osprey duel 11 – p-47 thunderbolt vs bf 109g-k europe 1943–45

8/15/2019 Osprey Duel 11 – P-47 Thunderbolt vs Bf 109G-K Europe 1943–45

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BOUT THE UTHOR NDILLUSTR TORSM RTIN BOWM N has written more thana dozen titl s on the Mighty Eighthover the past 20 years,includingseveralhighly successfulvolumes in Osprey sCombatAircraft series. Having interviewed many veterans overthe years, he isthe perfect authorto describe the experiences ofboth Axis and All ied pilots. He isbased in Norwich, UK Thisis hissecond Duel title.

Based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, CHRIS D VEY has illustrated morethan20 titl s for Osprey s Aircraft of the Aces, CombatAircraft and Aviation EliteUnits series since 1994. He isone of the last traditional airbrush rtists inthebusiness, and has become Osprey s rtist of choice for both US F fighters andR F subject matter. Chris completed thethree-way views and gun armamentartwork forthis t i tle.JIM L URIER is a native of New England and lives i n New Hampshire. He attendedPaier School of Artin Hamden, Connecticut, from 1974 78 and since hegraduatedwith honours, he hasbeen workingprofessionally inthe field ofFine Art and Illustration. He hasbeen commissioned to paint forthe US AirForce and has aviation paintings on permanent display at the Pentagon.Jimcompletedthe cockpit artwork forthis t i tle.G RETH HECTOR who is based in the Scott ish seaside town of Largs, isa digital rt ist of international standing as well a s a n aviation history enthusiast. Garethcompleted the batt lescene artwork and coverartwork.This isthe first book hehasworked on for Osprey Publishing.

P 4? THUN ER OLTBfl 9G KEurope 943 45

M RTIN OWM N


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d inGrear Brirain in 2008 byOsprey Publishing,nd House, Wesr Way Borley, Oxford, X OPH, UK

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Tony Holmesand gUllsighr artwork by Jim Laurier

artwork and barrlescenc by Gareth Hectorand armament scrap views by Chris Davey

layourby Myriam Bell Design, FrancebyAlanTharcherin ITCConduit and AdobeGaramond

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for this volume have been supplied from the archivesofMarrin Bowman, EddieJcrry ScuttS, John Weal and the late Roger Frceman.

P 47D cover artMaj Kenneth Gallup,commanding officer of the 353rdFG s350rh FS plungesheadlonginroa formarion of3 0+ B f ]09Gs f romI I I .l JG 5 3 a r ]3] 5hrsnorrh of rheGennan town of Soltau onAugust4, 1944. Gallup wasflying hisassigned P 47D 25 42 26634 ar rherime,having made ace in this machine four weeks earlier.His squadron was defendingsomc 320 B-17s sent [bomb the Hamburg oil refinery when i twas bouncedbythe Gusravs ofill./JG 53, rhelarrer arrackingrheThunderbolrs ara heighr of 30,000fr. The enrry in rhe353rd FG s combat diary for August4 notcd that atapproximately 1315hrs, ten miles nonh of Soltau. the350rh FS, led byMaj Gallup, reporredbeingbounced by30+Me I09s . The fiercefighrwhichensued brokerhesquadron up, with somepilotsfollowing enemy aircraftdown to thcdeck whileothcrs hunted in the cumuluscloud. Group leaderGallup claimed 2 Me ]09sdesrroyed,butone h ad t o b e reduced to a probable. Kenneth Gallupfinished his combat tour with ninevictories includingseven Bf 109s) to his credit, all of thcm claimcdwhilstflyingrhe P-47D. Artwork Careth HectmBf 109K-4cover arr n rhe final monrhs of the war in Europe. most aerialclashes belween P-47s a n d B f I09ssaw Defence of rheReich fighters cngaging Ninth Air Force Thunderboltsattacking ground targets. One suchclash took placeduring the early afternoon of February 19, 1945, when13 Bf 109K-4s of II IJ 53and eighrFw ]90Asfroman unknown eschwlltlerbounced 16 P-47D-30s of thc362nd FG shordy after rhe latter had strafed a railwaymarshalling yard at Westerburg, in southwestern Germany.Leadingrhe aircrafrfrom II.lJG 53 wasSraffelkapiranLeurnanr Gi.inrher Landt, who dived through theThunderbolr formarionfrom a heighr of 16,000fr.his return ro base at Kirrlach, Landt claimcd twO P-47sdesrroyed, rhusrakinghistally ro 18. He would lead] I lJ 53 rhrough ro wars end bywhich po inrhehad increased his score to 23 victories includingnincThunderbolts). According to official USAAF loss records,rhe 362nd FG sufferedno casualtieson February]9,1945, with the Thunderbolt pilots in turn claiming threeBf]09sand rhree Fw 190sdesroyed. The American pilorsalso reponed that the German fighterswerc aggrcssive,but seemcd inexperienced. rtwork by Gareth HectOJ

ONTENTSIntroduction 4 hronology 6Design and Development Technical Specifications 22The Strategic Situation 34The ombatants ombat 57

t tistics and nalysis 72 ftermath 76Further Reading 78Index 80


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INTRO U TIONFor much of 1942, the defense of the German Reich was entrusted predominantly toLuftwaffe units equipped with the Messerschmirr Bf 109. Pilors of rhis iconic fighter,along wirh thei r b rerhren f ly ing rhe equal ly deadly Focke-Wulf Fw 190 , wereinflicring increasing losses on rhe heavy bomber groups of rhe fledgling Eighrh AirForce as rheUnired Srares Army Air Force (USAAF) arrempted to make its presencefelt in the EuropeanTheater of Operarions ETO). On average, some 13.6 percentof rhe attacking force sent our to hit targers in wesrern Europe would fall vicrim torhe Jagdwaffe. Such losses could nor beallowed to cont inue, burat rhe rime neitherrhe Royal Air Force (RAF) or rhe USAAF had a fighrer in-thearer wirh sufficienrrange to prorecr rhe vulnerable B-17 Flying Forrresses and B-24 Liberators as rheyvenrured ever deeper into enemy rerritory.

In lare 1942, as a firsr srep in providingthe heavies wirh much-needed srraregicescorts, 200 Republic P-47C Thunderbolrs wereshipped to the UK.Alrhough somebelieved rhe Lockheed P-38 Lighrning to be the bertersrrategic fighrer rhanks to irstwin engines and longer range, demand for ir in other theaters meant rhar rheThunderbolr was rhe only modern fighrer available in sufficienr quantiry to serve asrhe principalinrerceptor for rhe Eighrh Air Forcein rhe shorr term.

Three groups in VIII Fighrer Command were initiallyequippedwith rheP-47, and theywere declared operariona in April 1943. These groups subsequencly endured some hardknocks at the handsofbatcle-seasonedGerman fighter unirs, and despire theirbesrefforrs,Thunderbolr pilors were inirially handicapped by poor racries and combar inexperience.

One of theP-47's primary tormentors in 1943 was rhe Bf 109G, which was rhemosr-produced version of rhe Messerschmitt fighrer. Havingseen four years of combarin European skies, the German inrerceptor had been continually modified in orderfor i t t o remain a v iab le f ighrer i n rhe face of growing Allied aerial opposirion.

The Jagdwaffe pilots equipped wirh Bf 109Gs were, in rhe main, as salry as rheaircraft rhey flew Their experience was broughr to bear rhroughour 1943 and inroearly 1944, as rhe P-47 groups snuggled to prorecr rhe longer-ranging heavybombersrhar werestill being broughr down in growing numbers by German fighrers.Borh rheThunderbolrand the Bf 109G represenred astounding advances in fighrerengine andarmamenr design, bur rhey could nor have been more different. The sleek,aesrherically pleasing Messerschmitt was half rhe weighr of rhe heavyweighr, barrelshaped, American fighrer. Indeed, rhe Thunderbolr was rhe largesr and heaviesrsingle-enginedsingle-sear propeller-driven fighrer everbuilr. It climbed likea homesickangel and dived for rhe deck l ike a rock. This was due to the mighty power of irsair-cooled, rurbosupercharged Prarr Whimey R-2800 Double Wasp engine. Pilorsdisparagingly dubbed ir rhe seven-ton milk bortle. Other sobriquers included theRepulsive Scatterbolr, Thunderjug and Thundermug.

But sheer sizewas nor to prove derrimenral to rheThunderbolr's operarional career.Indeed, P-47s flew 546,000 combar sorries from March 1943 toAugusr 1945, andonly 0.7 percent of rhem were lost in combar. Yer alrhough rhe Jug could our-diveanyorher fighrer ar low and medium a rirudes, ir could nor march rhe rare of climbor maneuverabiliry of rhe Bf 109G and larer Bf 109K varianr. Anorher shorrcomingwas insufficient range to permir deep penerrarion into Germany, and rhis was onlyrectified wirh rhe introducrion of progressivelylarger wing drop tanks.

P-47 pilors came to rypifY rhemighr of rheEighrh AirForce's fighrer srrengrh fromthe summer of 1943 rhrough to mid-1944, when rhe P-5 assumed the crown of kingof USAAF fighrers in rhe ETO. Nonerheless, while rhe Musrang became rhe finesrlong-range fighter of the war, moreThunderbolrs were builr rhan anyorher US fighrer.

Like rhe P-47, rhe Bf 109 was evenrually usurped as the besr pisron-enginedfighrer in Luftwaffe service, wirh rhe improved Fw 190 (radial and inline-enginedversions) being seen as rhe better aircrafr as rhe war progressed. However, rhroughsheer weighr of numbers, and hasry upgrades, rhe Bf 109G/K remained a deadlyopponent i n rhe hands of com bar vererans. Unforrunarely for rhe Jagdwaffe, rhelatter were in very shorr supply by rhe summer of 1944, as so many of irs xp rt nhad fallen rrying to repel rhe overwhelming Allied aerial onslaughr, at the hearr ofwhich was rhe Thunderbolr.

Sf 109G·6 White 17 taxiesout at Lille·Nordin theearlyspring of 1944.This aircraftwas assigned totheStaffelkapitan of 9./JG 26,Hauptmann Hans·GeorgDippel. An ace with 19victories [including twoThunderbolts)to hiscreditduring thecourseof 272missions with III JG 26, Dippwaskilled while performinglowspeedaerobaticsin thisveryaircraftwhenit stalledandcrashed at Lille·Nord onMay 8 1944


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ESIGN NEVELOPMENT

P 7 THUN ER OLTIn June 1940, the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) issued a requirementfor new lightweight f ighter designs, and among those manufac turers to respondwas the Republic Aviat ion Corporation of Farmingdale, New York. Although arelatively new company, Republic had inherited vastexperience in fighter designfrom its predecessor, the Seversky Aircraft Corporation. Republic s chief engineer,Alexander Kartveli, who like his former chief, Maj Alexander Seversky, was ofRussian extraction had previously designed the P 35 to meet a 1935 USAACfighter requirement.

Republic had also received contracts in September 1939 for limited productionof the P 43 Lancer. This aircraft had good high al t itude performance but itwas deemed to be inferior overa ll to European f ighter types such as the Spi fireand Bf 109E.

Karrveli, meanwhile, had a new fighter project on the drawing board called theAP I0 which was a relatively lightweight machine designed around aI 150hp AllisonV Ill 0-39 liquid-cooled V12 inl ine engine and armedwith two 0.50-in . machineguns in the nose. The Allison was more powerful and less expensive than theair-cooled Pratt Whitney R-1830 radial that had powered the Seversky pursuits, andin 1939 the Curtiss XP-40, with its mechanically supercharged Allison V lll0 19inline engine, had relegared the Seversky fighters to also-rans.

However, the estimated performance of the AP l 0, designated theXP-47 (armedwith rwo 0 .50- in . nose guns and fou r 0 .30- in . machine guns in the wings) andlightweightXP-47A (two nose guns only) by the USAAC, did not meet with officialapproval. Karrveli therefore abandoned his inline-engined designs so that he couldconcentrate all of Republic s resources on the development of a radically differentfighter aircraft.

The most powerful engine thenavailable was thehuge 2 000hp Pratt WhitneyR-2800-21 Double Wasp 18-cylinder two-row radial. Adapting this massive engineto power a fighter aircraft required a great feat of engineering, but Karrveli and histeam knew thatwithout it, their design could not possibly meet the performance andload-carrying demands required of the new fighter by the USAAC. A four-bladed12ftdiameter prope ller hadto be used to harness the power created bythe R-2800,and Karrveli produced an efficient supercharging duct system that offered the leastinterrupted airflow using the unorthodox method of designing this feature first andthen buildingup thefuselage around it.

The engine s huge turbosupercharger was stowed internally in the rear fuselage,withthe large intake for theair duct mounted beneath the powerplant, together withthe oil coolers. Exhaust gases were piped back separately from the engine to theturbosupercharger and expelled through a waste gate in the bottom of the fuselage,with ducted a ir fed to the centr ifugal impel le r and returned under pressure via anintercooler to theengine.

Kartveli designed a telescopic landing gear that was nine inches shorter whenretracted than when extended so as to make roomfor thewinginstallation of no fewerrhan eight 0.5-in. machineguns and their ammunition which when fired imposedimmense loads and stresses on the a ircraft that had to be taken into considerat ion.Last, bu t not least, thegreat quantities of fuel necessary to power the 12,0861b beastrequired internal tanks to hold 307 gallons of fuel.

P 47C Ds fromthe 62nd FS/56th formup in echelondown formationfor thebenefit the presshuddledina 8-24dur ing aphoto f l ighoverSuffolk onMay 25 1943


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The XP-47B Thunderbolt prototype was larger than a ll previous fighters by asubst an ti al margin. Indeed, i t was more than twice the weight of most of irscontemporaries, yet rhe powerful radial engine enabled ir to reach a maximum speedof 412mph shordy afrer making irs maiden flighr on May 6, 1941.

Across rheAdantic, rhe appearance of anorher radial-engined fighrer in rhe shapeof rhe BM W 801 powered Focke-WulfFw 190 over France jusr weeks earlier hadcaused a larm wirhin rhe ranks of rhe RAE In European rerms , rhe P 47 and rheFw 190were unusual in concepr, as rhe majoriry of fighrer rypes in frondine servicewere powered by liquid-cooled inline engines. However, rhe Fw 190 in parricularourperformed all exisr ing rypes by a wide margin , wirh irs compacr radial enginerendering rhe Focke-Wulf especially effecrive ar low airirude - a rra ir rhar rhe P-47would also exhibir onceir reached rhe ETO larer in rhe war.

While rhe Fw 190 cememed irs repuration in combar borh on rhe Channel Fromand in rhe easr againsr rhe Soviet air force in rhe early momhs of 1942, producriondifficulries and numerous rechnical problems hindered rhe developmem of rheThunderbolr. The firsr of 171 P-47Bs lefr rhe Republic plam in March of rhar year,bur irwas nor umil June rhar rhe 56rh Fighrer Group FG was issued wirh rhe firsrexamples to reach a frondine unir.

From Seprember 1942 producrion swirched to rhe P 47C some 602 examplesevenrually being builL This variam diffe red from rhe B-model in having a sl ighdylengrhened by 10.5in. forward fuselage, a new engine mouming changes to rherudder and elevator balancesysrem to improve irs flighr characrerisrics and rhe abiliryto carry a 200-gal ventral drop-rank. The laner permined unirs equipped wirh rheaircrafr in England rhe56rh and78rh FGshad arrived from rheUS inJanuary 1943,joining rhe 4rh FG, which would swap irs Spirf ire VBs for P-47Cs fly deeppenerrarions into Occupied Europe from July 1943.

The P-47C-1 hadfixed deflecrion plares fined between rhe oil coolershunersandrhe exhausr wasre gares, improvemenrs made to irs elecrrical sysrem, undercarriageand brakes, and rhe addirion of a hydraulic flap equalizer. The P-47C-2 differedfrom

P-470-2was photographed

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1944. Thisaircraftwasof Bf 109

Maj Leroy A Schreiberclaimed 12 victories

time hewasshot downflak on April 15

crediteddestruction of eight5.5 of which were

this very P 47

ned to leading P 47Francis GabbyP-470-25 42-26418

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l victoriesto 2B [11 ofe were Bf 109s] Gabreski

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the C- l onlyby being fittedwith a metal-covered rudder and elevators. early-buildP-47s left the factory equippedwith the Mk VIII reflectorgunsight, as well as a simplering and postsight, as standard.The K-14 gyroscopic gunsight waseventuallyfactoryinstalled in Thunderbolts from late 1944, although many P-47s i n t he ETO had hadthe sight fitted through base- or depot-level modification.

The factory-installed rearview mirror above thewindscreen framing was generallyconsidered inadequate f or a pilot to see behind him in combat, so P-47 units triedvarious mirror arrangements. It was not uncommon for some of thef ighters to havethree mirrors, with additional ones fitted to the sides of the windscreen framing.Others sported two large Spitfire-type mirrors fixed to t he t op of the windscreenframing. Plexiglas bubble panels originally supplied for better observation onbombers were also f it t ed in place of the side Plexiglas of the P 4Ts canopy. Suchmodifications were rendered superfluous with the development of the bubbletopP-47D in t he spring of 1944, however.

The P-47D-l , of which 114 were bui lt f rom December 1942, was t he f ir stThunderboltmodel producedat thecompany s newEvansville, Indiana, plant. It differedlittle from previous models except for the standardization of water injection into theintake manifold to producemore prolongedcombat power of2,300hp at 27,000ft. Otherchanges included additional armor protect ion for the pilot , fuel and oxygen systemupgrades and the exhaust ducting was again modified for improved reliability andperformance. The 114 P-47D-RAs from Evansville were identical to Farmingdale-builtP-47C-2-REs. P-47D-l-REs differed from earlier versions in havingan additional pairof flaps on the engine cowl to vastly improve cooling of the R-2800-21 engine, whichsuffered from cylinder head overheating.

Paddle-bladed airscrews of increaseddiameterwerefitted to the D-models as standard,and these helped absorb the full waremergency power of the R-2800-59 engine. Oneof the first pilotsto fly a P-47D fittedwith broader chord propellersin the ETO - in ear ly1944- was 1Lt Robert S. Johnson of the 56th FG s61st FS, who would eventuallyclaim27 kills (nineof whichwere Bf 1 9s intheThunderbolt. He provided details of his firstflightin a modified P-47 in his postwarautobiography, THUNDERBOLT

New Year s Day and what a presenr we received. We H ew r o a mainrenance depot atWarrisham ro have theThunderbolts modified. Our engineeringofficers were making aterrific fuss over a new propeller designed especially for theThunderbolt. They insistedthat the fat paddle blades of the new propellers would bring a tremendous boost inperformance, as the i ~ l r e s e d blade area would permit the props ro make thegreatest use.of theThunderbolt s 2,000 horsepower. We listened ro their enrhusiastic ramblings withmore than a grain of sal t - and never were we more mistaken. What a difference theblades made when 1took my modified fighter u p f or the first time. It quivered and beganto shake badly as if panially stalled. The next thing I knew I was in dive and wowI hauled back on the stick, afraid that the engine would tear right out of the mounrs.WhatI didn t realize was that the new propeller was making all the difference. At 8,000ftI pulled theThunderbolr inro a steep climb. Normally, she d zoom quickly and thenslow down, rapidly approachinga stall. Bur now theJugsoated up likeshe dgone crazy.

Another Thunderbolt was in the air and I pulled alongside, signaling for a climb. I leftthatother fighter behind as ifhe were standing still.The Jugsrood on her tail and howledher way inro the sky. Never again did an Fw 190 or Me 109 outcl imb me in theThunderbolt.The new propeller was wonh 1,000hp, and then some.

According to Johnson s CO , the legendary 17.75-kill ace Col Hube r t HubZemke, the wide blade propeller took a much bigger bite of air and improved thefighter s rate of cl imb at low altitudes. The props, when combined with the newlyintroduced water injection equipment which boosted the engine s performance forshort intervals,gave the P-47D a dramatic improvement in its rate of climb by around600ft perminute. We could now top 30,000ft in about 13 minutes, instead of20,Zemke recalled.

The P-47D s top speed of 433mph at 30 ,000ftand its formidable performance inthe divemade it ideal for flying top coverfor high-flying B-17and B-24 heavy bomberformations that eventually reached as far as Berlin from bases in eastern England.

For the f igh ter-bomber role, the aircraft s universal wing and underbellymountings permitted various combinations of up t o 2 ,5001b of bombs, two150-gal tanks andone 75-gal tank and, later, rocket projectiles in a tube cluster tobe carried. A ful l bombload meant that ammunition for each of the six or eight0.50-in. machine gunswas reduced from 425 to 267 rounds, but the Thunderbolt sfirepower remained undiminished.

During strafingattacks, the weight of the bombload and drop-tanks added to thatof theaircraft resulted in a terrific increase in speed when the fighter wentinto a dive.It could cause a surge or vapor lock in thefuel l ines , as the fuel pump was unable tomeet the g loads imposed, and a numberofP-47s sufferedengine failure over enemy

P 47D 28 · 9566 of the78th at Duxfordin D·Daymarkings inlate June1944


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M from the th FGof its panelsand

display atBoxted on 1945 as part of theForces Day which

gatestopublic.Hundreds

al boysqueued up toapeekinto thecockpit of

parked outsided s NO.1 hangar.

territory as a result of this problem. The P-47D-15 was the firstThunderbolt builtwith underwing pylons and fuel system plumbing within t he w ings to a ll ow theaircraft to fly with expendable fuel tanks. Internal fuel capacitywas also boosted to375-gal and the overall bombload increased to 2,500Ib. Finally, the canopywas madecompletely jettisonable too.

The razorback P-47D was buil t in numerous sub-variants, ranging from theD- l up to the D-24, and these diffe redfrom one another in respect to their enginespecification and wing weapon/plumbingfit.

The firstmajorstructural changeto theThunderbolt camewith productionof theP-47D-25 in late 1943. InJuly of that year, the last D-5 bui l twas given a cut-downrear fuselageand a clear-view bubblecanopysourcedfrom a British HawkerTyphoon.Designated theXP-47K, theaircraft proved to be so popularwith test pilots that thenew blown Perspex canopy was immediately introduced to the Thundetboltproduction line startingwith the P-47D-25-REat Farmingdaleand the P-47D-26-RAat Evansville.

Prior to thephasingout of production of the razorback Thunderbolt, some3,962D-models hadbeenbuiltat Farmingdaleand 1,461 atEvansville. Fromthe Dash25onwards, the cwo plants produced 2,547 and 4,632 D-models. By the t ime the firstof these airctaft - unofficially dubbed Superbolts by frontline pilots - reached theETO, aircraftwere being delivered to the USAAF unpainted. The 56thFG receivedits first P-47D-25s in May 1944, and Col Hub Zemkewas an earlyrecipient as herecalled in his autobiography The U - ighterLeader

The one-piece clear cockpit canopy provided the pilot with excellent all round visibilityand helped cut down the fatigue from neck twisting The onlydrawback was that the rearfuselage cockpit fairing had been removed, affecting the directional stability of theaircraft The other welcome changewith theSuperbolt was an enlarged internal fuel tankproviding an extra 65 gallons This allowed us to take the maximum advantage of ourexternal tanks for we could push much farther into Germany and still be able to returnon internally held fuel

By the time production of the P-47D ended with theD-40-RA, which featured adorsal fin (first installed as a retrofit in the fie ld on the D-27 to cure instabilityproblems that had always afflicted the bubbletop Thunderbolt, some 12,602D-models had been bui l t - the largest product ion quant ity of one sub-type of anyUS fighter ever produced.

The next P-47 variant to attain series production was the high-speed M-model,hastily built tocombat the VI flying bomb threat in thesummerof 1944.The aircraftwas essentially a late-build P-47D fittedwith a more powerful R-2800-57(C) enginethatboastedan upratedCH-5 turbosupercharger, the latter having been trialed in theXP-47J- this machineattained 504mph during flight tests in 1944.The P-47M wasalso fitted with airbrakes in thewings to help thepilotslow thebigfighter down whentrying to achieve a firing position behind a slower enemy aircraft.

Just 130 sprint P-47Ms were built, and thesewere used exclusively by the 56thFG f rom the l at e summer of 1944. Abnormally low cylinder head temperatures,breakdown of theignition systemsat high altitudeand other engine problems doggedP-47M operations, and thegroup enjoyed only moderate success with the aircraft.

The f inal variant to a t ta in product ion was the P-47N, which was significantlydifferent to the ubiquitous D-model. The aircraft was fitted with a new long-spanwing tailored to cope with the much-increasedweight of the Thunderbolt - it alsocontained fuel cells for thevery first time. The wing, which was 18in. greater in spanand boasted 22 sq. f t of extra area, incorporated larger ailerons and square-cut tipsthat signif icant ly increased the rol l rate. The fighter s undercarriage was alsos tr engthened to mee t t he r ise in weigh t by 750lb to 21,200Ib. Large orders wereplaced for the aircraft, but Farmingdale had completed just 1,667 airframes andEvansville 149 when contracts were canceled in December 1945 in the wake ofVE- and VJ-Days.

It was intended thatthe P-47N would equip the 56th FG, but the war ended beforethe Wolf Pack could get theminto combat, and the type was used exclusively in thePacific theater, where its extended range made the aircraft an excellent strategicbomber escort.

P-47D/Ns remained in USAF service for a number of years after the war, passingtoAir National Guard units before being phased out of service in 1955. By then allsurvivingThunderbolts had been redesignated F-47D/Ns.

Altogether, 15,683 examples of the Thunderbolt were built. Although not as higha number as for the Bf 109, Spitfire or Yak series of fighters, this figure makes theP-47 themost-producedAmerican fighter of all time.


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OPPOSITEThisSf 109G-5/ASwasassigned to leadingP-47 killerHauptmannTheodorWeissenberger whilst hewas GruppenkommandeurofI /JG 5 basedat Gardelegen,inGermany, inJune 1944.Wearingatextbookset ofKommandeur s markingsin the form of doubleblackchevrons on either side ofitsfuselage,this wasreportedlytheaircraft thatnewlyappointed Weissenberger flewtothe Normandyfront shortlyafter theAllied invasionofJune 6 1944. He used this Gustav to downthe majorityof the 13 P-47s he claimeddestroyedin June July 1944.

Sf 9Undoubtedly the most famous German fighter ever, and buil t in greater numbersrhan any other aircraftexcept for the Ilyushin 11 2 the Messerschmitt Bf 109 foughtin theSpanish Civil Warand World WarII. The aircraft s origins can be traced backto the fledgling Luftwaff s desire to modernizeits fighter force in theearly 1930s.

On July 6, 1933 the Reichsluftfahrrministerium (RLM), headed by HermannGoring, issued Tactical Requirements for Fighter Aircraft (Land). This documentstated that the Luftwaffe neededa single-seat daytime fighter armed with two fixedmachine guns (1,000 rounds) or one fixed cannon (100 rounds). It had to havearadio for air-to-air and air to ground communication as well as a safety harness,oxygen system, parachute, and heating for the pilot. Th e fighter had t o beabl e tomaintain a speed of 400km/h for up to 20 minutes at 6 000m possess at least anhour s flighr duration and take no longer than 17 minutes to reach this height. I tsultimate ceilingwas to be 10,000m.

From a handling perspective, the aircraft had to becapable of diving and turningwithout losingalritude, and be easily recoverable from a spin. Th e fighter alsohad tobeoperablefrom theaverage German airfield, which was 400m x 400m insize, byanaverage frontline pilot. It would also be required to fly in c loud and fog, and toperform group (up to nine aircraft) take-offs and landings. Finally, the design mustbesmall enough to enable it to be transported byrail.

Having already built fighters for the Luftwaffe, Arado, Heinkel and Focke-Wulfwere seen as front runners to win this lucrative conttact, and Messerschmitt, whichhad no experience in designing fighters, was seen as the rank oursider. The companyhad a long his tory of aircraft construction however, having taken over the UdetFlugzeugbau in July 1926. Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG had merged with fellowaircraft manufacturer MesserschmittFlugzeugbau at this time, and companyfounder,Dipl.-Ing. WillyMesserschmitt, assumed design control within the new enterprise.

Its series of fas t sports a ircraft from the late 1920s and early 1930s, boastinglow-set, cantilever wings, gave the RLM the confidence to instruct Messerschmitt tobuild a four-seater touringaircraft tocompete in the 1934 European FlyingContest.The M 23 des ign by Willy Messerschmit t h ad won this prestigious internationalcompetition in 1929 and 1930, and the newaircraft produced by the companywaseventually designated the Bf 108.

Design work the Bf 109 commenced insecret inMarch 1934 at theBayerischeFlugzeugwerke AG facility o Augsburg Haunstetten in Bavaria. Many f)aturesembodied in the Bf 108 would find their way into the Bf 109 prototype, includingflush-riveted stressed-skin consttuction, cantilevered monoplane wings, equipped withHandley Page slots along the leading edges, and a narrow track undercarriageattached to rhe fuselage and retracting outwards into wells forward of the main spar.

Buoyed by the success of the Bf 108, Messerschmitt pressed on with the Bf 109,which incorporated all of the features previously mentioned. Aside from the wing slots, the aircraftalso had trailingedge flaps, and thetwo combinedwith theflyingsurfaces small surface area (made possible by the growing power of aero engines) to

. 9ft 7tn.


11/43

ultimately give the Bf 109 unmatched maneuverability. The fuselage itselfwas madeof light metal as a monocoque structure of roughly oval section, constructed in twOhalves and joined along the centerline.

Right from thestart, Messerschmitt had planned that the lightweight Bf 109wouldbe powered by one of the new generation inverted-Vee 12-cylinder engines underdevelopment by Junkers and Daimler-Benz. Th e former s 680hp J umo 210 wasultimately selected because it was at a more advanced stage in its development thanthe 960hp DB 600Aa. As it transpired, delivery of theJunkers powerplant was delayedto t he point where the first prototype Bf 109 V had to be f it te d with a 695hpRolls-Royce Kestrel VI engine.

Construction of the of the VI was completed byearly May 1935, and following aseries of taxiing trials, on the 28th of that month Messerschmitt s senior test pilot,Hans-Dietrich Bubi Knoetzsch, made the fighter s first flight from AugsburgHaunstetten a irfield. Fol lowing ini tial fac tory trials, the a ircraft was sent to theRechlin-based rprobungsste e (testing center) for service evaluation. The latter soonproved that theBf 109 was much fasterand more maneuverablethan its primary rivalfor the fighter contract, Heinkel s He 112 V (which was also Kestrel-powered).

The Jumo OA-powered Bf 109 V2tookto the skies in October 1935 andjoinedthe trials program three months later. This aircraft also boasted two 7.9mm MG 17machine guns in the fuselage upper decking. The V3, which had provision for anengine-mounted 20mm MG FF/M cannon firing through thepropeller hub, flewforthe first t ime inJune 1936, and a short while later both Messerschmitt and Heinkelreceived contracts from the RLM to build ten pre-production aircraft.

In the autumn of that year the official trials culminated in a series of tests atTravemiinde, where the Bf 109 p roved it s super io ri ty in a memorab le f li gh tdemonstration that included tailslides, flick rolls, 21 turn spins, t ight turns andterminal dives. Being faster in level speed and in the c limb than theHe 112,and easilyable tooutdive theHeinkel, the Bf 109 could also perform much tighter turns thanksto its leading-edge slots. From rankoutsider, Messerschmitt had become the obviouschoice for thecontract, and the Bf 109 was duly announced the competition winner.

Production Bf 109Bs entered service in Germany in February 1937, these earlyaircraft being built at Messerschmitt s Augsburg-Haunstetten plant. t soon becameclear that a largerfactory would be required, however,so a newsiteat Regensburg wasduly developed, and production of the Bertha was duly transferred there. Thecompany s desigp offices remained at Augsburg.In June 1937, t he Bf 109 V10 flew for the first t ime with the promising 960hpDaimler-Benz DB 600Aa fitted. This new powerplant was much longerand heaviert han the Jumo and in order to offse t the shif t in the a ircraft s center of gravity,Messerschmitt redesigned the fighte s coolingsystem. A shallow radiator bath wasfitted under thenose and two radiators positioned beneath the wings. A three-bladedVDM propeller also replaced the two-blade VDM Hamilton airscrew fitted to theJumo-powered Bf 109B. Due to the fighter s increased all up weight, its fuselage andundercarriage were also strengthened. This aircraft would effectively serve as theprototype for the Bf 109E.

In theearly spring of 1938 deliveries of the Bf 109C, fitted with the 730hp fuelinjected Jumo 210Ga engine and wing-mounted machine guns, commenced, withthe first aircraft being issued to I IJ 132. Only 58 were bui l t prior to product ionswitching to the four-gun Bf 109D, which was powered by the 680hp carburetoredJumo 210Da engine. Some 657 were built, with aircraft also being constructed byErla Maschinenwerk in Leipzig and Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau of Bremen.

By September 19, 1938, the Luftwaffe had 583 Bf 109B/CiDson strength, butlimited availability of the Daimler-Benzengine stymied plans for the rapid fielding ofthe Bf 109E. This was becausebomber production had priority over fighter procurementin thelate 1930s, and most DB 600 production was allocated to the He 111.

Finally, in 1938, the focus shifted to fighter production, and by then the muchdelayed DB 60 1Awas at last reaching maturity,so Daimler-Benzswitched its efforrsto perfecting this powerplant. This new engine was verysimilar to the DB 600, butcrucially it featured fuel injection rather than a float carburetor.This meant that theBf 109could perform negative G flight, and also increased the fighter s range throughimproved fuel economy.

With its DB 601A engine rated a t 1 175hp for take-off, the Bf 109E-1 finallyentered series production in December 1938, the new aircraft boasting unmatchedtake-offand climbperformance. The higher wing loading of the Emil increased thefighter s turning circleand stall speed, bur it was still very much a pilot s aircraft.

L ike the D model before i t, t he E-1 s armament consisted of two 7.92mmMG 17s in the upper fuselage decking and two more machine guns in the wings. Thelatter had 500 rounds pergun, and thefuselage guns had 1,000 rounds each.

In early 1939 the first Bf 109E-3s began rolling off the production line, theseaircraft having their wing MG 17s replaced with MG FF 20mm cannon as initiallytrialed in the Bf 109C 3. Each weapon only had 60 rounds, but their destructivepunch was unrivaled. Once in frontline service, the E-3 Kanonenmaschine wasrated as the best early generation Messerschmitt by those that flew it, with theaircraftenjoying a greater margin of superiority over its rivals than anyother Bf 109 variant.

Amongthe firstBf 109B-2stoenterfrontlineservice inthespringo 1937were theseaircraftof JG 132 based atJuterbog-Oamm. This unitwouldsubsequently becomeJagdgeschwader 2 Richthofen in May 1939.


12/43

III /JG 2 Gruppe pi ssNCO withh is

on theexhaustshroudvisesthe return of

109F-2 in to i ts smal ldenhangarat 5t Pol

nthesummer of 1941.

Between January 1 and Seprember 1 1939, 1,091 Emils were delivered. Fourengine plants had been esrablished ro allow producrion of rhe DB 601 ro keep apacewirh airframe construcrion, with Bf 109s being built by Messerschmitt, Erla andFieseler in Germany, and by the Wiener-Neustadt Flugzeugbau in Austria.

By the time theWehrmachtadvancedeast inro Poland on September 1 1939, nofewer than 28 Gruppen were operating Bf 109B/C/D/Es. The Messerschmittfighterwas now well placed ro dominate the skies over Europe.

In the autumn of 1940, Messerschmitt's E-model replacement in the form of theBf 109F-1 began rolling offproduction lines in Germany. This aircrafr differed fromits predecessor primarilyin itsweaponry.The F-model saw the wing guns deleted infavor of a singleengine-mounted cannon firing through the propeller hub, in additionro twO uppercowling-mounted machine guns. Various hydraulicand cooling systemimprovements were also incorporated, as was additional pilot and fuel tank armor.Externally, the fighter was also more streamlined around the nose, and lengrhenedoverall. The tail section was tidied up aerodynamically, with the deletion of thehorizontal stabilizer bracing. Finally, the F-model's wing was completely redesigned,with thewingtips extended and rounded.

Production of the Bf 109F numbered 3,300+ airframes built over four sub-variants F-1 to F-4),and ranfrom September 1940through to May 1942. Like the Emil, the Friedrich performed both fighter and fighter-bomber missions in eastern and westernEurope, theMediterraneanand in North Mrica.

The F-modelwas replaced on the production line in June 1942 bytheBf 109G, whichcombinedthe Friedrich's refinedairframewith the larger heavierand considerablymorepowerful 1,475hp DB 605 engine. Cockpit pressurization was also introduced for thefirst time with the G-1, although most latersub-variantslacked this feature. Produced instaggering numbers from mid-1942 through to war's end, some 24,000+ Bf 109Gswereconstructed in total including an overwhelming 14,212 in 1944alone.

Numerous modifications to the basic G-1 were introduced either in the facrory as Umrust-Bausdtze facrory conversion sets) or in the f ield Rustsdtze , and theseincluded the provision for extra armament, additional radios, introduction of awooden tailplane, the fitting of a lengthened tailwheel and the installation of theMW 5 water/methanol-boosted DB 6 5D engine. In an attempt tostandardize theequipment of the frontline force, Messerschmitt began production of the Bf 109G-6inFebruary 1943,and thismodel included many of these previously ad hoc additions.The G-6 would ultimately prove to bethe most importantvariantof Messerschmitt'sfamous fighter, with 12,000+ examples being built - more than a third of the overallproduction run for the Bf 109.

Unfortunately, the continual addition of weighty items like underwing cannongondolas, rocket tubes and larger engines ro the once slight airframe of the Bf 109eliminated much of the fighter's once legendary maneuverability, and instead servedro emphasize the aircraft's poor slow-speed performance, tricky lateral control andground handling.

Yet in thelate-war Bf 109G-10 model, fittedwith theErla Haube bulgedcanopy,tall wooden tailplane and DB 6 5D engine, Messerschmitt had a fighter capable ofachieving speeds up to 429mph at 24,280ft. Confusingly, although theG-10 appearednumerically after the lightened G 1 4 in thesub-variantlistforthe Bf 109G, itwas infact thelastproduction G-model ro see service

The last main operational version of the Bf 109 was the K-ser ies, which wasdeveloped directly from the Gustav. The K-4 was the only sub-var iant ro seefrontline service, and this aircraf t boasted a DB 6 5DM engine, wooden tailconstruction and single cannon and twin machinegun armament.

All major Bf 109G/K variants thatfought with theP-47 in 1943 45 are describedin detailin thenext chapter.

Bf 109G-6sof III /JG 3 arerefueled at Leipheimbetweenmissions flownin defense ofBerlinin earlyMarch1944.These Jagdwaffe fighters hadjust clashedwith P-47sandP-51sin aseries of ferociousbattlesover the Germancapital the U5AAF fightersattempting to protect EighthAirForce B-17sthat had beensent tobombBerl in indayl igh t fo rthevery f i rsttime.


13/43

TECHNIC LSPECIFIC TIONSP 47 THUNDER OLTP· 8Initial production version which differed from the protOtype only in having a slidinghoodin place of the hingedcanopy, an SCR-774 radio witha redesigned forward-slantedaerial), metal-skinned control surfaces, production 2 000hp R-2800-21 engine andGeneral ElectricA-13 turbosupercharger. The addition of internaloperational equipmentincreased the aircraft s gross weight by 1,2701b to 13,356Ib, although maximum levelspeed was increased to 429mph. The first five B-models built became pre-productiontestand evaluation aircraft. A tOtal of 171 P-47Bs completed in tOtal all at Farmingdale.

P·47CSimilar to theP-47B, theP-47C-1-RE REwas factorydesignation for Farmingdale)was f it te d w it h a 2 300hp R 2800 59 that featured an A-17 turbosuperchargerregulator. Aircraftalso had a slightly longer forward fuselage, whichhad been extended8in. at thefirewall increasingoverall lengthfrom 35ft to 36ft 1in.) to create a bettercenter of gravity and make the engineaccessories compartment roomier and easier toworkin.This variant also had the provision for a belly-mounted bomb o r d r op t an k.The C-2-RE featured a metal-covered rudder and elevators, as well as a revised oxygen

system. The follow-on C 5 RE h ad a n u pr i gh t r ad io m ast i n p la ce of the forwardsloped example previously fitted. The first P 47C was completed on September 14,1 94 2, a nd a t ot al of 602 were eventually built.

P·47D·1 THROUGH D·1The D-1-RA 114 built) was thefirst P-47 model to emerge from the new Evansville,Indiana, plant from December 1942- RA was the Evansville factOry designation. It wasessentiallysimilar to theC-5. The D-1-RE hadadditional cowling flaps improved pilotarmorand a new radio mast all 105were built at Farmingdale. The D-2-RA 200built)was similar to the D-1-RE, as was the D-2-RE 445 built), which also featured minorupgrades to the fuel system. Some 100 D-3-RAs were then constructed, and these weresimilar to the D-2-RE. The D-5-RE 300 built) was based on the D-1-RE, but withmodifications to tlle aircraft s fuel and hydraulic systems. The D-4-RA 200 built) wassimilar to theD-5-RE. The D-6-RE 350 built) was effectively a D-1-RE with two-pointshackles for a bombor adrop tank under the fuselage. The D-10-RE 250 built) was alsobased on tlle D-1-RE, but with further improvements to the hydraulic system and thef1tment of a General Electric C-23 turbosupercharger.

P·47D·11 THROUGH D·23The D 11 RE 400 built) was fitted with a 2 300hp R-2800-63 engine that featuredwater injection, as was the identical Evansville D-11-RA 250 built). The D 15 RE

496built) introducedsingle stations for a bombor drop tank beneatheach wing panelandan increased payload that meant itcould carry twO 1,0001b or three 500lb bombs.The D-15-RA 57 built) was identical in specification. The D 16 RE 254 built) wasbased on the D ll RE but i t c o u ld r un o n 1 0 0/ 1 50 o ct an e fuel just29 D-16-RAs

Aflight of61st FS/56th FGP-47Bs is led overLong IslandSound inSeptember 1942bythe group s O MajHubertZemke. Oenotingitsassignment tothe latter pilot41-6002 hasthreestripes[insquadron colorsof red yellowand blue]encirclingthe rearfuselage and a nosecowlingbandalso similarly decorated.Thisaircraftwasdamaged inan accident on October 101942 andafter beingrepaired it went to WestoverField Massachusettson November20. Itwaseventuallywritten off in a naccident on January 4 1943.


14/43

distinctively markednecowlingpanelsof aFS/78th FG P-470-22back are carefully

itioned in front of theer at Ouxfordin theearlyg of 1944.Thisaircraft

one ofthe firstnaturalThunderboltsto arriveETO fromAmerica.It

nedto Capt Quincen, whoclaimed 12.333l kills, including seven

109s,priorto beingshotflak on September 6,

and executed by anofficer.

P 47 25 T ROU 4The D-25-RE 385 built was me first P-47 fittedwim a teardrop canopyand cut-downrear fuselage The aircrafr also had an increased supplyof oxygenand someof its fuselagelocated systemsrepositioned ro allow its fuel capaciry ro be increased ro 270 US gallons.The D-26-RA 250 built was similar ro the D-25-RE, as was the D-27-RE 615 builtbar minor fuel system modifications. The D-28-RA 1,028 builr was based on theD-26-RA. The D-28-RE 750 builr was similar ro me D-25-RE, almough itwas finedwim a Curtiss Electric 13ft paddle-blade propeller. The D-30-RE 800 built was alsobased on theD-25-RE,but ithad five stubs beneam each wing for High-Velociry AerialRockets - the D-30-RA 1,800 built was built ro the same specification. The finalD-model sub-variants ro bebuiltwere me D-35-RA and D-40-RA, of which 665 wereconstructed in 1944--45.These versions featured a dorsal fin for increased stabiliry.

of a similar specification were built. The D 2 RE 250 built was powered by a2,300hp R-2800-59, and it also had a raised tailwheel strut, General Electric ignitionharness and other minor airframe modifications- Evansville built 187 D-20-RAs roan identical specification. Delivered in natural metal finish, the D-21-RE 216 builthad manual water injection control for the engine, but was otherwise similar to theD-11-RE. The D-21-RA 224 builr was essentially the same as the D-21-RE. TheD-22-RE 850 built featured the 13ft HamilronStandard paddle-bladepropellerandan A-23 turbosupercharger regulator. Featuring the same engine modification, theD-23-RA 889 built was fined with a Curtiss Electric 13ftpaddle-blade propeller.

P 7GBasically similar to theC-1-RE, 20 P-47G-CUs were thefirstThunderbolts built onthe new Curtiss-Wright line at Buffalo, New York, in late 1942. These were fittedwith R-2800-21 engines and Curtiss Electric 12f t 2in. propellers. Subsequentproduction covered the G 1 CU 40 built ,similarto meC-5-RE, G-5-CU 60 built ,similar to the D-1-RE, G 1 CU 80 built , s imilar to the D-6-RE, and G 15 CU 154built , similar to theD-11-RE. Most wereassigned to training unirs in the USA,where they were f inedwith the mounting points for a blind-flying hood inside thecanopy. They were designated as TP 47Gs when used by training units.

P-470·2844·19790 hasitsR2800 fettled inthe autumnsunshineoutsidethe NO.2hangarat 80xted on October11 1944.Thisaircraft wasassigned to Capt MichaelJackson of the 56th FG s 62ndFS theeight-kill ace scoringfive ofhis victories (includingtwo 8f 109s)in 44-19790.

versions of the P·47. Thunderboltre armedwith ei thersixor eight

M-2 O.50-in. machineSRlit three orfour Rer wing.

wing magazinescontainedrounds Rer gun, althoughthiSer had to be reduced to 267.

Rer gun from the ~ 4 7 D 1 5if the fighter wascarrying

aff ixedto i tsnewlyunderwing p ylons-


15/43


16/43

Power ed by a DB 605A w it h GM 1 or a DB 605AS incorporating the largersupercharger of the DB 603 designated the G-5/AS, and with no beulen), less than500G-5s were built. Thesewere the last pressurized Bf 109s constructedfor frontlineuse, as cockpit pressurization was found to be of dubious operational value. Onceagain, with the G-5 the Rlistsatze sets made available were identical in content anddesignation to those fitted to previous G-series aircraft, with the addition of the R2 reconnaissance), R5 underwing cannon pods) and R7 extra navigation aids).Umrlist-Bauzatze U modifications, often combined with Rlistsatze sets, were alsoproduced,with theU2 being GM 1 power-boosted and featuring a wooden tailplaneof increased height and revised fin-and-rudder assembly), and the U4 having aMK 108 30mm cannon replacing the hub-firingMG 151. Finally, the Bf 109G-5/ASwas powered by the DB 605AS engine, and its supercharger was housed within abulged fairing on theport side of theforward fuselage- thisvariant hadno beulen asa result. Unlike theG-5, the Bf 109G-6 was built in staggering numbers, with morethan 12,000 examples rolling off production lines between the late autumn of 1942and June 1944. Built as the first standard model Gustav that was intended fromthe outset to accept any of the ever-increasing number of Rlistsatze sets emanatingfromMesserschmitt, the G-6 was also capableof being powered by severalversions ofthe DB 605A- the upr ated DB 605D was also made available from January 1944.The G-6 was also the first Gustav variant capable of carrying the engine-mountedMK 108 cannon. However, production of this awesome 30mm weapon was delayedto theextent that a considerable number of G-6s were built with the MG 151 fittedinstead. As with the G-5, the Rlistsatze sets available for the G-6 followed theR designation pattern put in place with the G-l/2. The only real changes unique to

this variant centered on thelate 1944) R2 set, which covered thefitment of a singleWGr mortar l aunche r benea th each wing. Numerous Umrlist-Bauzatzemodificationswere to feature, however, startingwith the U2 that saw the fighter fittedwith a GM I-boosted engine and a wooden tailplane similar to that used by theG-5/U2. The U4 saw the MK 108 replace the MG 151, whilethe U5 hadunderwingMK 108sinstead of the 20mm cannon. The U6 was similarly armed, but alsohad theengine-mounted MG 151 replaced with a MK 108 too. Various G-6s had clearvisionEda Haube hoods f it ted in the f ield in place of the conventional framed canopy.Finally, the Bf 109G-6/AS was powered by the DB 605AS engine, and l ike theG-5/AS, it had a supercharger bulge rather than MG 131 beulen.

Sf 9G·8Produced in small numbers, theG-8 was a specialized tactical photo-reconnaissanceversion of the G-6 that was built to support ground forces. Thisvariant appeared inAugust 1943, and featured a vertically-mounted camera either an RB 12.5/7 orRB 32/7 in the center fuselage. Again, the Rlistsatze sets available for the G-8followed the R designationpattern put in place with theG-l/2 with theonlyuniqueone to this var iant being the R5 set which saw the aircraf t f it ted with a FuG 16 ZSradio - thelatter operated on Army frequencies. Two Umrlist-Bauzatze kits were alsomadeavailable, with the U2 seeing the aircraft fitted with the GM I-boosted enginemodification and t he U3 f ea tu ri ng a DB 605D with MW 50 methanol-waterinjection. All G-8shad their MG 131 fuselage gunsdeleted, the aircraft relying on thehub-firing MK 108 or MG 5 for self-defense.

tedwith a f lairo upflerlly taken the form o

•

I •· · · • • I

· • -· · • • • •

flrevious versions o the

the weaflons installea

MG

weaflon had a magazine


17/43

109G-6/R6o I /JG 27 ison patrolnear Frankfurt

May 12 1944. Itbearschevron

on the fuselage,well assage greenDefensehe Reich bandsaft o the

, viceblack andthe

MG 151120

1 9G 12Produced ahead of rhe Bf 109G 14 and G 10 rhe G 12 was a dedicared rwo-searrrainer version of rhe Gusrav creared rhrough rhe conversion of exisring G 2/4/6airframes.A roral of 494 G-12swere modified by Blohm Voss berween Seprember1943 and December 1944 . To make room for rhe second sear, rhe aircrafr s fuelcapaciey was reduced from 400 ro 235 lirers. Th e insr rucror sar in rhe rear sear andspokewirh rhe srudenr pi lor via an inrercom. The sole Riisrsarze kir available for rheG 12 was rhe R3, which allowed rhe aircrafr ro carry a 300-lirerdrop rank.

1 9G·14

1 9G 1Appearingafrer rhe Bf 109K series, and rhus earning rhe disrincrion of beingrhe lasrsub-eype builr before war s end rhe Bf 109G 10 f ir sr appeared in rhe aurumn of1944. Officially defined as a basrard eype by rheLufrwaffe, rhe aircrafr combinedrhe 1 850hp merhanol-warer injecred DB 605DM engine of rhe Bf 109K-4wirh rheG 14/AS airframe. However, a chronic shorrage of rhese engines saw DB 605ASsrourinely fined i n r he ir p la ce , and as wirh all AS powered Bf 109G/Ks rheseparricular aircrafr had a supercharger bulge rarher rhan MG 131 beLden. As wirh rheG 12 rhe Erla Haube hood was widely firred ro rhis varianr also, bur once againir d id n or rorally replace rhe original framed G model canopy. The RLisrsarze


18/43

Firmly chocked a Bf 109G·14of 9./JG 26hasi ts DB 60SAMengine run up at Lille·Nord justafewweekspriorto the O·Oaylandings. The distinctivebeulen synonymous with latebuild Gustavs are clearlyvisiblein this close-up view.Notealso theoriginal-stylecanopyand300-litercenterline droptank.

II P 47D 5 Sf 1 9G 6Powerplant 2 300hp R-2800-59 1 800hp OB 605AMDimensionsSpan 40ft 9.25in. 32ft 6.5in.Length 36ft 1.?5in. 29ft 7in. Height 14ft 2in. 8ft 2.5in.Wingarea 300 sq. ft 174.37 sq. ftWeightsEmpty 1O 0001b 5 8931bLoaded 19 4001b 7 4911bPerformanceMax speed 429mphat 27 800ft 385mph at 22 640ftRange 475miles [withouttanks 447 miles [without tanks]Climb to 20 000ft in 11 min. to 18 700ft in 6 min.

-Service ceiling 42 000ft 37 890ftArmament: 8 x 0.50-in. Brownings 2x 13mm MG 1311x 20mm MG 151

i P 47D THUNDERBOLT and B f 1 9G COMPARISON SPECIFICATIONS Iouldbe powered by rhe DB 605DM with MW 50 boost. The K-model would alsoincorporate as much non-strategic material such as wood and steel sheeting) withinits structure as was possible. The armament was upgraded to two 13mm MG 131machine g un s i n t he c ow li ng and a hub-firing MK 108 30mm cannon. As w i thseveral other late-build variants of the Bf 109G, theaircraft s tail assembly was madeentirely of wood, and a longer, retractable, tailwheel was also fitted to some, but notall, K-4s. Yet another late-build G-model modification to b e f o un d i n t h e K -4 wasthe employment of broad chord propeller blades. The fighter also lacked an antennamast. The first K-4s entered service in October 1944, and t he y w er e t he o nl ysub-type of the final Bf 109 series to see combat - s om e 1 ,5 00 + h ad b ee n b u i lt b yVE-Day. Again, Riistsatze kits were available, covering the fitment of a bomb rack Rl , RB 50/30 or RB 75/30 cameras and FuG 1 6Z S r a di o R2) , e xt e nd ed r an ge300-liter drop tank R3) , t wo u n de r wi n gMG 151s R4) and the installation of aBSK 1 6 gun camera R6) in the left wing. Many K-4s had no MG 131 beulen, andmost were fitted with the Erla Haube hood. Finally, the aircraft had an underwingMorane mast as well as a Zielfluganlage D/F loop and a FuG 25a IFF antennabeneath the fuselage. There w er e n o U mr ii st -B au za tz e k it s produced byMesserschmitt for the K-4.

. .

I •

mostassociated witIiThe widely usedG 6 was

. . I ... • .... • ...

Mauser MG 151/20 cannon

tedto theaircraf tasRart

Each weaflon drewits

ineand cowlll1gguns withtwo

ingcannon with this fitmenty being seen on subseque t


19/43

THE STR TEGISITU TIONFollowing the invasion of theSoviet Union in June 1941, the]agdwaffe fighter force inthe west consisted of]G 1 in north-west Germany ]G 26 in the Pas de Calais and theLow Countries and]G 2 defending theAtlantic coast ports of France.]G 2 and]G 26had nine Staffeln each a Staffel having a strength of 12 aircraft), grouped into threeGruppen apiece. A total of around 200 Bf 109E/Fs thereforedefended theChannel frontat anygiven time in 1941 42.

At intervals, Gruppen or Staffeln from ]G 2 a nd ]G 26 wou ld be sent to otherfronts, and their place taken by units from Jagdgeschwaderen pos te d in f rom theMediterranean or theEastern Front. Such rotation allowed theLuftwaffeto maintainits fighter strength at approximately 200 aircraft.

With Allied air power in the West steadily increasing throughout 1942, and rheUSAAF s Eighth Air Force arriving in the UK in the late summer of that year, thisforce of 2 00 B f 109Fs and Fw 190As found i t increasingly hard to repel dayl ightbombing raids on industrial and strategic targets. In the spring of 1943, when theP-47 groups ofYlII Fighter Command commencedoperationsin defenseofU.SAAFheavy bombers, the]agdwaffe in the west was forced to call on reinforcements fromGruppen in the east. By late July, a further five ]agdgruppen had been withdrawnfrom thesouthern USSRand Italyand sentto Germany to strengthen tlle day fighterarm defending rhe Third Reich.

One of thefirst units pulledbackwas Bf 109G-equipped III I] 54, which arrivedf rom the e as t in Feb ruary 1943. I I] 27 followed from North Africa shortlyafterwards, a nd the lasr of the tr io of Gustav equipped Gruppen posted in wasI I] 3, transferred west from Stalingrad.

A further increase in the ranks of the]agdwaffe in thewest was achieved in Aprilwhen two of]G 1 s four Gruppen were redesignated as units of the newly-formed]G 11,which continued to fly Bf 109Gs Thus by mid 1943 the Bf 109strength inthe west consisted of eight main Gruppen five of which were deployed along theChannel andNorth Sea coastlines from the Biscay to the German Bight - t he mainroutes used by the Eighth Air Force.

Fromwest to east, tlle five Gruppen were II I] 2,III./]G 26,III./]G54 and II. andIII./]G 11. Th e first two units formed part of Luftflotre 3, which was the frontline airfleet guarding outermost ramparts of occupied north-western Europe. Bf 109G-equipped I I] 27 was also part of Luftflorre 3, as was III I] 54 for ashort while.Thethree Bf 109 Gruppen of]Gs 1 and 11, together with I I] 3, were subordinated toLuftwaffenbefehlshaber Mitte (the forerunner of Luftflotte Reich) purely for defenseof the homeland, however. Sitting astride the heavies main routes of approach intonorth-western Germany, ]Gs 1 and 11 bore the brunt of much of the action in 1943.

The early official pedantry issued by Luftwaffe HQ that the Bf 109 units were toengage only fighter escorts tllat were in attendance, leaving theFw 190As to concentrateon the bomber boxes, soon became an irrelevance in the heat of battle. Now, entireGruppen and, on occasion, Geschwader of defending fighters would be sent up to dobattle in thelatterhalfof 1943where previously single Schwiirmeor Staffeln had sufficed.

Buoyed by its successes against the USAAF heavy bombers in the summer, the]agdwaffe introduced a second wave of re inforcements to the Reich s Defenseorganization in the autumn of 1943. II. and III./]G 3 were duly pulled out of Russiaand sent to join I I] 3 in western Germany. In line with persisting doctrine, whichstipulated that home defense Geschwadershould consist of twoanti-bomber Gruppenand one Gruppe of covering fighters, II I] 3 received a batch of new Bf 109G 5high altitude fighters to add to its G 6s In reality, the light fighter Gruppe woulddown as many bombers as fighters in coming months.

II I] 27a nd II I] 51 were also transferred in for Homeland defense from Italya t this t ime, both units again being equipped with Bf 109Gs These new Gruppen

These new Bf 1D9G-6/R6 gunboats from I JG 27 werephotographed at Fels amWagram, inAustria, in early1944. Both aircraft havefreshly appliedDefense othe Reich bands ust forwardo their tailplanes.Thesemarkingswereintroducedin January 1944. Note also3 Staffel s StaffelMarseilleemblem on thenose othe Gustav closest tothe camera.


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@ Fighter Group basesf Otherunits

LocationHigh WycombeBushy HalOebdenKings ClffeWormingfordBoxtedOuxfordFowlmereBodneyRaydonSteeple Morden rtlesh m HeathLeistonEastWretham ottishamHaningtonWattisham

VIII FighterCommand's fightergroupswerebased in EastAnglia so thatthey couldb e a s closeto targetsinOccupied Europe as possible.Most oftheseairfieldswerebuiltfrom scratchspeciallyforthe USAAF ina massiveconstructionprogramlaunched in 1942.

VIAAF HO HO4th G20th G55th G56th G7Bth G339th G 5 nd G 5 rd G 55th G356th G357th G 59th G361st G364th G479th G

Lowestoft

GreatYarmouth

357th G

Felixstowe

acton onSea

Norwich

romer

olchester

Chelmsford

horrendous daylight losses left it with little choice but to undertake nocturnal raidson German targets in 1941.

But even when American bomber losses reached epidemic proportions in theautumn of 1943, the Eighth Air Force never abandoned its daylight precisionbombing concept. That the USAAF daylight offensive did not go the same way asthat of the Luftwaffeand RAF Bomber Command is due entirely to theadvent of thelong-range escort fighter.

n the autumn of 1942, all butone ofVIII FighterCommand s fighter groups (the4th FG) had been transferred to North Africa in support of the Operation Torchlandings. The rebuilding of the Eighth Air Force s f ighter arm commenced inDecember of that yearwhen the P-38-equipped 78th FG arrived in Englandfrom theUS. A decision was then made to re-equip both groupswith P 47C/D Thunderbolts,and V Fighter Command also welcomedthe 56th FG inJanuary 1943- both the4th and 78th re-equipped with Thunderbolts later that same month. All three unitswere declared operational with the P-47C in April, and byyear-end there were tenThunderbolt groups in England.

The Eighth Air Force planned on using the P-47 force to support its daylightbomber operations, but pilots new to the theater were f irst to gain operationalexperience under the watchful eye of RAF Fighter Command Spitfires had beenemployed in offensive cross-Channel operations since early 1941, mostly on odeoswhereby several squadrons carried out a high-speed sweep over France or the LowCountries to lure Bf 109s into combat. However, the Luftwaffe often refused to take

combinedwith those already in-theater to inflict such severe losses on USAAF bomberformations during raids on Schweinfurt and Regensburg in August, SeptemberandOctober that the Americans halted long-range penetration missions until suitablefighter cover couldbe provided.

The Bf109G was in the vanguard of these missions, and the defense of Germanyin thelate summerand early autumn of 1943 marked the pinnacle of the Jagdwaffe sperformance in thewest. From then on, as the Eighth Air Force s fortunes improvedwith the fielding of genuine escor t f ighters in the form of drop tank-equippedThunderbolts and the arrival of the superb Merlin-engined Mustang, the Germanfighter force would find itselfin an ever-steepening spiral of decline.

Despite the bloody reversals over Schweinfurt and Regensburg, USAAF seniorplannerswere generally of the opinion that precision bombing attacks byB-17 FlyingFortresses and B-24 Liberators could be flown in daylight against targets in Europewithout escort and without sufferingheavylosses. Nothing the RAF or anyone elsesaidwas going to swaythis dogmaticresolve, and some EighthAir Forcegenerals evenbelieved that escort fighters were unnecessary. However, just as the Luftwaffe haddiscovered in 1940 during the Battle of Britain, V Bomber Command eventuallyrealized that bomber losses could be reduced in proportion to the distance escortingfighters could escort the heavies.

The Luftwaffe had been powerless to implement an effective strategy because alack of organization in the production of fighters restricted the numbers of Bf 109savailable to it inthe summerandautumn of 1940.Those that didoperate over Britainwereseverely restricted in radius of action by limited fuel reserves.The Luftwaffe waseventuallyforced to switch to night bombing, as was RAF Bomber Command when

gh seniorpersonnelLuftwaffewantedthe

armed Fw 190tothebomberkiller, leaving

109tol with theescorting

photographGustav pilots

o received training indown a heavy.

experiencedJagdfliegerrs to be advocatingthe

d-on attack asthe mostctive wayto engagea4 - thewire protruding

m thelatterillustrates thes areaso defensive

e. Judgingfromtheirsions,his audience

cially thepilot tohisdiateright - seems

be farfrom convinced


21/43

t Alfred[r ight] nominally

of l.IJG SO andldwebel Ernst SUss

y therelativepeace ofn·Erbenheim inr 1943.Parked

indthem is Grislawski s109G·6,whose whitetailno testha t i t is f lownby a

leader.Emblazoned onGrislawski stally

112 victories,the lastthreeof which represent

USAAF heavybadly

dedwhenshot downa P·51 on September 26,

survived

the bai t, so a ir us consisting of a small numbet of bombers with strong fightersupport was despatched. A fighterescort fora dedicated bomber operation was knownas a amrod

When planning P-47 operations, the primeconsideration in 1943was range. EarlyThunderbolt missions without belly tanks lasted berween 1hr45min and 2hrs 5min.With 75-gal pressurized tanks, missions could last up to 2hrs 50min. The 165-galtanks gaveanother 45-50 minutes range, and with aircraftutilizing rwo 108-galwingtanks, P-47groups could fly sorties thatlasted up to 5hrs 30min - ma de of metal, the108-gal tanks were initially in very short supply. The far more common treatedpressed-paperwing tanks gave further range, but they also caused some problems.

The paper tanks were sometimes diff icul t to drop in combat because theyoccasionally froze at high altitude. One o f the tricks used to jettison a recalcitranttankwas tohave awingman slip his wingtip berween thetank and thewing and knockit off the pylon By late 1943, P-47groups were using up to 480 tanks a month andthey tr ied to keep a six- to e ight-mission back srock on hand. Fighter uni ts wereassigned their escort relay points bythe size of the tanks they carried on the mission,which of course dictated their range.

Although the drop tanks gave theescort f ighters a much-needed boost in the irrange , they had a detr imenta l impact on the handling of the Thunderbolt as Col Hub Zemke recalled:

Flying a P-47 with a loadedtank was not a pleasantexperience because the tank affectedthe aircraft s aerodynamics. I figured out that if the Luftwaffe caught us while huggingthese things, we would b e in trouble. Extra range however was a priority for our fightersdue to the growing losses our B 17s were sustaining.

In l at e 1943 when returning homefrom escort missions, Thunderbolt pilotsbegan strafing targets of opportunity onthe ground. The a ir cr af t p ro ve d sosuccessful in this role that the P-47D wassubsequently adapted to car ry wingmounted bombs to add to the destruc tivepower of its six or eight machine guns.

With more USAAF fighters nowappearing over Germany, the Jagdwaffequickly transferred in additional Bf 109Gequipped uni ts i n the shape of IV/JG 3and II lJ 53 f rom I taly. Despi te t he irarrival, and the bolstering of other ReichD ef ens e u ni ts in G erma ny , t he earl ymonths of 1944 were to prove costly forthe B f 109G Grupp en as t he rat e ofattrition amongst its experienced andi rreplaceable leaders rose dramatica llydue to the extended range of the USAAFfighters. The la tte r were now spendingmuch longer with the bombers, and theirnumbers were increasing all the time.

Four moreBf 109G-equipped Gruppenwere added to the Homeland defensiveline-up in thefirst halfof 1944, as theJagdwaffestruggled to makegood rising losses.I IJ 5 arrived from Bulgaria in February,with II lJ 5 following two months laterfrom theArctic front. Finally, III. and IV/JG 27 moved north from Italy to Austriain March to protect southern Germany from strategic raids by the Fifteenth AirForce.

February-March 1944 proved to be theThunderbolt s heydaywhen itcame to airfightingwith VIII FighterCommand. Thereafter, theJagdwaffewouldbe more difficultto encounter, and the Mustang s advantage of greater endurance over the P-47 sawgroups equipped with the North American fighter regularly running up substantialscores as they saw widespread use escortinglong-penetration raids deep into Germany.The Mustang had thelowest fuel consumption rate of the threemain USAAF fightersin the ETO with the P-51B using 65 gal per hour compared with the P-47D whichconsumed as much as 200 gal per hour, depending on power settings.

The P-51 equippedall but one of the EighthAir Force s fighter groupsby thelateautumn of 1944, with most Thunderbolts in the ETO beingused as fighter-bombersby units assigned to the tactical Ninth AirForce. These groups (some 13 in total) ofIX and XIX Tactical Air Commands had departed bases in southern England forFranceshortly after the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy.

D-Day has seen Allied air forces boasting no fewer than 4 100 fighters, of which2 300 were USAAF P-38s, P-47s and P-51s. In response, theJagdwaffecould muster

Col Hub Zemke, of the56th FG wasone of thegreatUS fighter leaders of WorldWar II He isseen hereadmiring the wing guns ofhisP·470for thebenefitof thecamerain early 1944.


22/43

This mapreveals howtherange of the P 47 wasprogressively extendedthrough theintroductionof ever largerexternalfueltanks. Yet even whenfittedwith twounderwing 108 galtanks the P 47D still onlypossessed half the enduranceof asimilarly equipped P-510.Indeed the latter couldescortbombersto targetseast of Vienna.

•Prague

ienn•

BERLIN•

Leipzig•

Munich•

O O O ~ ~ r n

mies1m tti Io 5 km

operate in, such was the Allies overwhelming superiority (approaching 20-to-1 infighter strength alone) that theJagdgruppen soon abandoned their bases and beganflying from widely dispersed, and heavily camouflaged, landingstrips. Even heretheywere not safe from marauding fighter-bombers (including numerous P-47Ds fromthe Eighth and Ninth Air Forces), and by the end of June more than 350 Germanaircraft had been destroyed or damaged on the ground.

For many pilots who had only just begun to get to grips with the high-alt i tudeanti-bomber air war over the Reich, the additional low-level dimension dictated bytheir opponents during the Normandy fighting proved roo much. During the lastthreeweeksof June more than 170German fighter pilotswere killed inaction.Withina fortnight of their arrival in France, manyJagdgruppen had been reduced to singlefigure strength. Although the losses in men and machinery were constantly beingmadegood, the inexperienced replacement pilots fared even worse. Nevertheless, theBf 109GGruppenstill managed to claim a large number ofAllied aircraftshot down,with the Ninth Air Force s P-47 fighter-bomber units suffering particularlybadly.

And with more and more P-51s nowbeingpresentin-theater, the Thunderbolts oftheEighth AirForce (now flown byjust the56th, 78th, 353rd and 356th FGs, as theremaining groups had switched ro Mustangs) subsequentlymissed outon the renewedfighting overthe German homeland in thelate summer of 1944 primarily because theP-47 lacked the Mustang s endurance.

The aircraft being encountered by VIII Fighter Command in August were thesurviving remnants of those Gruppen (rogether with JGs 2 and 26) tha t had beenthrown into France three months earlier. They had now been o rd er ed bac k toGermany, as theJagdwaffe in the west was in irreversible decline. The units nowfought alongside Gruppen that had been spared the carnage of Normandy, bur had

Klrrlach

.Ettlnghausen Nldda

G E R MAN Y

.Mannheim

Giitersloh• .Sennelager lippspringe• .PaderbornLippstadt

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Stuttgart Echterdlngen

Merzhausen.

• Munster

.AltenstadtFrankfurtRhein Maln .Zellhausen

Bingen. Bab :hausen ~ s c h f f e n u r g D a r m s t a d ~ G r o s s O s t h e l lOarmstadt Grieshelm.

Siblls

Bonn

F RAN C E

BELGIUM

NETHERLANDS

Jagdgeschwader bases• JG2• JG 3• JG4• JG 11• JG 27

JG 53• JG 77

.Brussels

jus t 425 Bf 109Gs and Fw 190As in Normandy, of which only 25 28 wereserviceable on any given day

In the lead up to D-Day, Channel-based JGs 2 and 26 had been bearing the fullbrunt of growing Allied air power. Unlike the Jagdgruppen stationed deep withinGermany s borders, theirs was a campaign constantly beingfought on two levels. Fornot only did they have to contend with high-flying US heavies attacking strategictargets within their own areas of responsibility (from U boat pens in the wes t toairfields and industt ial s ites in the east) and beyond; they also had to oppose theswelling tide of tactical missions being mounted by the RAF and the Ninth Air Forceas the coastal regions of north-west Europewere softened up ahead of the invasion.

Prior to the actual s torming of the beaches of Normandy, despite lengtheningcasualtylists, theJagdwaffe had managed to holditsown in thewest. Butin thewakeof the invasion, the long retreat to final surrenderhad commenced.

The Luftwaffe had reacted quickly to the D Day landings, and within hours ofthe first troops coming ashore, the whole Defense of the Reich organization that hadbeen so painstakingly put together over past months was rorn apart. Bythe eveningofJune 9, no fewer than 15 Jagdgruppen- all but four of then flying Bf 109Gs - hadleft Germany for the threatened Western Front. Although carefully assigned areas to

theprincipalaffeSf lo9G/K basestime of Operation

launchedaton January 1 1945.


23/43

16sof the Ninth Air3?8th FS/362nd

mission atacreated airstrip inthe

regionof Franceafter D D a ~ The j e r r ~

inthe foregroundareg used to fillthe refueling

e r t o t h e le f t o f t h eograph - alaborious

p o t e n t i a l l ~ dangerousfilled thebowser

be t o we d o u t t o t h eboltsand its contents

pumped intotheThe m a j o r i t ~

groundcrewmen visibleis photograph areingtheirsteel helmetsh indicatesthat thewas so closeto the

t h e ~ expected

affedecide tomount aattack on thestrip.

nevertheless been fightinga war of attritionwith EighthAir Force heavies, andtheirescorts. In ]uly alone, Defense of the Reich units claimed 329 aircraft destroyed forthe loss of 341 of their own. Butwhereas theformer constitutedjust a fraction of theUSAAF s strength (andcould be rapidly replaced), thelatter represented theequivalentof almost theentire Homeland single-seater defense force.

The return of the shattered remnants of the Normandy Gruppen brought noimmediate reliefto the embattled Defense of the Reich units either, for it would takeseveral weeks before many of them could be deemedready for frontline service again.Consequently, one final round of reinforcements was added to Homeland defense inthelate summer and early autumn of 1944. Elements of]Gs 4 and77 werewithdrawnfrom thesouthern and south-eastern perimetersof Hitier s rapidly shrinking FortressEurope, and two new Bf 109G Gruppen in 1. and III.I]G 76 - ex Zerstorer unitsI IZ 76 a nd II.IZG 1 respectively - were converted to Gustavs. The latter soonbecame IV/]G 300 and IV/]G 53.

These new units, and the increased production of aircraft that saw no fewer than3,013 single-seat fighters delivered to the]agdwaffe in September 1944 alone, didl it tle to improve the si tua tion, however, as t he Luf twa ff e n o l on ge r h ad t heinfrastructure to support their effective employment, the fuel to power their aircraftor the tra ined pilots to fly them. Even the introduction of the Bf 109K-4in October1944 had virtuallyno impact on the aerial battles takingplaceover Germany, despitesome20 ]agdgruppenoperating them alongside late-model Gustavs until war s end.

Both and II. ]agdkorps,which controlled fighter units in thewest andin Defenseof the Reich, c o n t i n ~ e d to take fhe fight to the All ies as best they could. And in.aneffort to replicate the successes of Schweinfurt a year earlier, General der ]agdfliegerAdolf Galland, who headed up the fighter arm, began hoardingfuel and aircraft for the big blow - the commitment of every available fighter in thewest (some 2,000aircraft in total) against USAAF heavies on a single day. He hoped to shoot down400 500 bombers for the loss of 400 fighters and, possibly, 100 150 pilots. Gallandthought that such a blowwould force the USAAF to hal t i ts bombing offensive.

However, Galland s carefully husbanded force, trained in high-altitude anti-bombertactics, was ordered by Hitlerinstead to supportthe Wehrmacht s new land offensive in

thewest, dubbed the Battle of the Bulge. The campaign was launchedon December16, 1944, and the]agdwaffe tookadvantage of badweather to offerclose supportto theground troops. With the skies clearing, however, losses mounted as the counteroffensivewas targe ted by overwhelmingAllied a ir power. In an effort to blunt the lat te r, the]agdwaffe was ordered to conduct one massiveattack against the forward tactical airfieldsin the Low Countriesand France- many occupiedby Ninth Air ForceP-47 groups.

Codenamed Operation Bodenplatte 33 ]agdgruppen (19 of them equippedwithBf 109G/Ks)attackedbasessoon after dawn on NewYear s Day 1945. Close to 1,000German fighters participated in the mission, which inflicted only minimal damageand cost the l ives of 214 Luftwaffe pilots. Bodenplatte sounded the dea th knell forGerman fighter operations in the west.

With Soviet forces getting perilously close to Berlin, Hitler transferred much ofwhat was left of his once-mighry]agdwaffe eastward. The only Bf 109Geschwader leftin the west in the final weeks of the war in Europe was]G 53, which claimed its lastP-47 victory on April 19, 1945.

As previously mentioned, most of the P-47s encountered by Bf 109 pilots followingBodenplatte were flown by Ninth Air Force fighter-bomber groups supporting theadvance of Allied forces on the ground. Controlled by IX and XIX Tactical AirCommands the 14 P-47-equipped groups that were in the vanguard ofNinth AirForceoperations post-D-Day saw intensiveaction through to war s end. These unitssuffe red heavi ly a t the hands of German f lak bat te ries, and they a lso enduredoccasional reversals when engagedby ]agdwaffe fighters. The latter, however, primarilyfocused their efforts against the strategic bombers of the EighthAirForce, and insodoing they allowed the 56th FG ( the sole P-47 outfi t in the Eighth Air Force afterNovember 1944) to continue to claim Bf 109 kil ls through toApri l7 , 1945.

Although neither the P-47 or the Bf 109 were the best piston-engined fightersavailableto the USAAF or the Luftwaffe in the final months of thewar in Europe, theystill played an important part in aerial combat through toVE-Day.

Assignedto thelast Sf109Geschwaderto remain inthewestthroughto V E D a ~ t iswell-hidden Sf 109G·14wasone ofa handful offighterskept a i r w o r t h ~ 12 JG 53 atKirrlach. It was photographedin late J a n u a r ~ 1945.This unitclaimedthe final Thunderboltkillto be credited to aSf 109equipped Gruppe on April 191945.Its opponents on t isdatewere Ninth Air ForceP-4?Ds.


24/43


25/43

light o 51stFS/55thwas photographed

on a training sortie overon March 10, 1943.aircraft, laternamed

eight otherThunderboltsun t were also given the

characters in now White wasCapt Oon Renwick.

41-5257 wasassignedrs, who

usedit toc laim10.5Bf 109 k ills.theis 41-5251,which

ne ofthef irs t tworeceived the

inthe UKon n u r ~3 Bringing up therear

325, flown futureRobert Johnson. He

claim thefirst o his109s d e s t r o ~ e d inthison August19, 1943.

than 30,000pilotsa year One suchschool was DarrAeroTech, locatedsome four milessouthwest ofAlbany, New York whi h bySeptember 14, 1940 had its first class of 50cadets conducting training flights with its 15 USAAC-supplied Stearmans.

By early 1942, the bulk of theUS training program was being carried out by theTechnical Training Command and FlyingTraining Command (renamed USAAFTraining Command i n 1943) . By 1944, the standard USAAC program for theminimum number of flying hours required to producea qualified pilotwas65 hoursin Primary training, 70 in Basic training and 75 in Advanced training. Primarytraining consisted of 225 hours of ground school instruction and 65 hours of flightt rain ing to produce cadets that could fly single-engined, elementary aircraft. Mostrecruits had never even driven a car before, let alone flown an aircraft, bu t theywereexpected to fly solo after justsixhours of tuition.

Potential pilots who reached thePrimarystage arrived via Classification and PreFlight Training.

CollegeTraining Detachmentswereestablished by theUSAAF in early 1943, andeveryoneentering theAviation Cadet Program from thenuntil wa s end was assignedtoone of these detachments for a period of between one and five months, dependingon the scores the recruits achieved on a battery of tests administered at both BasicTraining and at the College Training Detachment.

By 1942 the USAAF had four Classification and Pre-Flight Centers in Nashville(Tennessee) , Maxwell Fie ld (Alabama), San Antonio (Texas) and San ta Ana(California). Classification consisted of generaleducation tests, 50 questions per test,multiple-choice, physiomotor tests (to measurecoordination) and a 64-point physicalexamination. Those who did not wash out awaited cadet classification for pilotpre-flight training. The latter normally lasted seven to ten weeks, during which timecadets attended academic classes, marched in formation, took part in PT and drill,pistol shooting and aquatic training, where they learned ditching procedures. Cadetpilots studied armamentsand gunnery, with 30 hours spent on sea andair recognition,

48 hours on codes, 24 hours on physics, 20 hours on mathematics and 18 hours onmaps and charts. who weresuccessful movedon to the next stage of flight training.Potential pilots were now given thechance to learn to fly

An average of 600 potential pilots attended each Primarytraining school, studentsspending94 hours on academicwork n ground school, 54 hours on military traininga nd 6 0 hou rs in 125-225hp PT-13/17 or PT-2l 22 open-cockpit biplanes orPT-19/23/26 low-wing monoplanes.

The standardprimary school flight training was divided into four phases. The firstwas the pre-solo phase, which saw students taught the general operation of a lightaircraft, proficiency in landing techniques and recovery from stalls and spins. Thesecond phase covereda pre-solowork reviewand developmentof precision control byflying patterns such as elementaryfigure 8s, lazy 8s, pylon 8s and chandelles. In thethird phase,students developed a high proficiency in landing approaches and landing.Finally, the fourth phase focused exclusively on aerobatics.

During this training,at leasthalfof the flights weremadewith an instructor and theremainderwould see the pilot flying solo. Eachcadethad to mal


26/43

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I n e ve ry r es pe ct t h e Thunderbolt w as a n a i rp l an e that lived up t o h er n am e. A ft er t heBe l a n d A T - 6 t r ai n er s I h a d f lo wn a t K el ly F i el d, t h e Thunderbolt w as a g ia nt . I h adb ee n a c cu s to med t o 600hp - b e ne a th t h e P - 47 B s mas si ve c o wl i ng w as 2 OOOhp Shewas big, and on the ground s h e w a sn t v er y p re tr y. B u t e v e ry i n ch of her structure waspower, a rugged and s t u rd y ma ch i ne w i th a ll t h e mas s of a t a nk .

c ho se n t o b e t h e f i rst i n t he U SA AF t o r ece iv e t he P - 47 , a n d h e v i vi dl y r ec al le d h i sinirial encounter with the big fighter:

At the conclusion of transition training, pilots reporred to unit training groups, wherethey were welded into fighting teams. Between December 1942 and August 1945,35 000 d ay -f ig ht er c re ws w er e t ra in ed . A ll f ig ht er u ni ts w er e s up pl ie d by t heoperational training unit program. Simultaneously, a replacement unit trainingprogram 90-day course) within the four domesticair forces provided replacementsfor overseas aircrew whohad been lost in combat or rotated home for reassignment.

Six months were initially required after the formation of a c ad re t o c om pl et e t heorganization and training of a new group. By 1943, preparations to move an air unitoverseas had been cut tojust overfour months. It normally took almos

osprey duel 11 – p-47 thunderbolt vs bf 109g-k europe 1943–45

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