WWII P-47 Thunderbolt story

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67Dart273

67Dart273

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Ran across this, which unfortunately mixes so much unrelated footage, that it's somewhat hard to find the "real" stuff. Brazilian pilot Ramundo Canario, on a flight in Europe, took out 3 German tanks and was hit in the tail by flak, but kept at it, and went down for another run at over 450MPH when he sheared off most of the right wing on a smokestack. He managed to climb into the clouds, but was strafed and hit by Brit Spits who thought he was enemy. After getting out of that scrape he managed to land at an Allied airfield. He went on later to fly or Pan Am


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File:A Brazilian fighter plane damaged by German flak WWII.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
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About 2:25 the narration gets serious, tail feathers damage at 2:37

 
I’ve always appreciated the P-47 and P-38 over the P-51. But then again, I'm a Mopar guy so it follows.
 
The Republic “Flying Jug” was well know to be able to take extreme damage and still continue on. Proof above for sure!

Built in Farmingdale, Long Island. The airport is still in operation. The old WWII buildings were JUST torn down after decades of being empty and derelict to the point of collapse. Darn shame! Could have been a nice museum.
 
I’m not sure where you can find it, but there was a documentary done about 18 years ago by a P-47 pilot called “A Fighter Pilot’s Story”. It is excellent and really gets into how P-47s were employed during the air war in Europe.

Title: A Fighter Pilot's Story
 
There used to be a place "Eimerson?" In Jax. Old Air Field. We'd drag race, go mudding, all kinda stuff. Still had plllboxes / bunkers. But i digress, Salute to all The Great American Heros, from the Beginning till the End!
 
I am a WWII nut. I have read a LOT about WWII fighters. The Mustang was great in that is was fast and nimble, but the P-47 was RUGGED. The stories above barely scratch the surface on how tough they were. I agree with @gzig5 in that I have a soft spot for the P-38. My only problem with them is that bailing out looked like it could have been interesting. If you were an accurate shot, can you imagine the destruction a short burst could do with 4 50 caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon concentrated in such a small space. It would be like a hot knife through butter.
 
harrisonm said:
I am a WWII nut. I have read a LOT about WWII fighters. The Mustang was great in that is was fast and nimble, but the P-47 was RUGGED. The stories above barely scratch the surface on how tough they were. I agree with @gzig5 in that I have a soft spot for the P-38. My only problem with them is that bailing out looked like it could have been interesting. If you were an accurate shot, can you imagine the destruction a short burst could do with 4 50 caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon concentrated in such a small space. It would be like a hot knife through butter.
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I think my interest in those Bad Machines, in the 70s and 80s as a child, helped me foster the love of the A-10...
 
harrisonm said:
I am a WWII nut. I have read a LOT about WWII fighters. The Mustang was great in that is was fast and nimble, but the P-47 was RUGGED. The stories above barely scratch the surface on how tough they were. I agree with @gzig5 in that I have a soft spot for the P-38. My only problem with them is that bailing out looked like it could have been interesting. If you were an accurate shot, can you imagine the destruction a short burst could do with 4 50 caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon concentrated in such a small space. It would be like a hot knife through butter.
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I used to, don't anymore and I've forgotten a lot. I think what got me interested, initially, was two things.......amateur radio.......in about 62 when I was still in Jr Hi school. Back then there were still "surplus" outfits selling (the tail end) of WWII surplus electronics equipment. Another thing was, that my Gramps had bought (got lied to) a surplus top training turret called a "Crocker Wheeler" used in the training twin Beech 18. These turrets were also mounted on stands and on the rear of trucks for training. They were mounted both with 12ga shotguns (skeet) and with one machine gun. Us "kids" "shot down" hundreds of enemy aircraft in the back of Gramp's barn. Later Dad mounted it outdoors on the old well head, and the grandkids had their turns. He sold it to one of the warbird outfits when they came through Spokane with Fifi B-29 and one of the B-24's. I have no idea where it got to

Crocker Wheeler turret--for all I know this used to be my Gramps

7373603428_39c9984e3b_b.jpg
 
67Dart273 said:
I used to, don't anymore and I've forgotten a lot. I think what got me interested, initially, was two things.......amateur radio.......in about 62 when I was still in Jr Hi school. Back then there were still "surplus" outfits selling (the tail end) of WWII surplus electronics equipment. Another thing was, that my Gramps had bought (got lied to) a surplus top training turret called a "Crocker Wheeler" used in the training twin Beech 18. These turrets were also mounted on stands and on the rear of trucks for training. They were mounted both with 12ga shotguns (skeet) and with one machine gun. Us "kids" "shot down" hundreds of enemy aircraft in the back of Gramp's barn. Later Dad mounted it outdoors on the old well head, and the grandkids had their turns. He sold it to one of the warbird outfits when they came through Spokane with Fifi B-29 and one of the B-24's. I have no idea where it got to

Crocker Wheeler turret--for all I know this used to be my Gramps

View attachment 1715851204
Click to expand...
Wow! Man that is Badass!
 
67Dart273 said:
I used to, don't anymore and I've forgotten a lot. I think what got me interested, initially, was two things.......amateur radio.......in about 62 when I was still in Jr Hi school. Back then there were still "surplus" outfits selling (the tail end) of WWII surplus electronics equipment. Another thing was, that my Gramps had bought (got lied to) a surplus top training turret called a "Crocker Wheeler" used in the training twin Beech 18. These turrets were also mounted on stands and on the rear of trucks for training. They were mounted both with 12ga shotguns (skeet) and with one machine gun. Us "kids" "shot down" hundreds of enemy aircraft in the back of Gramp's barn. Later Dad mounted it outdoors on the old well head, and the grandkids had their turns. He sold it to one of the warbird outfits when they came through Spokane with Fifi B-29 and one of the B-24's. I have no idea where it got to

Crocker Wheeler turret--for all I know this used to be my Gramps

View attachment 1715851204
Click to expand...

Some of the military radio junk I've owned or operated or junked or repaired "in my youth"

(NOTE: These are all photos I stole off the net. I don't have any of this, anymore, except for one or two of the little "command" receivers

BC-342/348 HF receiver. In the 50's / early 60's for their price they were not a bad receiver

BC-348-562x421.jpg


So called "Command" sets. These were low power. Top two are transmitters, bottom receivers. They came in different frequency ranges, all the way from below the broadcast band (250 or so khz) on up into the HF region

ARC_Command_sets.jpg


AN/ARC-2 HF transmitter-receiver, the one I infamously damn near killed myself with (1200VDC)

arc2-1.jpg


TCS-12 set, HF. The unit to the right is the power supply, "dynamotors." These were DC powered motors which ran off 12 or 24VDC and had a generator wound on the same armature as the motor. This generated the desired HV operating potentials, typically 250V or so for the receiver, and ?? 800 for the transmitter

TCS.jpg
 
67Dart273 said:
Some of the military radio junk I've owned or operated or junked or repaired "in my youth"

BC-342/348 HF receiver. In the 50's / early 60's for their price they were not a bad receiver

View attachment 1715851206

So called "Command" sets. These were low power. Top two are transmitters, bottom receivers. They came in different frequency ranges, all the way from below the broadcast band (250 or so khz) on up into the HF region

View attachment 1715851207

AN/ARC-2 HF transmitter-receiver, the one I infamously damn near killed myself with (1200VDC)

View attachment 1715851208

TCS-12 set, HF. The unit to the right is the power supply, "dynamotors." These were DC powered motors which ran off 12 or 24VDC and had a generator wound on the same armature as the motor. This generated the desired HV operating potentials, typically 250V or so for the receiver, and ?? 800 for the transmitter

View attachment 1715851209
Click to expand...
Thank You for Sharing that! Was a Lil hobby of mine as a kid, briefly, a Step-dad worked at NARF, NAS JAX in the 80s... never seen nothing like the computers in that hanger. And that was the UN classed..I used to go to Radio Shack with my Grandfather...I've always dug that kinda stuff, brings back memories, Thank You For Sharing!. What do you think of had held HAM sets?
 
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That is a loaded question!!! There are all kinds, some good, some bad. In recent times there's been some REALLY cheap such as Beofang china imports and were finally pretty much banned by FCC.

"It depends." The other issue is many guys liked to/ wanted to use amateur handhelds on commercial bands (back then) as volunteer EMTs or use them on GMRS/ FRS. All this is highly illegal if you get caught

Nowadays the commercial/ public service bands are pretty much digitalized so that adds still yet another layer.

Frankly I have not kept up with most of it. "Around here" the UHF/ VHF repeater systems have been denegrated for a number of reasons, and become quite "clique-ish"
 
..........Which reminds me of yet another story..........LOL

One of the local "2 meter" repeaters holds a nightly "emergency prepardness" "net" where the net control calls out localities surrounding the town, and people "check in" but nobody every really does...................anything.

KEEP IN MIND that allegedly this is for prep for "emergencies."

One household has I don't know HOW many licensed hams, 8? --and every night one of them rattles off a string of callsigns............and you have to wonder..........if all those folks are all in one place, can more than a couple actually be of any help in "the event of?"

BUT WAIT...........there's more

N of here is "Bayview, ID" which is down "in a hole" on the lake. One guy from there used to check in, and either could not or would not get himself a radio/ antenna/ power amplifier that would "talk" to the repeater.

So every night the net control would say, "Bayview, anyone checking in from Bayview?"

And we'd here..........."popppppppppppppppooooooooooooozzzzzzzzzzzzzzsssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh
sssssssssssshshhs ......................pppplsssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhttt..........."

and the net control would say, "OK mike, K7XXX if that's you CLICK YOUR MIKE TWICE"

and sure enough you'd hear this noise through the system.

........................SO I JUST HAVE TO ASK YOU GUYS...........

If this is supposed to be a "net" where actual intellingent messages are passed, how you gonna do that with mike clicks??????
 
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