Thunderbolt!: The P-47 [Paperback]

Robert S. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

They were outnumbered and underrated. They were fresh from the training fields in American and ordered to fight an enemy that had rewritten the book of war and brutally controlled a continent and the air above it. But the men of the 56th fighter group had courage and, more importantly, they had the P-47 Thunderbolt. This is the incredible story of the U.S. 56th Fighter Group as told by one of its best pilots, Robert S. Johnson, who would rack up a score of twenty-eight kills against the Luftwaffe and become one of America's top aces—one of a special breed of men who changed the course of history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martin Caidin is the best-selling writer of the World War II military aviation history classics SAMURAI! and FORK-TAILED DEVIL: THE P-38 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ibooks, Inc. (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596872748
• ISBN-13: 978-1596872745
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,931,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The men who flew the P-47, January 10, 1998

By 

Ralph Brandt "brandre" (York, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thunderbolt (Mass Market Paperback)

Bob Johnson describes more than the P-47, he describes the men who flew them and the things they did to get into battle. Johnson, a top scoring ace, in the league with Dick Bong and Eddie Rickenbacher failed the gunnery test at the end of fighter school with a score of 4.7 percent but was sent to battle with his unit. In his first battle he pulled off, thinking his plane had a problem because he had never fired all six of the guns on the plane at one time. He tells of how men died when the P-47 went into compressibility dives, a condition unknown before and how they met the ME-109 and FW-190 fighters, head to head and won. He tells how he came to love the fighter that could bring him back, with hundreds of bullet holes and some cannon shells imbedded in the seat armor, certain death for the pilot in most planes. But not in the heavy P-47.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An average American boy who became an ace pilot.

, November 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunderbolt (Mass Market Paperback)

Thunderbolt! is ace pilot Major Robert S. Johnson's own account of his days with the celebrated 56th Fighter Group over Europe during World War Two. Johnson's very personable narrative takes the reader from his boyhood days in Lawton, Oklahoma, where his fascination with aviation first developed, through flying lessons, his enlistment and training with the air force, and his many missions over Germany behind the stick of a P-47 Thunderbolt.

The cockpit of the large, sturdy and power Republic P-47 is the setting for a large portion of the book. Missions flown over Germany against the deadly Luftwaffe pilots and their superb planes are covered in the first person in gripping fashion. Though his recollection of events after ten years cannot be completely accurate, the author nonetheless describes tense battles in remarkable detail, down to the combat technique of each adversary. Besides his own experiences, the author also relates hair raising stories of colleagues who ditched at sea, bailed out over enemy territory, suffered catastrophic equipment failures or were in fact killed.

Though military pilots are often categorized as arrogant and self-centred (necessary traits as the split-second demands of aerial combat require the pilot to be unhindered by self-doubt), Johnson's storytelling is uniquely free of pretense and self-adulation. In fact, using his easy and informal writing style, Johnson has included his misfortunes and blunders for the reader's amusement. It should be said however, that Johnson's descriptions of battle are a little too fond, and he sounds entertained by killing. A disappointment is that Johnson does not tell curious readers what personal qualities, habits, or techniques he thinks caused his spectacular twenty-eight vietories with zero planes lost. The book also lacks the technical content which a nostalgic reader would enjoy.

Thunderbolt! is an enjoyable autobiography of an otherwise ordinary boy who, despite failures, went on to become a very gifted pilot. Perhaps Johnson's story says what kinds of fellows a large number of Air Force youths were, and so gives a more personal description of the military pilot to supplement one's historical knowledge.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good story, poorly supported, August 4, 2011

By 

The Wily One (Denver) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thunderbolt! The P-47 (Military History (Ibooks)) (Paperback)

The other reviews of this book are valid ratings. Johnson tells a good story, in the go-get-em boys! style of the 50s, when this was first written.

The reason I am posting this review is to let other potential buyers know that this "ibook" is published entirely WITHOUT any maps or photographs. How a company manages to publish a military biography without these is unbelievable.

For that reason, I cannot recommend buying this edition, and am giving it 1 star; the story is a four, however. The text of this book has been published many times under other titles. Hopefully, one of them has the pictures that I remember from first reading this in the late 50s and those are what I would urge the reader to consider.