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Aviation Art Prints  Countries US Aircraft Index  Thunderbolt |
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| Text for the above items : |
Jenkins Jerry Junkers by Stan Stokes. This tribute to the 510th Fighter Squardron shows four P-47s; The Bug, Squirt, Raid Hot Moma and The Touch of Texas. |
Thunderbolt on Duty by Richard Ward No text for this item |
Bridge Busters by Anthony Saunders. With orders to destroy, delay or disrupt enemy forces en-route to the Normandy battle area, P-47 Thunderbolts from the 78th Fighter Group launch a blistering high-speed, low-level attack, on a German freight train in occupied northern France, June 1944. Desperately attempting to transport vital supplies to the front by daylight, it has fallen prey to the cannons and bombs of the eagle eyed Thunderbolt pilots. |
Feeling the Wolves Bite by Brian Bateman. The twelfth of May, 1944. The German countryside is blooming with the coming of spring. Germanys struggle is coming to a crescendo as the Allies continue their assault on the Third Reich. Just above the deceptive peace of the countryside, Gruppenkommandeur Gunther Rall, assigned to JG/11 on the Western Front, is bounced by P-47s of the 56th Fighter Group. Better known as Zemkes Wolf pack, the 56th is the highest scoring USAAF fighter unit of the ETO, accounting for some 665-1/2 aircraft in the air. Rall is outnumbered four to one. Taking evasive action, Rall descends from the clouds toward the treetops, trying everything he knows to pull out and away from the much-too-powerful P-47s. Weaving, twisting and at full throttle, even Rall is no match for the numbers against him. Finally, Ralls 109 is within range and the P-47s eight 50-caliber guns are making deadly strikes--igniting Ralls aircraft and shooting his thumb off at the throttle. Rall has no choice but to pull into a half loop and bail out. To make matters worse, as Rall reaches the ground he is approached by a German farmer with a pitchfork who tries to impale him! After convincing the farmer hes German, Rall stomps off to a local phone and is subsequently taken to a hospital where he would remain until 1944. Feeling the Wolves Bite depicts Gunther Ralls 109G during this encounter. Rall, on fire and wounded, begins to pull into a half loop as he prepares to bail out of his Messerschmitt for the first and only time in his career. |
Days of Thunder by Richard Taylor. Duxford became home to the 78th Fighter Group when they arrived in England with their P-47B Thunderbolts in 1943. The objective of the American fighter units was to gain air superiority over the Luftwaffe in support of their daylight bombing campaign. By 1944 they achieved their objective. Richard Taylor commemorates the valiant contribution of the 78th Fighter Group with a fine new rendition showing P-47D Thunderbolts departing Duxford en route for the north coast of France, and a low-level strafing mission. It is the spring of 1944, and with the Normandy invasion just days away, the Thunderbolts are already painted with invasion markings. |
Thunder in the East by Richard Taylor. In Europe the tide of war was changing. The Allied invasion of Normandy had thrown the Germans back and the push to Berlin had begun, but in the Far East another invasion had taken place - this time by the Japanese. The fighter pilots of the RAF had become masters of the sky over Burma and after weeks of bitter fighting, air superiority was complete. The Japanese invasion had run out of steam and slowly, but inexorably, the Allies drove them back, fighting through the rains and floods in arduous conditions, strafing supply dumps and airfields, and divebombing enemy concentrations in unequalled precision strikes. One such strike was the operation to secure the Japanese-held Mingaladon Aerodrome near Rangoon on 20 October 1944, when a composite air force, made up of P-47 Thunderbolts from 261 and 146 Squadrons, carried out a low level attack on the vital Japanese stronghold. Richard Taylor's fabulous new painting, Thunder in the East, expertly captures all the fury of this bitter engagement. After completing his bombing attack Warrant Officer Thomas 'Lucky' Carter flying his distinctive P-47 'Pistol Packin' Mamma', engages Nakajima Ki-43 Oscars and Ki-44 Tojo's along with other Thunderbolts of the unit. In commemoration of the men who flew and fought in Burma, joining artist Richard Taylor in signing the whole edition are three RAF veterans that fought in the campaign, two that flew Thunderbolts in Burma and one of the vital ground crew that prepared the P-47s for this actual mission. A fitting tribute to all those that fought in the 'Forgotten War'. |
P-47 Thunderbolt Aces of the Eighth Air Force. The US aviation industry produced three great fighter designs to equip its burgeoning army air force during World War 2, and of this trio, Republics P-47 Thunderbolt was easily the heaviest. Powered, crucially, by a turbocharged Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine that produced 2000 hp, the first production fighters reached the 56th FG in June 1942, and six months later the group joined the Eight Air Force in Britain. The arrival of the first P-47Cs in mid-1943 addressed the problem of the aircrafts short combat radius, as this model could be fitted with an external tank. Slowly, as combat tactics evolved in units like the 56th and 78th FGs, pilots learnt how best to fly the Thunderbolt in order to effectively counter the more nimble Luftwaffe fighters. |
Mustang and Thunderbolt Aces of the Pacific and CBI. Although far better known for their exploits over the war torn skies of Germany and Italy, the USAAFs premier fighters, the P-47 and P-51, also made significant contributions to the victory against Japan from 1943 onwards. This book relates the appearance of the Allison-engined A-36As and P-51As over Rangoon from India in November 1943, the 1st Air Commando Group in China, P-47s over the jungles of New Guinea in 1943, escorting B-29s on long-range bombing sorties against the Home Islands in 1944-45 and elsewhere. |
P-47 Thunderbolt Aces of the Ninth and Fifteenth Air Forces. This book charts the story of the lesser known aces who flew the mighty Republic aircraft as a tactical fighter-bomber with the Ninth Air Force, rather than as a long-range escort. It also details the exploits of the Mediterranean-based 325th FG, which was the only P-47 group within the strategic Fifteenth Air Force. Thunderbolt aces within the Ninth Air Force, particularly, were rare, despite some 15 groups flying the fighter. Supporting troops on the ground rather than searching out aerial foes, was the name of the game for the men of the Ninth. However, with the Luftwaffe often opposing such sorties through to April 1945, more than 20 pilots had the opportunity to score five or more kills and make ace. |
Schweinfurt Thunderbolts by Jason Askew. (P) Thunderbolts of the 78th Fighter Group based at Duxford (station 357) engage Me109s during the August 17th raid on Schweinfurt. The 78th Fighter Group were assigned the duty of escorting the B-17s from Antwerp to Eupen between the hours of 1353-1410, and the group claimed two confirmed kills and no losses during their engagement. |
Devastating Thunder by Brian Bateman. (P) P-47D Thunderbolts, affectionately called 'Razorbacks' flown by Col Steve 'Spiro' Pisanos and his wingman of 334th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, wreaking havoc on a German BR52 supply train over northern France in early 1944. Strafing targets of opportunity was, as Steve put it, exhilarating as hell but also extremely dangerous. Steve said that from his RAF training he learned never to pull up after the run, keeping low so as not to make yourself an easier target. |
Outward Bound by Robert Taylor. 78th FG Thunderbolts preparing to depart Duxford - with two visiting 361st FG Mustangs in the background while overhead other 361st FG Mustangs climb away from Bottisham. |
Zemkes Wolfpack by Robert Taylor. Hub Zemke was a fighter pilot and commander who led from the front. A great tactician too, it was in no small measure due to the air combat tactics introduced to the 56th Fighter Group by its mercurial leader that by the end of WW2 it had become the top-scoring Fighter Group in the USAF. This highly successful unit spawned some of the top fighter aces in the European theatre : Gabby Gabreski with 34.5 victories, Robert Johnson with 28 victories, and the colourful Ace, Walker Bud Mahurin who shot down 21 German aircraft. High over Germany at the extremity of its range, the P-47 of Hub Zemke is seen leading his pilots in to defend a stricken B-17 against the persistent attacks of marauding Fw190s. Already damaged, the B-17 has dropped from the relative safety of the formation, and protection from the P-47s is now its only chance of survival. |
Thunderbolt Alexander Kartveli was a engineer with Seversky Aircraft who designed the P-35, which first flew in 1937. With Republic Aviation Kartveli supervised the development of the P-43 Lancer. Neither of these aircraft were produced in large numbers, and neither was quite successful. However, the Republic Aviation P-47 Thunderbolt, also nicknamed the Jug, was quite a different story. The Jug was the jewel in Kartvelis design crown, and went on to become one of the most produced fighter aircraft of all time with 15,683 being manufactured. The P-47 was the largest and heaviest single seat fighter of WW II. The P-47 immediately demonstrated its excellent combat qualities, including speed, rate of climb, maneuverability, heavy fire power, and the ability to take a lot of punishment. With a wingspan of more than 40 feet and a weight of 19,400 pounds, this large aircraft was designed around the powerful 2000 HP Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine. The first P-47 prototype flew in May of 1941, and the primary variant the P-47D went into service in 1943 with units of the U.S. Armys Eighth Air Force. The Jug had a maximum speed in excess of 400 MPH, a service ceiling in excess of 42,000 feet, and was heavily armed with either six or eight heavy caliber machine guns. With its ability to carry up to a 2,500 pound bomb load, the Jug saw lots of use in ground attack roles. Until the introduction of the N model, the P-47 lacked the long range required for fighter escort missions which were most often relegated to P-51 Mustangs or P-38 Lightnings. In his outstanding painting entitled Bridge Busting Jugs, noted aviation artist Stan Stokes depicts Eighth Air Force Jugs in a ground attack mission in the Alps in June of 1944. The top P-47 ace was Francis Gabreski who had flown with the 56th Fighter Group, the first unit to be equipped with the P-47. In August of 1943 Gabreski attained his first aerial combat victory (over an Fw-190) and by years end he had reached ace status with 8 confirmed victories. As Commander of the 61st Squadron, Gabreski continued to chalk up victory after victory, and on seven different occasions he achieved two victories during the same mission. However, in July of 1944 Gabreski damaged the prop on his Jug during a low level attack on an airfield near Coblenz. Forced to make a crash landing, he was captured and remained a prisoner of war until Wars end in 1945. Following the War Gabreski returned to military service with the Air Forces 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing in Korea. Flying the F-86 Sabre Jet, Gabreski attained 6.5 more aerial victories in 1951 and 1952 becoming an ace in two different wars |
| Top Aces for : Thunderbolt | |
| A list of all Aces from our database who are known to have flown this aircraft. | |
| Name | Victories |
| James Lacey | 28.00 |
| Francis Gabreski | 28.00 |
| Robert Johnson | 27.00 |
| Herschel Green | 18.00 |
| Hubert Zemke | 17.75 |
| James Goodson | 15.00 |
| Donald Strait | 13.50 |
| Donald Bryan | 13.33 |
| Kenneth Jernstedt | 10.50 |
| George Bostick | 9.00 |
| Arthur Fiedler | 8.00 |
| Paul Douglas | 8.00 |
| Urban Drew | 6.00 |
| Wilbur Scheible | 6.00 |
| James Hill | 5.00 |
| Joseph Matte | 5.00 |
| Morton Magoffin | 5.00 |
| Robert Barkey | 5.00 |
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