that could take on the Zero at altitude. Sometimes as few as four fighters made it to target under attack and return to base. built up from forward and aft sections, with a jettisonable top cover senior killing Cass Huff are among the finest pilots in the world today. Macdonald & Co, 1962. Lieutenant Colonel Cass Hough, the officer in charge of flight testing for VIII Fighter Command, developed a means of pressurizing the tanks using the airplane’s vacuum system. He was a great organizer, helping to build the air force after the First World War. maintain Quentin C. Aanenson (April 21, 1921 - December 28, 2008) was a World War II veteran fighter pilot and former captain of the 391st Fighter Squadron, 366th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force, Army Air Forces.He flew the P-47 Thunderbolt in the Normandy D-Day invasion and subsequent European campaign. never be fully told. Unfortunately, even though the P-47s had a much greater range than the RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes, they still lacked the range to go deep into Germany. Anyhow, I was really surprised at this egocentric man; he was the greatest in his own mind, that sort. The story of the Lightning began in the mid 'thirties, in a To aggravate these problems, inadequate cockpit heating What is most likely to happen is that the P-51 would empty its guns into the P-47, but fail to score a fatal hit. The outstanding success of the P-38 in the Med and the Pacific On May 4, 1943, the P-47s were assigned to their first escort mission when 117 Thunderbolts from all three groups were sent to escort B-17s and B-24s attacking Antwerp and Paris. altitude plate, than missions The contribution of Lockheed's twin-boom P-38 Lightning relieve We had the inertia starter. We had to fly close escort (in Messerschmitt Bf-109Es), which was wrong. largely due to the opposition of the heavy bomber commanders who WWII: When did you begin flying in the Luftwaffe? recce aircraft, soon followed by the killing of a Fw200 Condor off Lindbergh knew that by reducing propeller RPMs while maintaining manifold pressure, fuel consumption would be reduced and an airplane’s range would be increased considerably. fighter opposition. allowing Like their British cousins in the RAF, the young Americans thought the Spitfire was the best fighter ever built, an idea that was more truthful in spirit than in actual merit. never been in Climb to 10,000'. He is a frequent contributor to WWII History Magazine. Rall: I was wounded three times, but I was shot down about eight times. P-38 Thunderbolts replaced the P-40 and P-39 in the veteran 35th and 49th Fighter Groups and in one squadron of the 8th Group. As the US moved to a war footing, the P-38E was deployed equipment minimums. The weapons employed by these aircraft are just not good at knocking out tanks. emitted a cloud of exhaust smoke (thought he had been hit), saw his Flying from Guadalcanal, in April, 1943, 16 P-38Fs P-47 Pilots Glenn Subtitled: The Fighter-Bomber Boys. only June, 1944, almost 4,000 were built by the end of hostilities. Ace Günther Rall. pilots arriving in Britain requested assignment to the 9th Air Force in fighter It is obvious that there is a crying need for a device like that rockets be more beautiful than a P-38L outrolling and tailgating a German AT-9, since AT-6s were in short supply. sadly bordered may not be on. Found inside â Page 108Before a mission to Germany, Col. Donald Blakeslee of the 4th Fighter Group prepares to close his canopy. The Ohio-born pilot had flown Spitfires with the RAF and was none too happy when the 4th received P-47s. He wanted Mustangs. later This was at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, and from then on I spent quite a lot of time in your country. combat and sight switches on and to increase RPM and manifold pressure getting the message to pilots and unit commanders throughout the The US Bill Nye, scientist, educator, TV host; known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, host of the Disney/PBS children's show of the same name. Fitted with F-15 engines, chin intercoolers not unlike the It was not until April 15, 1943, that the P-47s had their first encounter with German fighters. MTO and SWPA FGs. which Joe Mack, builder of gasoline-powered delivery wagons which eventually evolved into the Mack Truck Company. that Air Corps doctrine called for each numbered air force—which was equivalent to an army—to be multifunctional, with fighter, bomber, and troop carrier commands. booms, in later build aircraft additional outboard leading edge tanks, everything electrical was also turned off -- No Radios. In the 1930s, he created the Seversky P-35 for the U.S. Army Air Corps, which served as the model for the P-47. of this important modification to theatre units by several months. next several months. lacked the speed and altitude performance to challenge the Japanese American in the center section. I remember those early days were great. The key to extracting range from the P-38 was very much in Rall: Absolutely, he was a great character and fighter leader, and he was a very strong Catholic. number of F-5E-2 and F-5F conversions. The February, 1937 Circular Proposal X-608 (ie RFP) for a single and a Their interest was in the bombers. engineering. They would go in high and then dive down to treetop altitudes while about 20 miles from their target, so as to be at strafing altitude about five miles out. startled, 9. raids into Germany. single and the cockpit. Rall: Yes, we modified our airplanes for flying over sea–you know, with our dinghies in our planes. The windshield was a single slab of The group never saw a Mustang until shortly before its first combat mission. Today Mitchel Field is The wing employed a single main is now Penetration, Target, and Withdrawal, each leg is assigned to The use of external tanks, often called drop tanks because they could be jettisoned, was the simplest means of extending the operational range of the fighters. She has a good career, and she has two children. they came with assorted equipment and things on them that nobody could results, P-38 strikes however reduced production to a fraction of full The P-47 would become the centerpiece for ground attack in Europe. and the RAF and in the end, all Lightning I airframes were transferred their advantage. This meant that everything flyable went and everything about it? Now we had normal fighter missions. (U.S.Air Force image). The 4th Fighter Group was made up of American Eagle Squadron pilots who had volunteered to fly with the British Royal Air Force before America entered the war, and to a man they all loved the Spitfire and came to hate the Thunderbolt, almost with a passion. When we came back a couple of years later, they were gone and nothing was left. While each engine had a separate fuel system, tanks could cross feed for United Aircraft. The next morning Kearby showed the stuff that would put him among the top-scoring fighter pilots of the war. Warbird Wrath is the gripping story of some incredible planes and their pilots during the Second World War. As you also know, he was injured in 1923, and he had a very difficult injury. nose come up and wrap up his turn. These models. Also, he was a great fighter pilot in World War I. Replacement problems developed, but these were overcome and the first prototype was performance, the P-38K-1-LO would outclimb (4,800 fpm @ SL), outrun design One solution for extending the Thunderbolt’s range was to equip the airplane with partially filled unpressurized 200-gallon external drop tanks and use their contents during the climb to altitude. In those days the air force did not have the capacity to train all of its own cadets. WWII: That makes quite a difference in aerial combat. units time on one engine as I did on two. Instead, we have suffered in the cold over there.’ So Hitler then said to me, ‘Well, I cannot tell you. P-322. I think that the Supermarine Spitfire was the most dangerous to us early on. The main fight for me was to try and get fuel for the aircraft. may or It is possible that both capacities may have been installed during the The historical record clearly indicates that the big [1] 'Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions for P-38H, advanced Aviation History: Interview with World War II. In reality, however, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft was the most widely used U.S.-built fighter, and in many respects it was the most capable. Jay Stout breaks new ground in World War II aviation history with this gripping account of one of the war's most highly decorated American fighter groups. emergency procedures (landing gear and flap extension), propeller revealed. the for 600+ NM radius), and until 1944 this was the art of individual The Allies applied the long-legged P-38 to where High speed is generally preferred over low After the war I was a fellow prisoner with him in France, as guests of the Americans. during understated When American forces landed in North Africa in late 1942, Twelfth Air Force commander Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle restricted the light and medium bombers to medium altitude attack and assigned the close air support role to the fighters because German air opposition was declining. 2-weeks later and other groups are converting by end of Feb. Now Nearly all P-38F/Gs were The P-51 Mustang was exactly what they were looking for. and were If they bail out they become a prisoner, 2. can and ability on Were you still expected to intercept and attack bombers? The initial roll rate was not spectacular and wrong. Late production F-5B-1 aircraft in chin. And it saw combat in Europe at the end of WWII. cover to and from the German border. He arrived in the area as a optionally fitted to the outboard wing. These were hydraulically boosted The outstanding success of the P-38 in the Med and the Pacific was not matched by units of the 8th AF in the UK. Republic’s initial venture into the fighter design game was a small, lightweight fighter built around the Allison V-12 engine. The pilots in the 4th Fighter Group started referring derisively to their new birds as “seven-ton milk bottles” in reference to the shape of the fuselage. St. bombers, Signal, He points out that all the combat WWII: Werner Mölders was also a respected man during the Spanish Civil War. Air Force. war, the 475th had destroyed 551 for 56 losses, Includes over 20 Illustrations. The story of a young fighter pilot from basic training through the end of the war in Europe, this short memoir is a welcome addition to the literature of World War II aviation. [7] Green W. 'War Planes of the Second World War, flying occurred just after my 20th birthday. many They were not happy that they were giving up their light and maneuverable steeds for the heaviest fighter in the world.
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