The Eighth Air Force’s bombers were slow to get help from American fighters. After delays caused by design difficulties, P-47C Thunderbolt fighters began arriving in Britain in late December 1942. Their engines and radios were still full of “bugs.” The P-47 was a new plane, and Vlllth Fighter Command had to break it in. Clumsy looking, it was so big and heavy that many doubted it could take on the Me-109 and Focke-Wulf 190, its newer stablemate. The 4th Fighter Group’s Spitfire veterans, in particular, grumbled that it was a “seven-ton milk bottle” and that evasive action in a P-47 would mean running around inside its roomy cockpit. But once some problems were solved, it proved a superb plane, even better in some ways than the famous P-51 Mustang, discussed in Chapter 7. It was more rugged; its air-cooled engine was more resistant to damage; and with eight.50-caliber guns, it was more heavily armed. Tests showed that it was faster than the Me-109 and FW-190, could outdive them, and could turn with them above 15,000 feet. But it was not good lower down, and its rates of climb and acceleration were poor, as was visibility from its cockpit. Later modifications—paddle-blade propellers and water-injection systems—gave the Thunderbolt better performance, while the redesigned P-47D-25 had a cut-down rear fuselage and a bubble canopy. The P-47’s short range was a serious problem. On internal fuel it had little more range than the Spitfire, and it arrived at Vlllth Fighter Command without auxiliary tanks. General Eaker asked the British Ministry of Aircraft Production to build such tanks as early as October 1942, but as late as February 1943 it had not even replied.
During early 1943 the 4th Fighter Group and the rebuilt 78th Fighter Group converted to Thunderbolts, and the 56th Fighter Group reached Britain. That the training system at home was still not running smoothly is suggested by the fact that some of its pilots had not gotten any gunnery training! The 4th and 56th groups began a great rivalry; they became the most successful American fighter units of the war. The men who eventually rose to command them, colonels Donald Blakeslee and Hubert Zemke, were the outstanding fighter tacticians of the war.
The Thunderbolt’s radios suffered interference from the engines, which were unreliable. The first P-47 sweep, on March 10, showed that the pilots still could not talk to each other, and the P-47 was withdrawn from operations for a month. Finally, on April 8, Thunderbolts from all three groups, shepherded by RAF Spitfires, began sweeps off the French and Dutch coasts. The 4th Group first clashed with the enemy on April 15, downing two FW-190s for one P-47 lost in combat. But two other P-47s went down because of engine failure; losses for that reason remained high until May. The other groups started slowly; the 56th Group had several fighters shot down but did not score a single kill until June
12. On May 4 the P-47s carried out their first escort mission, to Antwerp. It would be months before they reached Germany.’*
World History
