WWII P47 Combat Footage

[Welder]

Like most here, many of my relatives served in WWII. When they chose to speak of those times, it was a gift all respected and honored. Was just spending a little time thinking of some who have passed before and the Men that they were, and while doing so I stumbled across this old WWII color footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6rq8vean8

[El Cid]

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of the story about a Luftwaffe pilot trying to down a crippled Jug and after he couldn't, saluting and flying away.

http://acepilots.com/usaaf_rsj.html (Start at the June 26, 1943 mission)

[TR675]

The Jug - much respect for it. Big, ugly, powerful, tough, fast, and zero respect for petty garbage like fuel efficiency or aerodynamics. It was the '69 Dodge Charger of its day, and pure 'Murica.


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[Greg]

At altitude, the 47 was a badass air to air fighter.

Down low it was a mushy handling pig with 8 50 cals.

[LittleLebowski]

with 8 50 cals.


https://youtu.be/6JqnN04ECro

[Paul Sharp]

https://youtu.be/6JqnN04ECro

So much this^^^

[DMF13]

At altitude, the 47 was a badass air to air fighter.

Down low it was a mushy handling pig with 8 50 cals.Yes, but that mushy pig was one hell of a can opener. ;)

[Lex Luthier]

I had the pleasure of standing behind the fence directly aft of a P-47D running up the engine at Oshkosh 2000. Before that pilot even let loose the brakes and started his taxi, I had to hold onto the fence to keep from being blown ass-over-teakettle from the prop wash. What an impressive bird. The goodyear built Corsair next to it seemed svelte in comparison. Even with a 14 foot diameter prop. The Jug cast a big shadow.

A dear family friend just passed this last month. In his youth, he was a USN Hellcat pilot in Korea flying air cover and ground attack sorties. Ground attack pilots of that era sported brass cojones that would fill a coffee can.

[Duelist]

Old retired pharmacist I used to know was an ETO P47 pilot. That's the first footage I've ever seen of one.

8 fifty cals. That is a lot of firepower.

[TC215]

My granddad flew P-40's briefly, then got switched to B-17's (the first time he ever flew a multi-engine airplane was ferrying a B-17 overseas).

He always wanted to fly the P-47, but never got to. He used to tell a story about standing out on the airfield, I can't remember if it was when he was in Italy or North Africa, and seeing a P-47 buzz the runway, pull up and roll, then come around and land. It had everyone's attention. Everyone watched as the pilot taxied in, shut the airplane down, opened the canopy, and stood up. When the pilot removed his helmet, a bunch of long hair fell down. The pilot ended up being a woman, ferrying a P-47. My granddad said everyone stood there in shock.

[rauchman]

Awesome! Thanks for this. 8 .50 cal machine guns.....how much ammo would this plane carry? I would imagine A LOT. As the ammo gets depleted, does that change the handling characteristics of the plane?

[Hambo]

Less than 300 per gun, increased to 425 per in the D Model.

[rauchman]

Less than 300 per gun, increased to 425 per in the D Model.

Much less than I would have thought. Any idea how many seconds of trigger time this gives? I would think the ammo goes pretty quick.

[Malamute]

The cyclic rate of the aircraft guns shows as 750-850 rpm, the ground guns 450-575 rpm.

I wonder if the pilot could selectively use some guns to save ammo for longer engagement time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning

[Trooper224]

This reminds me of an interview I once saw with an old boy who'd been a fighter pilot during WWII. He said, "I'm supposed to sit here and tell you I was scared all the time and I was just doing my job. The truth is, I was nineteen years old and too young and stupid to know I should be scared. Today I'd crap my pants, but back then they gave me this shiny plane with big guns all over it and told me to go tear it up. I did just that and loved every minute of it." I found his honesty refreshing.

[Robinson]

The cyclic rate of the aircraft guns shows as 750-850 rpm, the ground guns 450-575 rpm.

I wonder if the pilot could selectively use some guns to save ammo for longer engagement time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning

I know this was possible on some American WWII fighters, but I'm not sure about the P-47. I will say probably. Thuderbolt pilots didn't always fly with the full loadout of ammo for their guns either, depending on the mission. For escort missions I'm sure they took the full loadout.

[OlongJohnson]

My granddad flew P-40's briefly, then got switched to B-17's (the first time he ever flew a multi-engine airplane was ferrying a B-17 overseas).

He always wanted to fly the P-47, but never got to. He used to tell a story about standing out on the airfield, I can't remember if it was when he was in Italy or North Africa, and seeing a P-47 buzz the runway, pull up and roll, then come around and land. It had everyone's attention. Everyone watched as the pilot taxied in, shut the airplane down, opened the canopy, and stood up. When the pilot removed his helmet, a bunch of long hair fell down. The pilot ended up being a woman, ferrying a P-47. My granddad said everyone stood there in shock.

Wouldn't have been her in Africa AFAIK, but Iris is an awesome lady!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Cummings#World_War_II

[Buckshot]

The damn shame was that all the T-bolts were removed from even the ANG units by 47-48 when the USAF decided to standardize on P-51Ds & Hs for prop fighters. Then Korea comes around & the USAF is stuck doing CAS with '51s that were easily crippled by a couple of holes in the radiator, while 10s of thousands of airworthy Thunderbolts sat in graveyards. The Marines & the USN had wisely held on to their Corsairs powered by the same stone cold anvil of an R2800 that had powered the Thunderbolt. In fact, new Corsairs were still in production during Korea. Plus the USN had Skyraiders by then - awesomest prop driven CAS bird ever!

[Buckshot]

Awesome! Thanks for this. 8 .50 cal machine guns.....how much ammo would this plane carry? I would imagine A LOT. As the ammo gets depleted, does that change the handling characteristics of the plane?

Max takeoff weight for the Thunderbolt was over 17,000 lbs - 3400 rnds of 50 cal AP is about 850 lbs. Nobody ever chose less than a maximum ammo load in combat and that little internal weight wouldn't be noticeable to the pilot. External stores like 500 & 1000 lb bombs, 5" HVAR rockets & drop tanks - THAT stuff changes the bird's handling due to drag as much as the weight. Later Mustangs & Thunderbolts also had added fuselage fuel tanks that changed the handling for the better as they became depleted.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

A guy I worked with flew one in WWII. He said that he and a buddy decided to go up high and dive to see if they could reach 500 mph. As they got lower and faster, they realized it was getting real hard to pull out. They managed it and said not to try that again.

[JAD]

A guy I worked with flew one in WWII. He said that he and a buddy decided to go up high and dive to see if they could reach 500 mph. As they got lower and faster, they realized it was getting real hard to pull out. They managed it and said not to try that again.

Which begs the koan, who do you ask to hold your beer in a single-seater?

[NEPAKevin]

Sound Barrier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_barrier)


In 1942, Republic Aviation issued a press release stating that Lts. Harold E. Comstock and Roger Dyar had exceeded the speed of sound during test dives in the P-47 Thunderbolt. It is widely agreed that this was due to inaccurate ASI readings. In similar tests, the North American P-51 Mustang, a higher performance aircraft, demonstrated limits at Mach 0.85, with every flight over M0.84 causing the aircraft to be damaged by vibration.[10]]

[TR675]

XP-47J Superbolt. Shows what the airframe (substantially reworked and lightened) and engine (ditto) were capable of.

https://oldmachinepress.com/2013/12/17/republic-xp-47j-superbolt/


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[El Cid]

Sound Barrier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_barrier)

And the F4U-4 was faster than the Mustang. :)

[CSW]

While in Boy Scouts in the '70s, we had a Scoutmaster who had flown a P47D in Europe.
for whatever reason, he was switched out of the Jug, and into a P38 Lightning. He used to tell us stories, we all sat wide eyed in amazement! Used to say that those two aircraft save his life.
At the time, in our teens, we couldn't comprehend all that.....just that he flew two of the coolest fighters built over Germany in WWII.

Years later my father told me that Al was an ACE in the P47 and the P38.....imagine, an ace, 2x.

After WWII, he went on to fly for Pan Am, and then became a crash investigator for Pan Am.
He was the lead investigator for an Azores Crash.

Alfonse Chile. RIP