OT: WWII P47 Fighter Footage *LINK*

Thanks Robert

Mike Farinella

>Those are my heroes too. And to think we liberated France.

Re: OT: WWII P47 Fighter Footage

Randy Johnson Connersville IN

>Great video. It seemed like the Jugs shown were from a lot more than one group though.

It's hard to realize looking at the clip how BIG a P-47 is.

Re: OT: WWII P47 Fighter Footage

Mike Rubes, Apex, NC

>Hi Robert,

Thanks for the link. Very interesting stuff. It's funny to me how I always think of WWII as a "black and white" war as you seldom see color footage of it. That was neat to see. I think the color film makes it more "real" to me, somehow.

Thanks again,

Mike

Very Neat

Joe Burke

>As a kid I was very interested in WWII aircraft of all sorts. Several years ago I met with some clients around Veterans Day, and the husband was wearing a jacket with a P-47 emblem on it. I quizzed him about it, and he told me he had indeed flown P-47s in Germany. What a neat guy to talk to.

I did another job for them just after Christmas and got to talk to him again. I quizzed him about the drop tanks they'd used. He told me they were aluminum, but that he thought some of the first ones the British used were wooden. He said they'd littered Europe with 100 gallon drop tanks. He said the locals below would use them for bath tubs.

He was a tad annoyed at the movie "Saving Private Ryan". The movie depicted a P-51 destroying the tank, which according to my guy was far from true. That was a P-47s job. That as opposed to a sports car like a P-51.

Those Thunderbolts were built like tanks. He said if you were ever in trouble all you had to do was dive and watch everything else stay behind.

Interesting footage.

Wow! Thank you Robert!

Dominic Greco in Richboro PA

>As an Air Enthusiast, I always had a deep appreciation and fondness for the prop driven fighters of WWII. As a kid, my room used to be filled with models of them. The P-51 Mustang, the P-38 Lightening, F4U Corsair, and the P-47 Thunderbolt were among my favorites. They seemed to embody elegance, grace, and sheer power. Hearing the roar of that P-47's HUGE radial engine gave me goosebumps!

What great footage! And did anyone other than me notice how YOUNG those pilots were? They were just a bunch of kids! What guts they must have had.

Dominic

Re: OT: WWII P47 Fighter Footage

Robert R Clough - Thorncraft

>Robert, why would anyone think of this as political? Second, I remember when the P47 came out, it was considered so fast, why it flew faster than 400 MPH! Then it was overshadowed by the P51.

Hey Dominic...

Martin from Granbury

>when you're that young, you're too naive (or maybe the word is stupid?) to be scared. You think you are ten feet tall and invincible. Besides, there is almost nothing more exhilarating than dropping live ordnance and shooting rockets and bullets at the bad guys.

The footage is great, and yes, they had big brass ones, even if they didn't realize it at the time.

Amazing.

Jason Roehl in Mulberry, IN

>I wouldn't much care to hop in a car that started that rough today (well, okay, I would if I had to), much less an airplane. I guess I'm from a different era. Those pilots were heroes, nothing less.

Jason

A Bad Guy's Viewpoint

George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>Good Morning Bob,

I have breakfast every Thursday@McDonalds with a dwindling group of WWII vets of all Services. One of our number is a former Panzer trooper, whose tank was attacked by a P-47 in Normandie, just after D-Day. They abandoned the tank and huddled in a ditch while the Jugs beat them up, destroying the tank. Fritz says one the planes get so close he made eye contact with the pilot, and noted the color of the scarf the Army pilot was wearing.

George

Re: WWII color and more P-47 stuff.

Rod Peterson -- Ormond Beach

>My father learned in the '80s that there was a dearth of color action pics from WWII when he was contacted by Jeff Ethell, an aviation enthusiast and author. Jeff had seen a couple of my father's color pictures in an 8th AF Historical Society publication and wanted to use some in a book he was preparing. Dad had taken a 35mm camera with him to Europe, and my mother, who was a WAC (yes, my mother wore Army boots!) in a photo lab would send him color film, otherwise virtually unobtainable in Europe. He took lots of action shots when he could and later had them developed. I grew up with them not knowing how special they were. Anyway, they got together and Jeff published the book. That's not the only place they were published. If you see color pictures of B-17s (particularly if they have a black triangle with a big white "U" on the tail—see below) chances are it's one of my dad's (see if it has a credit to Les Peterson).

Jeff Ethell had an interesting career—son of a career Air Force officer, he dreamed of being a fighter pilot himself, but was disqualified by a vision anomaly. That didn't prevent him from flying, however, or logging a lot of time in aircraft any one of us would love to fly. He did a series of episodes for the old Wings channel that featured different aircraft, particularly, WWII types. Sadly, he was killed in a P-38 about ten years ago.

To bring this back around to the Thunderbolt, I saw Jeff's episode on the P-47, and he commented as he was landing it that you didn't want to waste any runway landing long, because the Jug would use every bit of what was there. He said there was a saying in aviation that if you could build a runway around the world, Republic could build an airplane that would use all of it.

I also find it interesting that you can always tell a Republic fighter from the front because of the distinctively wide track the landing gear has. All of them, the P-47, the F-84 (both straight wing and swept wing versions), the F-105, and the A-10.

Rod

Small world...Jeff Ethell...

Martin from Granbury

>Rod, and other aviation buffs...

One of my best friends in the Navy gave Jeff Ethell a demo ride in the S-3B, I think it was even at the boat. "Joey" said he was a great guy, very knowledgeable about aviation.

Now, a little sea story for you...

There are no restroom facilities in the S-3. If you have to pee, which is typical on a long flight, you use a "piddle pack", essentially a ziplock with a sponge in it. If you have to do more than pee, you have to get creative, as there are no provisions for that, even with 6+ hour missions. The $6000 toilet seat went on the P-3, the S-3 guys have to do without.

So my buddy had to go. He gets his helmet bag, gives the plane to the NFO, and crawls back in the tunnel to do his business. When he gets back to the ship, he tosses his helmet bag over the side, and is promptly given the call sign "Steamer". He hates the call sign. In the Navy, the more you hate your call sign, the more it sticks. Well, his stuck like stink on...well, you know.

He was only rescued a few years later when it was noticed that he bore a striking resemblance to Joey Buttofouco. When he was given the "Joey" call sign, he was more than happy to accept the change.

Always interesting to read your posts, Rod.

Warning: Naval toilet humour! *LINK*

Mark Harrison -- Brisbane, Australia

>Reminds me of a story I was told by a submariner when I was in the Royal Australian Navy...

We have only ever had diesel subs. At that time we had British Oberon class submarines (see the link). The accommodation on these boats were just short of appalling. Even the heads (toilets to landlubbers) were extremely narrow. Big men had to drop their trousers before backing into them.

So the story goes, a very large engineer (Stoker in the RN and RAN) has to take a number two so he drops his overalls and backs in.

Unfortunately, given the confined space, he failed to observe that the overalls didn't clear the bowl. He comes back out and flicks the overalls back up as usual but was greeted from behind by a very unpleasant surprise. I believe that the sound included a dull thwack to the back of the head!!!

Apparently he wasn't Mr Popularity that day in the confines of a submarine! :-)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_class_submarine

Your story tops mine!

Martin from Granbury

>

A dubious achievement._______

Rod Peterson -- Ormond Beach

>

Question from a younger "vet"

Brint K in Atlanta

>I was a "blackshoe" from 1983-1990; closest I got to planes was 3 months stationed on the USS JOHN F KENNEDY (CV 67). And since my stateroom was directly underneath the flight deck (#3 wire, IIRC), I got pretty d*** close...

Can someone explain to me the footage of guys riding on the wings during taxi?

Re: Question from a younger "vet"

Dale Lenz

>Just my guess, as the "wingman" was giving hand-signals to go straight ahead. When we moved aircraft, there was always a someone(s) watching the wings, wingman, for items that could damage them. My time frame was in the early to mid 70's.

We Called Them "Wing Walkers"

George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>

U-2 . . .

[email protected]

>Must have missed this one but it takes three big guys on one wing with the pogo stick to taxi in a U-2. Blind-folded of course.

Re: Question from a younger "vet"

Ric Taylor

>Brint,

In many aircraft, especially tail-draggers, the pilot has no forward visibility or very limited visibility while taxiing on the ground, because the forward fuselage blocks his view. Someone riding on the wing can see forward very well, and he keeps the pilot from running into something and ruining everyones' day.

Without the wing-riders, the pilot has to taxi in a zig-zag fashion and look out both sides to see what is in front of him.

Ric

Old, no-longer-so-bold Pilot (but smarter)

Certainly True

George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>Good Afternoon Rick,

We always had to taxi in a series of "S" turns when I was flying tail draggers in high school. Alone in a J-3 Cub you flew from the rear seat which placed you even further back. It was hard enough for me to read the guages, let alone see where I was going. Visability improved after you got the tail up on takeoff.

George

Re: Makes perfect sense

Dale Lenz

>I thought of that but I'd of be talking purely on speculation. Thanks for the info.

Yep, that's it

Lee Schierer - McKean, PA

>When I went to flight school we had tail draggers and we had to do zig zags to see where we were going. The guys riding on the wings could see better than the pilot I'm sure and would make it unnecesssary to zig zag. It would get you off the ground faster and save wear and tear on the landing gear.

Lee

Re: Yep, that's it

DickL in Tampa

>Some of you guys must really be old. :) When I went through pilot training, there were no tail draggers left. (61A- Craig AFB) Later on I was an IP in the Goon, so I got to fly one tail dragger, and a good one too.