Met a WWII Fighter Pilot tonight ***UPDATE

An excellent read on the P-47 is written by Robert Johnson. It is his history of him and his Jug flying for the 56th. A must read.

Grant

Yes, I read that one as a teen. Great read. I just found another memoir by a P-47 pilot -- "Fighter Pilot", by William Dunn. He was a volunteer for the RAF before the US entered the war, and became the first US ace flying a Spitfire. Later he was transferred to the US Army Air Corps and put into a P-47 -- that's a big change. But he said he loved both airplanes, for different things. After his tour in Europe, he went straight to China, and stayed on after the war fighting for the nationalists against the Communists. He finished as an acting lt. colonel and wing commander, but on return to the US, the brass wouldn't even confirm his promotion to captain, and mustered him out. So he reenlisted as a technical sgt. -- that's dedication.

The Republic Thunderbolt had a lot of nicknames -- I like the one the RAF used: "Repulsive Scatterbolt". It may not have been pretty, but it was tough.