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00:00During the last two months of the Second World War in Europe, the U.S. Army Air Force's front line, the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilots, was the subject of a unique color film made on the orders of the highest American Air Force General, Hap Arnold.
00:19Sixteen U.S. Air Force camera crews would live alongside them, filming their takeoffs and landings, their everyday lives, and their deaths.
00:31This is their story of the final battle of the war, the conquest of the Reich.
00:49In the early spring of 1945, the fighter pilots of the U.S. Army Air Force in Europe were recovering from the biggest battle in American military history, the Battle of the Bulge.
01:08Their losses had been enormous in both men and equipment.
01:12Replacement pilots and new planes arrived daily to fill the depleted ranks.
01:22P-47 Thunderbolt fighter groups were operating from captured German Luftwaffe air bases, just miles from the front lines, with a new mission to provide air support for the Army's advance into Germany.
01:35The Thunderbolts were some of the fastest and most powerful fighter planes in the world, reaching speeds of almost 600 miles per hour in one dive.
01:49Their pilots were some of the best.
01:52Seven out of the top ten American fighter aces in Europe flew Thunderbolts.
01:56Flying without pressure suits, only strong young men could withstand the forces of gravity built up after a steep dive.
02:07They were all tough, well-trained, and their morale was high.
02:13In March 1945, Arthur Davis was a replacement pilot assigned to the 362nd Fighter Group, based in eastern France, near the German border.
02:23They were all about the same age I was in my early 20s, 23, 24, something like that.
02:33And there were very few, a couple guys that were almost 30, and we call them grandfather, that sort of thing.
02:43But there were fellas younger than I was.
02:45The morale was high.
02:47As a matter of fact, I was a little surprised, because they have always experienced several casualties over a period of time.
02:57And I was a replacement for someone who had been killed in action.
03:02And I was expecting something other than that, but the morale was very high.
03:07A fighter group consisted of three squadrons, each containing 16 planes and 25 pilots.
03:19Maintaining a 48-plane Thunderbolt fighter group required long supply lines, 75 pilots, and 1,200 ground crew personnel.
03:29Meteorologists and operation officers, radio and radar operators, anti-aircraft gunners, fuel supply and distribution systems, runway construction and maintenance engineers.
03:57Each plane in the group needed a crew of 25 men, just to keep it flying.
04:04And work went on around the clock.
04:07The P-47 Thunderbolt was the biggest, heaviest, and most powerful single-engine fighter ever built at the time,
04:16considered by its pilots to be almost as tough as a tank and as difficult to destroy.
04:20With its 2,400-horsepower engine, it weighed almost 8 tons, fully loaded.
04:28Every plane carried a film camera in the wing, timed to operate automatically with the gun trigger.
04:33Many front-line fighter planes were flying three missions a day, and keeping these planes in the air required close coordination between every man in the group.
04:45The confidence of the pilots in their ground crew was essential.
04:48Any overlooked detail could cost them their lives.
04:5123-year-old Ken Bullock flew 46 combat missions in Thunderbolts during the last months of the war.
05:02You know, there were supposed to be some rules about fraternizing with the enlisted men and all that stuff.
05:08That went out the window the minute we joined the squadron.
05:11We were all in there together.
05:12It didn't matter if you were a private or a colonel.
05:16You were all on the same team.
05:19You knew each other.
05:20I mean, you showed respect, don't get me wrong, but the people really worked together.
05:26You talk about cooperation and communication.
05:28It was there.
05:29And I am so proud to be a part of that.
05:32We liberated a supply dump or something full of Mercedes convertibles.
05:38And it turned out that almost every pilot in the 377th had his own convertible.
05:48By March 1945, the mission of the P-47s had changed from bomber escort to close air support for the advancing ground troops and armor.
06:01Flying attacks from as low as 50 feet were costing many pilots lives.
06:06A new man joining a Thunderbolt group at this time in the war had a life expectancy of just two missions.
06:16With more than 100 combat missions behind them, some squadron commanding officers had reached the rank of major, many by the age of 24.
06:25In the last air battle over Germany, they would lead their men into the cockpits and down the runway.
06:31Almost half of these pilots filmed, both veteran and new replacements alike, would be casualties ten weeks later, when the war ended.
06:40The coming battle would take place over one of the greatest natural defense obstacles in Europe, the Rhine River.
06:52No foreign army had crossed the Rhine into Germany in 150 years.
06:56The battle would last for three weeks.
06:59All Thunderbolts were now flying three combat missions a day.
07:1222-year-old Lieutenant Paul O'Dell was a veteran of 45 combat missions, many of them over the Rhine.
07:19And they would have a crew chief and the assistant there.
07:23They would get us up in the plane.
07:26Then, naturally, we had to start the plane up in that area and have the crew chief get on our wing because we had a taxi out over chicken wire and straw.
07:36And he had to guide us along because we couldn't weave back and forth to see where we were going.
07:41So then we would finally get to the end of the runway and we'd get lined up in position or takeoff position, depending on where we were in the flight.
07:50Well, when you're on the flight line ready to takeoff, I mean, some things go through your mind.
08:09I think my own particular deal, you felt kind of invincible, so you weren't really expecting anything to happen to you.
08:18And so it didn't really prey on your mind that much.
08:20The day began at 3.30 in the morning when pilots were woken for the daily briefing, and at dawn, the engines would start.
08:45And besides the throttle, you had the supercharger.
08:48It had to be opened up with it because they'd give you an extra horsepower to get the thing off the ground, especially if it was loaded, heavily loaded with bombs.
08:57The main thought was to keep the plane straight going down the runway and get in the air and go do your job and come back.
09:03You didn't think about being killed.
09:05Takeoff is a marvelous feeling because you have full control of over 2,000 horsepower engine.
09:15And when you put that throttle to the firewall, we call it, all the way forward, you've got all the power you need to take off.
09:25And it thrusts you back in your seat, hard against the crunch pad in the back.
09:33And you know that you're going to go up and fly.
09:36The conquest of the Reich was about to begin.
09:47March 1945, within a few weeks of having cameras installed in the wings of their planes, America's Thunderbolt fighters would face their biggest strike to date, the Luftwaffe airbases along Germany's River Rhine.
10:04When you had 16 planes, usually there were three groups of four below, and the top flight was called cover flight.
10:12And they usually weren't carrying bombs.
10:14They were just there to protect us from enemy aircraft that we may not spot.
10:19You are alone, even though you're a part of a flight of 16 airplanes.
10:24You're still alone.
10:25You're the master of your own destiny.
10:27It's an exhilarating feeling.
10:31Waiting in the skies was the Luftwaffe.
10:34Desperate to stop the American army of the Rhine.
10:37Diving at high speeds from above the Thunderbolt formations, violent dogfights would suddenly begin between planes barely 150 yards apart, firing over 100 bullets a second.
10:49I knew when I'd see Tracer's going from behind my plane in front of me, that he was behind me somewhere, and I was bound, this wasn't going to happen.
10:58And I thought, oh, buddy, you have had it.
11:00You picked the wrong guy today.
11:02And I'd nail him, and then go look for somebody else.
11:08For dogfighting, it is exciting.
11:09I could see these planes coming from my right, and I'm hauling to my wing leader to break right.
11:16So we both break right at the same time because you always turn into them.
11:21And they were shooting, and that was the first time I realized you could hear their guns inside your cockpit.
11:28So that's how close they were.
11:29I just happened to look up in my mirror, and I saw this MA-109 on my tail, and I had 100 hits before I realized that I was even being hit.
11:41And I pulled up, almost went into a stall, and that gives you an indication how fast it all happens.
11:48And you don't have much time to think about it, and you're doing it really to save your life and get out of the gunfire.
11:55Meanwhile, under the cover of smoke, General George Patton was driving his U.S. Third Army to the Rhine in a daring attempt to establish a bridgehead to the east bank of the river.
12:16The Rhine had been Germany's natural defense line since Roman times.
12:24Patton was about to attempt what Caesar had accomplished 2,000 years earlier, but no general since Napoleon.
12:33Another U.S. Army, the 9th, had reached the Rhine three weeks before, but all its attempts to establish a permanent bridgehead across the river had failed due to strong Nazi resistance.
12:43Patton's plan relied on the fast thunderbolts, knocking out German resistance ahead of his advancing army.
12:52Supporting the Rhine river attack, it got so we would be flying maybe four ship missions and going out, you know, many missions.
12:59We would take two, maybe even three missions a day, but we would be going out and getting whatever targets we could that would stop us from going across the Rhine.
13:08You know, sometimes we'd have a lot of targets, such as a radio station.
13:12Other times we would be going to the front line support controllers and attacking targets for them.
13:19And that one town would not surrender, and they announced to the people, with loudspeakers, I guess, mounted on the tanks, that they'd give them five minutes to surrender the town, and that they never surrendered.
13:33And so we worked the town over, and after that, we were finished.
13:37You can imagine maybe 50 or 60 airplanes with 50-calibered rockets.
13:45That town was level.
13:46I don't think there was a mouse left.
13:49Without air cover and with no place to hide, heavy German tanks proved vulnerable to airstrikes.
14:05In one 10-day period, over 500 were destroyed by air-to-ground fighter bomber attacks.
14:11Advancing at speeds of more than 300 miles per hour, and as low as 50 feet off the ground,
14:16even individual German soldiers found themselves suddenly under attack from the thunderbolts.
14:33Patton's gamble completely surprised the Germans, as well as President Eisenhower.
14:40Without firing even one artillery round, and under the cover of darkness,
14:48Patton's 3rd Army quietly crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Frankfurt,
14:53reaching the east back at 10.30 p.m. on the night of March 22nd.
15:00The nocturnal operation had cost only 28 American casualties.
15:04The following day, Patton's tanks, troops, and supplies streamed across the once-invincible defense line.
15:14His fast-moving army spread out,
15:17encircling more than 200,000 German soldiers and taking them prisoner.
15:23Patton then ordered the captured soldiers to march through the city's main square
15:28as a symbol of defeat to the German civilians who were forced to watch.
15:42The German radar-controlled anti-aircraft flag was taking its toll on the American Air Force.
15:48Dozens of thunderbolts were hit, wounding the pilots and damaging the planes.
16:02Landings became as difficult and dangerous as the missions themselves.
16:05So you would simply come down with your flight, below the tower,
16:12and they would shoot a gun with a green light or red light,
16:14and you would peel off one after the other,
16:16and you would literally go into a Shondell, which is like going upside down,
16:21drop your wheels while you're upside down, and do a tight turn and come in.
16:26And usually you try to do it under one minute.
16:29Now, there was a reason for that.
16:30If each pilot did it in one minute,
16:33you can determine that you have 50 planes that would be landing in 50 minutes
16:37if that worked out correctly.
16:41Fire and ambulance crews on runway alert waited for the planes to return.
16:46With most planes low on fuel
16:48and others unable to drop their landing gear due to flak damage,
16:52many pilots had to crash land,
16:55often with disastrous results from ruptured fuel lines
16:58and unexploded bombs and rockets still attached to their damaged aircraft.
17:03The average life of a fighter pilot was, I believe, about four hours,
17:09as an average.
17:10But I think everyone was concerned with the tremendous losses in the pilots.
17:16We had an abnormal amount of fatalities.
17:20Just analysing how many pilots we were losing,
17:22it wasn't that I gave up hope.
17:26I suppose it made me try harder subconsciously.
17:29But I just couldn't visualise myself
17:32coming back in the United States
17:36and stepping off a boat or a plane.
17:38I just couldn't picture it in my mind.
17:40You felt badly when one of your squadron mates got shot down,
17:48and particularly if you knew he was killed.
17:51I mean, you couldn't really dwell on it
17:52because that was it and it was gone.
17:57I lost some friends,
17:58and we would lose three or four pounds a week.
18:03And it seemed like it was always one at a time.
18:11At the time, the air battle over the Rhine
18:14was the largest operation of the Second World War.
18:17On one day alone, March the 24th,
18:20Allied pilots flew 12,000 combat missions,
18:23more than were flown on D-Day ten months before.
18:28We sent eight out and one came back.
18:31That was a bad, bad morning.
18:34And when the guy pulled up and taxied up,
18:35he stood up in the cockpit
18:36and emptied his .45 into the cockpit.
18:40He never flew again.
18:41They took him to the hospital.
18:47The quiet period we had before takeoff on a mission
18:51was something that was designed
18:54by some flight surgeon somewhere,
18:57but it was a very important thing.
18:59It was approximately five minutes long,
19:01and it enabled each and every one of us
19:05already strapped into our fighter plane
19:07to resift and rehash our thinking
19:13and calm ourselves down
19:15to get ready for the task at hand.
19:18The first time I did it, I thought it was rather foolish.
19:21Let's get up and go.
19:23That was my attitude.
19:25Then after experiencing this quiet time once or twice,
19:28I realized how important it was.
19:30My whole attitude changed in that five minutes.
19:33And I imagined that it leaked over
19:36into the flight crews, the mechanics,
19:41the armorers, the other people,
19:43and they felt the same thing.
19:46It was sort of a feeling of peace almost that came across.
19:50The times that you really didn't feel like you wanted to go on a mission,
20:11I suppose, is when they would announce at the briefing
20:14that we're going to hit an airdrome today.
20:18And a lot of pilots would just back out
20:20that say they suddenly would be sick or something.
20:23Not many, but the pilots that went through an awful lot,
20:26and you knew you were going to get hit.
20:29It's just not a guess.
20:32It was an assumption.
20:34You are going to get hit,
20:35but how severe, you don't know.
20:37April 16th would be the darkest day
20:41in the German Luftwaffe's history
20:43when they were attacked by the Thunderbolts
20:45and their allied forces.
20:53The Thunderbolt squadrons of the 362nd Fighter Group
20:57targeted the Luftwaffe with devastating results.
21:0124 German aerodromes were attacked
21:03with guns and rockets fired from altitudes
21:06of just 20 feet above the ground.
21:09Their air raids destroyed 270 planes on the ground
21:12and another 29 in the air,
21:15along with numerous hangars,
21:17flak gun emplacements, and fuel tanks.
21:25After more than three years of war,
21:28which had cost thousands of fighter pilots their lives,
21:30the P-47 pilots of the 362nd would show no mercy.
21:42On April 16th,
21:44the combined British and US air forces
21:46mounted one of the largest attacks on the Luftwaffe.
21:526,000 Allied airplanes targeted 40 aerodromes inside Germany.
21:572,000 fighter planes would take part in the attack.
22:06Their mission was to destroy the Luftwaffe once and for all.
22:12But German air bases were heavily defended
22:16by radar-controlled anti-aircraft flak guns.
22:19many pilots and their planes would not return from this mission those that did carried with
22:29them the record taken by the mounted cameras I have been conditioned to actually to hate
22:41the German army the German military and this was brought about by some schooling in the service
22:50I'm quite sure most of it was a subliminal type of thing but I I wanted to to kill
23:11it gave you a sense of gratitude when we hit an airdrome in one sense because it was payback
23:34time these were the guys that were up there trying to shoot you down and we had a chance
23:40now to put them to sleep and so in that sense it was a good feeling
24:10I would peel off first of all and dive down toward the target get the target in my gun sights and then
24:24fire a preliminary quick burst to clear the guns and make sure that everything was working properly
24:30then when I got close enough and I used to go as close as I thought I could and they they said
24:38they gave a distance of several yards but I tried to close a little closer because I realized that
24:47although we had 1800 rounds of ammunition it went very quickly and I might need it for something else
24:54so when I got as close as I dared then I would pull hard on the trigger and give it all it had for
25:02about two or three seconds that's all that's needed
25:05from a low level attack you would probably come alongside at about a thousand feet and then peel off
25:26down and come straight in on the target and at the time you try and get everything leveled up and get the
25:32sight on the target and then give them the burst
25:35and aircraft was one of the things we probably feared because there wasn't much control what we
25:52could do about it and when they would set the guns on you with radar you could hear it in the headset
26:00it would go like that you could hear and you knew that there was a a dish down there that locked you
26:09in and they were getting ready to shoot
26:11at the end of the day 905 German aircraft and
26:4140 aerodromes had been destroyed
26:43unopposed in the air the Thunderbolts were unleashed over Germany on April the 16th 1945 the Thunderbolt
26:58fighter group and the combined allied forces scored a major victory over Germany's Luftwaffe with the
27:05front lines moving quickly eastwards driven by tanks and infantry the Thunderbolt fighter groups were
27:10ordered to move with them captured aerodromes inside Germany were to be repaired and used as forward
27:19bases of operation when the air corps engineers arrived at Frankfurt to inspect an aerodrome they
27:28were confronted with the damage that had been inflicted
27:35what little was left undamaged by the Thunderbolt attacks had been destroyed by the Germans themselves obeying Hitler's scorched earth policy throughout Germany
27:43the
27:50the Fuhrer had vowed that if the Allies did overrun the fatherland they would inherit a wasteland
27:58the Luftwaffe planes were found destroyed by the dozens crushed on the ground
28:07hangars barracks and supply quarters were still burning from recent air raids
28:13the once powerful German Luftwaffe which had struck terror into the hearts of people all over Europe for six years
28:20was now a smouldering hulk of its former invincibility
28:25starved of fuel and spare parts
28:29its famous fighter aces captured
28:32or dead
28:34in six years of war
28:37more than ninety four thousand Luftwaffe planes had been lost
28:41and with them over a hundred and thirty eight thousand airmen
28:52runways and hangars were quickly repaired
28:54the three hundred and sixty second fighter group moved to their new forward air base at Frankfurt
28:59their fourth in ten months
29:02from here the Thunderbolts would rampage over Germany for the next eighteen days
29:06attacking anything that moved
29:10the final humiliating misery of Germany was about to begin
29:16there wasn't exactly a fear
29:19of not coming back
29:21we realized it was the possibility definitely was there
29:24but your job was to
29:27to
29:29get the target we were assigned
29:31and be sure that your wingman
29:33or if you were the wingman
29:34or the element leader or flight leader
29:36took care of each other
29:37and to be sure you got back
29:39that was
29:40our mission
29:41destroy the target
29:42and get back
29:44finding targets of opportunity was the order of the day
29:58flying low to the ground over cities and countryside
30:01thunderbolt pilots would suddenly dive down on their unsuspecting targets
30:05unleashing their eight fifty caliber machine guns bombs and rockets
30:09for the German army there would be no place to hide
30:16you could see the whites of their eyes so to speak
30:22whether it was troops or people on motorcycles or trucks or freight cars full of ammunition or whatever
30:32you could very quickly see what you had to shoot at
30:39so anytime we saw a train
30:46first guy down got to shoot the engine the locomotive
30:53and you could tell if you got a good hit because all the steam would come up from it and the train would stop
30:59then you would pick at it car to car everyone would take turns until you just about set the whole chain on fire
31:18many of those targets were horse drawn vehicles being tethered by women
31:31those wagons were full of ammunition
31:34and you start up your pattern and it was a repeat pattern
31:37you'd keep making pass after pass
31:39regroup start passing again
31:41and you'd end up with
31:43twenty thirty horse drawn vehicles splattered all over the road
31:47and you'd watch the horses go flying twenty feet in the air when those fifty caliber bullets hit
31:57it was just awesome the power behind those bullets that
32:00and the roads would be actually red with blood
32:05you did your job
32:07but you didn't quite feel so great about it
32:10coming along I happened to look down and there was
32:14a bridge that looked like
32:16like a viaduct an old roman viaduct bridge in a way
32:19and it had a truck on top of it
32:22so I thought I'd just shoot the rocket at that
32:25and then after I started down I thought well I might as well salvo all four of them
32:29so I let all four go
32:31and pulled up because you don't see the rockets hit on the way down
32:35and as I pulled up and turned around
32:37to see if I'd hit
32:38well the whole bridge was gone
32:39and the truck as well
32:43I wouldn't start a dive bomb no less than eight
32:46or maybe ten or twelve thousand
32:48the reason being you come straight down with the aircraft
32:51you release your bombs
32:53while you're in that vertical position
32:55and then when they go
32:57then the main thing you should do is get out
33:00get out of the way
33:01the tanks were very tough
33:15the Tiger tanks they had were really good
33:18and they all carried or most of them carried a fuel tank
33:22behind them in a trailer
33:24so what we would do is not worry about the tank
33:28we'd hit the trailer and set it on fire
33:31and if it came loose or whatever
33:33then we would shoot the bullets right underneath the tank
33:36and they'd bounce up
33:37from the ground or whatever row they were on
33:40or whatever up into inside the tank
33:42because they weren't armor plated underneath
33:44but they were on top and on the sides
33:46so we still found a way to get in
33:48we used napalm several times
34:05and it was very effective
34:08one of the places where we could use napalm to full efficiency
34:14was dropping a load of napalm on top of a panzer tank
34:19if the hatch was open
34:21of course you can imagine what would happen
34:24if the hatch was closed
34:25the napalm would spread all over
34:27and immediately catch fire
34:29and it would be like having meat in an oven
34:33they would be roasted inside
34:35you become part of the airplane
34:54it's like putting the airplane on
34:56like you would a jacket when you get in it
34:58you wear the airplane and you become part of it
35:01and you're pushing of the rudder
35:03and the throttle and the stick
35:05it's all automatic
35:06just like when you walk
35:07just one leg ahead of the other one
35:09you don't say
35:10I'm going to push this
35:11I'm going to do that
35:12you just do it
35:33we had many times where pilots were missing
35:37that would be the time you would dread the most
35:39when you'd get back into Echelon for landing
35:42and there'd be one plane or two planes missing
35:45it just stayed with you for quite a while
35:55I never thought I'd return back home alive as a pilot
35:59it just never occurred to me that I would
36:01in fact
36:02I had a premonition that I would never come back
36:04I just
36:05didn't think I'd make it
36:13on May the 1st 1945
36:15the Thunderbolt pilots flew their last combat mission over Germany
36:19seven days later
36:21seven days later
36:22the Germans surrendered
36:35V-Day was a big relief
36:38you know
36:39then you knew
36:41that you had
36:43a really good chance to get home
36:45the problem was
36:47during combat
36:48every night when you go to bed
36:50the prayer I would say is
36:53just let me make it through tomorrow
36:56so I can
36:57thank you for that day
36:58tonight
36:59because
37:00it was a one day at a time thing
37:02and when we knew that it was over
37:04it was a big relief
37:06of course then we had another question right away
37:08will I be transferred to the Pacific
37:10and some guys were
37:12and some weren't
37:14while others celebrated on the streets of Paris
37:18London and New York
37:20the Thunderbolt pilots still in Germany
37:22were quiet and reflective
37:24amazed that they were alive
37:26yet horrified by the death
37:28destruction
37:29and misery all around them
37:31the legacy of the most costly war in recorded human history
37:37hundreds of thousands of German war orphans
37:40were living on the streets as beggars
37:42while millions of liberated refugees
37:45and concentration camp prisoners from all over Europe
37:48awaited transportation back to their homeland
37:54throughout the continent
37:56German soldiers were made to walk back to their defeated country
38:05German prisoners start to march through
38:08there were hundreds and hundreds of German prisoners
38:11and you could look the way their shoulders were sagging
38:14their heads hunched over
38:16they were a beaten army
38:18and they just had no strength
38:21their morale was down to zero
38:23and it was not a pretty sight to see
38:26and there were so many many amputees
38:29with either an arm missing or leg
38:31heads bandaged
38:32throughout the war
38:39a fighter pilot never saw the face of his enemy
38:42only the face of the country
38:44the end of the war finally brought them properly face to face
38:48to see for the first time the people they had fought
38:51and the damage they had inflicted
38:53in May
38:59the columns of soldiers stretching for miles
39:02began their long march back to Germany
39:04from every corner of Europe
39:06six million soldiers walked down many of the same roads
39:10and through many of the same towns they had conquered five years before
39:14but this time not as the victors
39:17it was a bitter end to a bitter war
39:20a thousand-year Reich had been destroyed in less than a decade
39:24the death toll in the second world war was higher than in any war of recorded history
39:49an estimated 55 million
39:53the European war that ended on May the 8th 1945
39:57had been a total war on land at sea and in the air
40:01fought by the armies navies and air forces of over 20 countries
40:06waged mercilessly on civilians
40:09for all the battles fought during these terrible war years
40:12more civilians died in the conflict than soldiers
40:16the defeated Germany these soldiers returned to was in ruins
40:26not one family had emerged unscathed
40:30but victory in the air had come at a terrible price
40:4118,000 US fighter planes and bombers were shot down over Europe
40:46taking the lives of 80,000 pilots and crew
40:49during five years of air raids on Germany
41:02allied aircraft dropped almost 3 million tons of bombs
41:06killing 600,000 German civilians
41:095 million houses were destroyed leaving 20 million people homeless
41:19the 50 largest German cities were reduced to hollow walls and rubble
41:25transportation and communication systems had ceased to function
41:29as well as all levels of government
41:31Hitler's total war had brought Germany utter destruction
41:41and shame for the crimes of the Nazis
41:46when you see the destruction in the war
41:48I mean you can't believe how anyone could have done that
41:52and how anyone could have lived through it
41:54I mean it's so complete destruction
41:57that it kind of boggles your mind
41:59to figure out how people could have survived that
42:24I miss the camaraderie, the action, the flying, the purposeness of missions
42:37and the sudden ability to get something done
42:43and I don't find that as much in peacetime
42:48we were all friends with everybody in the squadron
42:52and we had a feel of almost of brotherhood
42:57because we were involved in exactly the same business
43:01each of us
43:03and the only thing that separated one from the other was the length of time
43:07how long were you able to stay alive
43:11we trusted each other implicitly
43:14there was never any even suggestion of someone who could not be trusted
43:21or someone
43:22in other words
43:23I would put my life on the line for somebody else
43:25and they would do the same for me
43:28long ago and far away
43:35I dreamed a dream one day
43:40and now that dream is here beside me
43:49long the skies were overcast
43:56but now the clouds have passed
44:02In the conquest of the Reich
44:04the thunderbolt pilots of the 362nd fighter group
44:07flew more than 3,000 combat missions
44:10for their bravery the group was awarded a presidential unit citation
44:22but half of their pilots had been killed captured or wounded
44:28and 48 thunderbolts had been destroyed
44:31the remaining planes were scrapped in the following months
44:41of the 15,000 made during the war
44:44less than 10 are still flying today
44:48and 29,000 made during the war
45:04the 6th machining
45:05the 7th machining
45:07the 9th machining
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