- 1 day ago
For educational purposes
Roughly the P-47 was twice the weight of other WWII fighters, the Jug's cumbersome apperance belied its speed and firepower.
As frontline fighters, escorts for heavy bombers and fighter bombers, the sturdy planes saw action in both Europe and The Pacific.
Roughly the P-47 was twice the weight of other WWII fighters, the Jug's cumbersome apperance belied its speed and firepower.
As frontline fighters, escorts for heavy bombers and fighter bombers, the sturdy planes saw action in both Europe and The Pacific.
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LearningTranscript
09:38It was accepted as well suited to its express role of cutting off and destroying attacking enemy bombers.
09:44However, as the problems were sorted out and the planes began to multiply, NEED dictated their deployment for a different role entirely, that of escorting bombers operating from England.
09:56Dispersed around England, teams of civilian mechanics and engineers assembled the planes shipped over the Atlantic.
10:15Soon, in addition to this task, they would be carrying out major repairs on battle-damaged planes.
10:26You want to go south, John?
10:27You want to go south, John?
10:32I'm gonna go south.
10:33You want to go south?
10:35I'm gonna go south.
10:56The first plane had been unloaded a few days before Christmas 1942 and as soon as the Thunderbolts
11:22became available, they were rushed through operational assessments and plans to equip
11:26three groups went ahead. There was some skepticism about the big fighter. It had been flown against
11:32captured German planes and found to have only one major advantage, speed, being outmaneuvered
11:39and out accelerated by the Nazi aircraft. Additionally, it did not have sufficient range
11:45to escort the bombers all the way to Germany. But despite this, given the absence of any more
11:50suitable weapons, the P-47s were sent to battle protecting the bomber raids. The first operational
11:56sortie over France was flown on the 8th of April 1943. Though mechanical failures still led to losses
12:03of aircraft, the pilots were adjusting to their new fighters with increasing appreciation of their
12:08toughness, speed and firepower. Using a variety of external fuel tanks to extend their range,
12:15the Thunderbolts were rapidly assimilated into the combat. And within a short time, tactics
12:20were developed to exploit their overall speed advantage, which saw them earning a good reputation
12:25for matching and besting the Messerschmitts and Pockworphs.
12:28The Messerschmitts and Pockworphs
12:32could be a good swimmer. And there was a difference between the
12:35deiucent and Pockworphs, which was one of the four-year-old planes, how we can use the
12:37aerosolias. Let's have a beer. The two-year-old planes, the Griffiths, which was a
12:41big-ißiter,ümüz intervening and the new inspector, which was a big-nob. For two-year-old
12:43good-year-old planes that we can do, normally like a river to the island. So we can use the
12:44hard-winningрий-podcasts. But I don't want to love to be able to make sure this
12:46to the next civilian energy in the beginning, and that we can plug it down. And I wonder why be
12:47the little bit of a fight is above the engine and the new
12:47had a bit different angle. And I can't wait for that, but I don't hate that,
12:49Let's go.
13:19Let's go.
13:49Flying in ships to escort the bombers out as far as possible and meet them on their return,
14:08the rapidly proliferating jugs were soon familiar sights to the people of England and to the
14:13pilots of the Luftwaffe.
14:19The bombers had been designed to provide one another with mutual support from massed machine
14:25guns in the mistaken belief that they would be able to ward off attack on the way to their
14:30targets and home again.
14:32The need to fight fighters with fighters had not been fully appreciated and there had
14:37been severe bomber losses in the initial phases of the campaign.
14:42Even with fighter protection, the big planes were vulnerable and losses continued.
14:46However, though it may seem callous, the continued campaign was slowly having a major effect
14:54in that the Germans could afford their losses of aircraft and pilots less than the Allies
14:59could.
14:59The longer the campaign went on, through flack and fighters to the factories and infrastructure
15:05of Germany, the more the wearing down was to gather momentum.
15:10At the time of this raid, to Emden in September 1943, the men flying the Allied planes would
15:16not have been aware of this long-term effect as much as they were aware of the very real
15:21and vicious presence of swarms of German attackers.
15:36The Germans' tactics determined that their fighters would concentrate on attacking the
15:41bombers and not engage the escorts unless it was unavoidable.
15:45This suited the high-flying Thunderbolts, which could stooge around above the formations of
15:50bombers and dive to intercept the attackers.
15:54Once the Thunderbolts had built up speed in diving onto the Germans, there was little they
15:59could do to escape.
16:00Tactics they had employed on Spitfires of diving away from attack simply played into the P-47s
16:07hands, and the Nazis learned the hard way that there was no way to outrun the jugs.
16:20The strategic bombing offensive continued through 1943 and 1944 with very little let-up, and as the campaign proceeded, there was no way to do it.
16:26The strategic bombing offensive continued through 1943 and 1944 with very little let-up, and as the campaign proceeded, there was no way to do it.
16:42The strategic bombing offensive continued through 1943 and 1944 with very little let-up, and as the campaign proceeded, and tactics were adjusted back and forth, the tide continued to surely run out on the Nazis.
16:55Their losses of planes were bad enough, but their losses of pilots were unsustainable.
17:01Their aces were going.
17:03The veterans of Spain, Poland, France, and Russia were thinned out by each successive demand.
17:08In addition, the planes that had been all-powerful had been bested, first by the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the British, and then by the newer American types.
17:18Worse, they were not being replaced by better planes.
17:22The constant revising of the Me 109 saw its effectiveness tumble as its weight rose, and the Fw 192 started to show signs of having outstayed its era.
17:33The Germans had the knowledge to have wrested control with jet fighters, but through Hitler's mistrust and a generalised lack of foresight, the fighter potential of planes like the Me 262 was to be overlooked until it was too late for them to swing the balance back to the Germans.
17:51So 1943 and 1944 saw the Luftwaffe decline, to the point where, far from having absolute air superiority throughout Europe, the Germans could not even control the skies over their own homeland.
18:21Losses in the bomber fleets were at times very heavy, and the theoretical assumptions of the commanders,
18:51that things were worse for the enemy, can't have been much comfort for the B-17 crews.
19:21That was a surprise, just in the meantime, to the Germans, which was almost all in the meantime,
19:24the Germans could not even get around the sulla-like war, and they were the most vulnerable in the air.
19:27I'm sorry.
19:29The Germans were the most vulnerable.
19:31The Germans, the Germans, the Germans, the Germans, the Germans, and the Germans, got someone in the air.
19:35The Germans would not be surprised to be so much better than the Germans can be seen.
19:44The Germans were the Germans-19YN.
21:17However, the positioning of the fuel tanks meant that they had an uncomfortable tendency to catch fire, and pilots had to be alert to the need to bail out quickly if the tanks were hit.
21:27The mass raids on the German cities left the Luftwaffe with no option but to oppose the bombers with all the weapons at their disposal.
21:43While the pounding of the Reich went on, devastating the cities and making the continuance of war production increasingly difficult, the German air force had to continue to suffer losses that it could not make good.
22:25It was but a small lateral thought to employ that firepower to good effect on the way home.
22:30From a relatively ad hoc beginning, this soon became official policy, and the shifts of fighters were slightly shortened to ensure a small margin of remaining fuel for these straffing runs.
22:41The railways and airfields of the Germans came in for special attention.
22:45The Luftwaffe found itself being destroyed on the ground, and the P-47 found itself increasingly regarded as a ground attack weapon.
22:53The air war in the Pacific had rapidly adjusted from the initially stunning Japanese successors, and the US, recognising the importance of air superiority and with its enormous material advantage, pushed a string of airfields across the Japanese empire aimed at Japan herself.
23:15From these bases, secured by the Japanese inability to compete with the quality and quantity of American planes, America's economic power translated itself into a military force that was unstoppable.
23:27The great distances involved in almost every mission meant that the jugs were not ideally suited to the arena, and the longer range of the P-38 and later the P-51 saw them preferred.
23:50However, many thunderbolts were to see action in the area, and played important roles in some campaigns.
23:57Once again, they gravitated to the ground attack role, and with devastating effect.
24:02Teemed with the lightnings, they supplied precision tactical support in the intense ground fighting that characterised the island hopping campaign that was closing in upon Japan.
24:20The H-5, 3-6, 5-7.
24:30The H-1, a-1, a-1.
24:36Chasar, and the H-1, a-1.
24:38The H-1, a-1.
24:41The H-1, a-1?
26:45In late May 1944, at Bellows Field Oahu, P-47s of the 318th Fighter Group were preparing for the coming invasion.
27:24The USS Manila Bay and USS Notoma Bay.
27:28The three squadrons of Thunderbolts were quietly loaded and stowed.
30:48On the morning of the 15th of June, the first Marines hit the beaches of Saipan.
31:02As with other campaigns, the important islands were the three with airstrips, Saipan, Tinian
31:07and Guam.
31:08With 32,000 Japanese troops on Saipan, it had the largest garrison and the decision was
31:14made to attack there first.
31:16By nightfall on the 15th, 20,000 American troops were ashore within a perimeter of fiercely
31:23determined Japanese resistance.
31:24A bloody process of inching forward followed.
31:28At the beaches, the flood of men and machines was speeded up and then most of the convoy was withdrawn
31:35to a safe distance as the Japanese fleet tried to intervene.
31:40Over the horizon from the battle on the island, the two aircraft carrier fleets were edging into
31:44range of one another.
31:46On the 19th, the naval battle commenced and the Japanese fleet was ground down in its most telling defeat
31:53of the war by the almost insolent force of Admiral Spruance's fifth fleet, the most powerful fleet in the world.
32:00Meanwhile, the invading troops at Saipan pushed relentlessly on ashore, fighting a fierce and sustained battle
32:07with the Japanese troops dug in on the hills of the island.
32:16The
32:31the
32:36the
32:40the
32:42the
32:44On the 17th, the US forces captured Asleto airfield, and by the 18th, the Japanese had
32:57been pushed far enough back for the engineers to be moved in to commence reconstruction.
33:03The scene of destruction at the airfield was testimony to its battering over the previous
33:07few weeks.
33:09The carrier-borne bombers and fighters of the fleet had attacked it constantly, and
33:13then it had been bitterly contested in the ground fighting.
33:19Littering the airfield were the wrecks of Japanese planes.
33:23They had, by the 20th, lost 450 aircraft in the course of the campaign with most of their
33:28crews.
33:29It was a loss their airpower would not recover from in the rest of the war.
33:34The engineers dug in, still in danger of Japanese attack and sniper fire, and then proceeded
33:40to recreate an airfield out of the rubble.
34:02On the 22nd, seven days after the first troops went ashore, the runway was ready, and the
34:08two transport carriers stood too, 60 miles out to sea, to launch the thunderbolts ashore.
34:13Thank you very much.
34:25.
34:29.
34:34.
34:39.
34:40Needless to say, Carvelli had not designed his big brute of the fighter with the confinements
34:55of a carrier in line.
34:56However, there was no intention of landing them back on board.
35:00They were loaded off of a catapult and shot off, one every two minutes.
35:10The Carvelli had a better way to get the same boat with the aircraft.
35:18Can't wait for a second.
35:24The Carvelli had a better way to get the car.
36:04All planes were catapulted successfully and they flew into their new base, which had
36:32been renamed Isley Field.
36:35As they circled to land, they could see the smoke of battle raging along the hills only
36:40a few miles away.
37:23No sooner had they landed than they were in action.
37:36The first planes ashore had carried out several successful strikes before nightfall that day.
37:46The four heavy half-inch machine guns were mounted in the outer wing beyond the housing
37:50for the undercarriage.
37:52The arrangement of the four ammunition belt feeds to the breaches required the staggered
37:56positioning of the guns.
38:00As with most of the planes layout, the armament installation was practical, strongly constructed,
38:06and simple to access and service.
38:10The Thunderbolts' increasingly potent external tactical stores were also simple to load.
38:20The Thunderbolts' increasingly potent external tactical stores were also simple to load.
38:34The rocket installations had at first been inefficiently designed, and there had been difficulties
38:38with their accuracy, but these problems had been quickly overcome with realisation of the
38:43potential of the combination of fighter and rocket.
38:45Though not much of a dive bomber due to the problem of its tendency to gather too much speed, the Thunderbolt had a good lifting ability and could deliver two 500-pound bombs with considerable accuracy in low high-speed passes.
38:52Though not much of a dive bomber due to the problem of a dive bomber due to the problem of its tendency to gather too much speed, the Thunderbolt had a good lifting ability and could deliver two 500-pound bombs with considerable accuracy in low high-speed passes.
39:10Saipan was the scene for the Thunderbolts to be the first planes to use a new weapon in combat, napalm.
39:31Using external fuel tanks as containers, napalm bombs were constructed on the planes.
39:38The mixture of napalm and gasoline was pumped into the tanks and a detonator was fitted.
40:03The fighters were an important factor in the rest of the Saipan campaign and the campaigns on Tinian and Guam.
40:10The fighting on Saipan went on into the first weeks of July, with Japanese losses over 26,000 troops.
40:16And on the 23rd of that month, the invasion of Tinian was commenced.
40:23Throughout, the jugs made thousands of the short hops from the airfield to the battlefield and back, giving close and decisive support to the ground troops.
40:30The
40:45close and decisive support to the ground troops.
42:47Though the Japanese on Tinian fought hard, whatever they had, they had no more success.
42:54The Thunderbolts had complete possession of the air and were almost free to do as they
42:58pleased in attacking the beleaguered garrison.
43:01The Thunderbolts had no more.
43:09The Thunderbolts had no more.
43:15The Thunderbolts had no more.
43:23The Thunderbolts had no more.
43:29From the airfield across the narrow strait, the ground crew and off-duty pilots were given
43:55a rare chance to watch the squadron's planes at work with guns, rockets, bombs and napalm
44:01on the enemy defences.
44:03That the battle for the Marianas was a turning point of the war is testified to by Tojo's government's
44:24resignation on the 18th of July.
44:25It was one of the major amphibious landings of the Pacific campaign and the last time
44:31the Japanese fleet could muster an effective fleet air arm.
44:34It was also a great example of the way that the jugs were becoming an integral part of army
44:40calculations on the battlefield.
44:42This importance was also reflected in their use in Europe in the latter parts of the war,
44:47particularly by the 9th Air Force.
44:49In the planning for the D-Day landings in Normandy, considerable attention had been given to the
45:00need for tactical ground support planes to be on hand, to disrupt any German attempt to
45:05concentrate force to throw the attackers back into the sea.
45:10During the early phases of the invasion, there were problems with liaison between ground and
45:14air forces.
45:16With the establishment of mechanisms for forward air controllers to maintain direct contact with
45:21the patrolling fighter bombers, the P-47s and other tactical airplanes became one of the
45:26Allies' most effective and important weapons in their inexorable progress across France and
45:31into Germany.
45:35As the front moved forward through the second half of 1944 and into 1945, air bases close to
45:41the action constantly seethed with the activity of the thunderbolts.
45:48Is that all its response to the attack still?
45:49Is that all of the Wijes of the warens that have been coupled with the local
45:55influence of the escape from the river?
45:57Is that all I do?
45:58Is that all I do as the force at the future?
46:01Is that all I do?
46:02Is that all I do as the autorities of the warens that have been locked into the 72-day
46:04complex men and are not r criminals?
46:07The deliberate campaign against the Luftwaffe had continued and a couple of German horses
46:34In the air against the strategic raids, the ground attacks ensured that the Allies enjoyed total air supremacy over France and Germany, even before the troops were landed.
47:04The air and the ship would have been the same for their passengers, so the aircraft would have been the same for the bonito and vegetable.
47:15To be continued...
47:25The Thunderbolts themselves were no longer much involved in the strategic campaign.
47:44Their limited range had seen them replaced in this role by the P-51 Mustang, which, with
47:49its coupling to the Rolls-Royce designed Merlin engine, had become one of the most potent
47:53fighters of the war.
48:19In addition to their direct support of the troops on the battlefield, the tactical role
48:23of the P-47 saw them involved in the massive campaign to disrupt the Nazi's transport systems,
48:29with paralyzing constant attacks on the roads and railways, delaying the movements of troops
48:35and panzers to the front, and inflicting heavy casualties on the German reserves before they
48:39could take up their positions.
48:46.
48:50.
48:54.
48:58.
48:59.
49:00.
49:01.
49:02.
49:02.
49:08.
49:09.
49:10As the Allies overran the German army, the scenes of destruction that greeted them confirmed
49:32the effect of the tactical support.
49:35The paralysis of the railway networks in particular was a major triumph.
49:52In the German cities, the effect of the tactical bombing coming on top of the sustained strategic
49:57campaign meant that very large areas were totally destroyed.
50:07The advancing armies drove through scenes of destruction that were unparalleled in scope.
50:12The First World War had seen comparable desolation, but only in the relatively narrow confines
50:17of the battlefields.
50:18Here, entire countries had been laid waste.
50:24The First World War had seen the
52:13The multitude of Thunderbolts had proved themselves very worthy weapons and, particularly in their tactical use, had paved the way for many of the theories behind the developments in post-war military aviation.
52:55It was made in service in Peru until 1969.
52:57The last recorded military action involving P-47s was during the revolution in Dominica in 1964.
53:04During the Second World War, P-47s flew 545,575 sorties, logging combat flying time in excess of one of the third million hours.
53:18They were credited with over 7,000 enemy planes destroyed, 3,752 of these being aerial victories, a very creditable performance.
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