P-47 Thunderbolt at War Paperback – November 15, 2007

This may be the best book about the P-47 Thunderbolt that you ever get your hands on, to inform you about anything and everything you might have ever even wondered about, concerning the P-47 fighter.
I had already bought "P-47 Pilots: The Fighter-Bomber Boys," which is an excellent book, but this one promised to tell much more on the subject, plus a lot of it was in color.
And boy, does it deliver.
There's a lot to read, and that's good. It'll give me something to do when I'm in the mood to reminisce about WWII, which perhaps we all do, from time to time.
Maybe one of the reasons the P-47 is so intriguing to me is that it was made in my home town, and my late aunt worked at Republic Aviation, as one of the "Rosie The Riveters," during the war.
To realize that the plane was such a major factor in winning the war is very comforting, and even quite profound, when you think about it.
Probably like many people, I really didn't realize just what an incredible machine it actually was.
What's kind of disturbing is to imagine what we would have done without it.
Something I don't even like to ponder.
Of course, there were many other planes that contributed greatly to the US victory, but the Thunderbolt was, without a doubt, the top dog in the fight, even though it didn't get the acclaim that others did; primarily the P-40 and the P-51.
But it definitely got the job done. It did it all: High-flying bomber escort, able to make the complete round trip, to the target and back, and even do a little "cherry-picking" of select targets of opportunity on the way back; out-performed virtually all German and Japanese planes it came up against, and an absolutely devastating ground-attack fighter-bomber, which could almost "fly through a brick wall," and still make it back.
There wasn't much that the P-47 didn't do - and it may have actually been the catalyst for our being able to defeat Germany, because we were out-gunned in the tank department, and tanks were Hitler's specialty.
But it didn't matter, because tanks were an extremely juicy target for the P-47, along with the dreaded 88 ack-ack guns, or the quad-mounted 20mm cannons, or anything else on the ground that couldn't find a hole to hide in.
Those were two of the most terror-inducing weapons that the Nazis possessed, and the P-47 could arrive on the scene, assess the situation, and shortly eliminate any and all of the menacing and deadly ground-fire.
The P-47 pilot could see the flak coming, all the way up from the ground, and slip and slide like a boxer, dodging the shells as they went by.
In fact, they gave him the perfect target, because all he had to do was to spray his .50s tracers down to the source of the upcoming fire, to wipe out the gun.
And, guess what? No more gun = no more flak.
In addition to the 500 and 1,000 lb. bombs that the Thunderbolt carried, which could instantly evaporate any tank, those eight .50-cal. machine guns, each one with 500 rounds of high-explosive, armor-piercing ammunition, just simply chewed up everything they were aimed at - such as locomotives, plus the entire train, as well as troops, trucks, gun emplacements, and especially tanks. They might not have been able to penetrate the turret or the hull armor of the Panzers, but they could most definitely penetrate the deck plates - blowing up the engine and setting the fuel ablaze, and gutting out the undercarriage and treads, to leave it sitting high and dry, unable to move, while it burned to a cinder.
Plus, since they usually arrived suddenly, with no warning, they might easily catch a tank commander with his hatch open, casually sitting on the edge of the hatch, and a shower of .50 cal. shells comes zipping down from the skies, taking him out, and a few rounds get inside the turret, bouncing around and causing all manner of havoc.
It's a lead-pipe cinch that several rounds of high-explosive .50-cal. shells ricocheting around inside the turret will immediately eliminate the occupants, and most likely set off the ammunition for the gun, resulting in a dead tank - blowing it sky high.
So, what we didn't have in heavy tanks to counter the Panzers and the Panthers and the Tigers, we more than made up for with the Tank Devastators - a.k.a. the Thunderbolt.

I just finished reading this fine book about the P-47. It was written by an author who truly respected the abilities of this large and powerful fighter plane. The author gives background information about the pedigree of the P-47 with interesting narrative about Alexander de Seversky and Alexander Kartveli, the men who produced the design and the plane, men born in the same area in Russia and emigrated to the US. The P-47 ancestors included a variety of Seversky aircraft leading to the P-35. This company became Republic and produced the P-43 and the the P-47. Most of the rest of the book deals about the building of the P-47 followed by its introduction into the military and its use in the ETO and the Pacific as well as it use during World War II by France, Brazil and Mexico (as well as Britain and USSR). Mention was made of post-WWII use by France, Yugoslavia and many Latin American countries This was a book that I couldn't put down. It was well written, well illustrated and very enjoyable reading.

There have been other valuable sources of information on the P-47. Warren Bodie's 1994 book is the "gold standard" and is more academic, much more encyclopedic, and better illustrated. This does not detract from Cory Graff's book which although less complete, is more enjoyable reading for the readers generally interested in World War II and aviation.

William Hess (1994) and Roger Freeman (1978) have interesting and well illustrated books. Squadron is coming out with a P-47 in Action publication which will probably be great for those interested in the identification of the different P-47 models and colors.

Again, I found "P-47 Thunderbolt at War" enjoyable to read and recommend it highly.

This is a good book telling the story of real WWII fighter aces. I recommend it to people who want to know more about fighter pilots.