WW II Air War 25Republic’s brutish “Jug”
had some curves and lines
that could have graced
a Spitfire. Doing his best
to show us them is The
Fighter Collection’s Chief
pilot, Peter Kynsey aloft
over the famous former
78th FG base at the Impe-
rial War Museum Duxford
in their P-47D Thunderbolt.
(Photo by John Dibbs/
planepicture.com)dived into the German fighters and scattered them
in every direction. When the dust settled, the
P-47s had shot down five Fw 190s with no losses to
themselves. This day’s mission became a routine
for the 366th for the remainder of 1944. They
concentrated on interdiction against targets of
opportunity, flying bomber escort and occasionally
tangling with enemy aircraft. Locomotives quickly
became one of their favorite targets.
Targeting Trains
By late 1944, the Allied ground forces had made
impressive gains across France, and now with
the P-47 units operating from captured airfields
in France, they were within easy reach of targets
inside Germany, which meant they were bound to
encounter the Luftwaffe’s jets that would either be
the Me 262 or the Me 163. But on February 22,
1945, one of the most unique encounters took
place between a P-47 and a relatively unknown
German twin-jet bomber known as the Ar 234
“Blitz.” The hottest topic of conversation among
all Allied fighter pilots was how to best fight
against the Me 262. The elusive Me 163 was also a
huge problem in that it had been clocked at well
over 500mph at 25,000 feet, and its total focus had
been on the bomber formations. They disappeared
from view as quickly as they had appeared.