High above Kong, France, at 27,000 ft, Abalutn Ralph Hermachin watched through his Fala Wolf 1985’s canopy as unfamiliar shapes climbed laboriously toward his formation. The 27year-old veteran ace couldn’t contain his amusement. The Americans have sent us flying milk bottles, he radioed his wingmen, laughing at the massive Republic P47 Thunderbolts struggling for altitude.

 Below 16 P47C Thunderbolts of the fourth fighter group pushed upward, their 2,000 horsepower Pratt and Whitney are 2800 engines straining under 7 tons of aircraft. to German pilots accustomed to sleek Spitfires and nimble Soviet fighters. These barrel-shaped machines with greenhouse canopies and disproportionately small wings seemed almost comical.

 What Hermachin didn’t know was that he was witnessing the arrival of the weapon that would systematically destroy the Luafa’s fighter arm. Within 18 months, these flying milk bottles would transform into terror. their 850 caliber Browning machine guns becoming the most feared sound in German skies. The mathematics of destruction.

 The P-47’s broad wings carried three 400 rounds of ammunition with a combined rate of fire exceeding 6,000 rounds per minute. Enough concentrated firepower to saw a Messmid in half in under two seconds. Major Donald Blley, commanding the 335th Fighter Squadron that April morning, understood what his pilots didn’t yet know.

 Survival in the P47 required abandoning everything conventional about air combat. While Germans pursued lightweight interceptors optimized for climb and turn performance, Republic Aviation had created something unprecedented, a high altitude juggernaut using mass, power, and firepower to redefine aerial warfare.

 Birth of a monster, the P47 emerged from June 1940. Panic as German fighters swept across France. Alexander Cardelli, Republic Aviation’s Georgianborn Chief Designer, received urgent specifications from the US Army Air Corps for a high altitude interceptor capable of matching the Luwaffa’s best. It will be a dinosaur, Cartelli admitted to his design team.

But it will be a dinosaur with good proportions. The XP47B prototype that first flew on May 6th, 1941 shocked everyone. At 9,900 lb empty, it weighed 65% more than its predecessor. The massive turbo supercharger system gave it an almost pregnant appearance. Test pilots invariably asked, “This thing actually flies.

” Not only did it fly, it flew like nothing else. At altitude, the Pratt and Whitney R2800 engine, an 18cylinder radio producing 2,000 horsepower, maintained full power at 27,000 ft, where German fighters gasped for air. Deadly training. Major Hubert Zenki, commanding the 56th Fighter Group at Bridgeport, Connecticut, initially despised the aircraft.

 His unit lost 18 pilots and 41 aircraft in training accidents. Between September 1942 and January 1943, the P-47 killed more Americans in training than Germans would in the first months of combat. But those who mastered it discovered something extraordinary. Lieutenant Robert Johnson, who had become one of America’s top aces with 27 victories, described his first flight.

It was like strapping yourself to a locomotive. You didn’t fly it. You aimed it. Early struggles. The first combat encounters in April and May 1943 confirmed every German prejudice. The P47s couldn’t turn with Faulolf 190s or climb with Messid 109s. Luwaffa pilots quickly exploited these weaknesses.

 Halman Joseph Pipser commanding officer of JG26 reported after his first encounter. The new American fighter is meat for the slaughter. Our boys are calling them Indiana fat targets pretending to be warriors. In their first month, American fighter groups lost 14 Thunderbolts for only three confirmed German kills. British pilots joke that the best evasive maneuver in AP47 was to unstrap and run around the roomy cockpit, the indestructible machine.

 Something strange was happening that German intelligence failed to notice. P47s absorbed incredible punishment before falling. One aircraft returned from a May 4th mission with 21 cannon holes and over 100 machine gun strikes, damage that would have disintegrated a messmitt or Spitfire. The defining moment came on June 26th, 1943 when Second Lieutenant Robert S.

 Johnson’s formation was bounced by 16 Faul 190s. Johnson’s Thunderbolt took catastrophic damage. Cannon shells shattered the canopy. Hydraulic fluid sprayed everywhere. The engine cowling tore away and fire erupted behind the instrument panel. Wounded and unable to bail out due to a jammed canopy, Johnson pointed his dying aircraft toward England.

 Then it got worse. A lone Faul 190 discovered the crippled Thunderbolt and emptied its entire ammunition loaded into it. The German pilot pulled alongside, staring in disbelief at the flying wreck. He could see Johnson clearly, young blonde, his expression shifting from confidence to confusion to something approaching fear.

 The German emptied his machine guns, pulled alongside again, shook his head in amazement, gave an informal salute, and peeled away. Johnson’s P47 landed at Manston with its engine failing on the runway. The crew chief stopped counting bullet holes after reaching 200. Three of the four main structural members was shot through. Yet, the aircraft had brought him home, learning to kill.

By July 1943, American pilots learned to exploit the P-47’s true strengths. Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Zenki discovered the secret. Don’t turn with them. Don’t climb with them at low altitude. Use your weight. Use your power. Use your guns. The P47’s massive weight became a weapon.

 In a dive, nothing could catch it. From 30,000 ft, AP47 could reach 550 mph, faster than any German fighter could achieve even in a vertical dive. Captain Walker Bud Mahiran developed what became known as boom and zoom tactics. P47 formations would climb to 30,000 ft, roll inverted, and dive when Luwafa fighters appeared below.

 At the bottom of these dives, the American heavy machine guns would speak. German pilots described it as facing a wall of lead. The true revelation. During the August 17th, 1943 dual raid on Schweinffort and Reagansburg, Major David Schilling encountered Meshmitt 110 destroyer aircraft positioning to attack B7s. Schilling<unk>’s flight of four thunderbolts rolled into their attack dive from 28,000 ft.

 Unto Rafazir Henrich, a gunner in one of the Mi 110s, who survived, later recounted, “The American fighters came down like hammers from heaven. The aircraft ahead of us simply came apart. Not shot down, destroyed. Wings separated from fuselage, tail severed. The crew compartment shredded into metal confetti.

 In 2 seconds and me 110 became nothing. Eight Messid 110s were destroyed in less than a minute. The high altitude advantage. By September 1943, the Luwaffa discovered another horrifying reality. The P47’s performance improved dramatically with altitude while German fighters suffered. The turbo supercharged engine maintained rated power up to 30,000 ft.

 German fighters saw performance degrade significantly above 25,000 ft. Aubberlin and Hans Phillip, one of Germany’s most successful aces with 206 victories, encountered this reality fatally on October 8th, 1943 when P47s of the 56th Fighter Group dove on his formation from 32,000 ft. The German fighters were sitting ducks.

Robert Johnson’s combat report was clinical. Opened fire at 300 yd, 30° deflection. observed strikes along entire fuselave. Enemy aircraft exploded. No parachute observed. The paddleblade revolution. In January 1944, the P minus 47DUS22 began arriving with Hamilton standard paddleblade propellers, 13 ft in diameter with broadcord blades that bit into the air like massive or oars.

 climb rate jumped from 2,200 feet per minute to 3,000 feet per minute, matching or exceeding German fighters at most altitudes. Haltman Hines no of JG11 wrote in his combat diary after encountering the new variants. The fat American fighters have learned to climb. These are not the same machines we laughed at last year.

 When you hear those guns, you know death has come calling. Ground attack. supremacy. As P-51 Mustangs took over long range escort duties in spring 1944, P-47 units increasingly focused on ground attack. The D25 variant could carry two 1,000lb bombs under the wings and a 500 pounder under the fuselage equal to early war medium bombers.

 Later variants added 10 5-in high velocity aircraft rockets. Oberris Hans von Luck commanding the 125th Panza Grenadier regiment during Normandy experienced P47 ground attacks firsthand. They came in low, so low you could see the pilots faces. A column of our trucks simply ceased to exist. 20 vehicles transformed into burning wreckage in one pass.

 The psychological effect was devastating. D-Day dominance. On June 6th, 1944, over 500 P47s provided air cover for the invasion, creating an impenetrable umbrella over the beaches. Alberutant Wolf Gang Fisher of JG2 reported, “The sky belonged to the Americans. Thunderbolts were stacked from sea level to 30,000 ft.

 12 fighters from our group went in. I was the only one to return. In June alone, 9inth Air Force Thunderbolts claimed 651 locomotives, 3,847 trucks, 512 tanks and armored vehicles, and 4,553 horsedrawn vehicles destroyed. The Werem was forced to move only at night. Pacific performance. The P47 proved equally devastating in the Pacific.

Colonel Neil Kirby, commanding the 348th Fighter Group, led four P47s against 40 Japanese aircraft over Wiiwak on October 11th, 1943, shooting down six himself and earning the Medal of Honor. Japanese a Saburro Sakai wrote, “We called them monsters. Our 20 mm cannon seemed to have no effect.

 I put dozens of rounds into one thunderbolt and watched it fly away. Their return fire was terrifying. Streams of heavy bullets that tore aircraft apart. Jet killer. Even German jets weren’t safe. On November 27th, 1944, Lieutenant Colonel John C. Meyers shot down in the 262 jet with his P47. Diving from 28,000 ft, Meyer’s Thunderbolt reached speeds approaching 500 mph, fast enough to catch the jet in level flight.

 Meyer’s report noted the enemy aircraft disintegrated under fire. Large pieces, including both engines, separated from the fuselage. The concentrated fire of 850 caliber guns proved more effective than we anticipated against jet aircraft. Industrial annihilation. The ultimate demonstration of American might came during Operation Bowden Plat on January 1st, 1945.

Nearly 900 German fighters launched surprise attacks on Allied airfields. At Y34 airfield, Germans destroyed 22 Thunderbolts on the ground. A captured pilot taunted. What do you think of that? Major George Brooking’s response became legendary. By tomorrow, we’ll have 40 new ones. How long will it take you to replace your pilots? Within 48 hours, factory fresh P47s filled the flight line.

 The Luwaffa lost 271 aircraft and 213 pilots. Irreplaceable losses. The Americans lost 134 aircraft total. All replaced within a week. The numbers Republic Aviation produced. 15,683 P47s during the war. At peak production, the Farmingale factory completed one Thunderbolt every hour around the clock. Each aircraft required 65,000 individual parts, 8 m of electrical wiring, 2,000 lb of aluminum, and 300 lb of rubber.

Ammunition consumption exceeded 10 million rounds per month by mid 1944. The 9inth Air Force alone consumed over 25 million gallons of aviation fuel monthly by late 1944. The United States graduated 30,000 pilots annually by 1944, more than Germany trained in the entire war. Final assessment. In March 1945, Oris Joseph Priller, the same pilot who had mocked P47s as pregnant cows two years earlier, gave an interview deemed too demoralizing for publication.

 The Thunderbolt is the best fighter bomber ever built. Its firepower is unprecedented. Weapons that never jam, never overheat, never run out of ammunition in normal combat. But beyond the machine is what it represents. Unlimited American production. They lose 10, they build 20. We lose one, it’s gone forever.

 We laughed at them in 1943. We’re not laughing now. When you hear those guns, you know death has come calling. They didn’t beat us through better tactics or braver pilots. They buried us under an avalanche of steel and lead. Legacy final statistics in Europe. 3,752 German aircraft destroyed in aerial combat. 3,315 destroyed on the ground.

 86,000 railway cars destroyed. 9,000 locomotives destroyed. 6,000 armored fighting vehicles destroyed. The 9inth Air Force flew 213,873 combat sordies, dropped 120 000 tons of bombs, and fired 135 million rounds of ammunition. At a 1985 reunion of German and American fighter pilots, General Adolf Galland, former head of the Luwaffa Fighter Arm, reflected, “We made a terrible mistake in 1943.

We saw this big heavy fighter and laughed. We were the ones who didn’t understand. The Americans built an American fighter designed around production, firepower, and survivability. They understood that in a war of attrition, the plane that could take punishment and deliver devastating firepower would win. They were right.

Those guns, we called them Roosevelt’s piano because of the sound they made. Once you heard that sound, you never forgot it. Many of my friends heard it for the last time. Conclusion: The P47 Thunderbolt entered combat as an object of derision and ended the war as an instrument of annihilation. Eight synchronized Browning machine guns rewrote the rules of aerial warfare and buried the Luwaffa under an avalanche of lead.

 German pilots laughed at the ungainainely American fighter in April 1943. By May 1945, there were no German pilots left to laugh. The thunder had spoken and the sky belonged to America.