The flying milk jug - P.47 Thunderbolt

Bigger than a P.51 Mustang, with an engine displacing twice the volume of the Merlin. Fastest dive speed in WWll. From D-Day until VE day, Thunderbolt pilots claimed to have destroyed 86,000 railroad cars, 9,000 locomotives, 6,000 armored fighting vehicles, and 68,000 trucks. In the air claimed 20 Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters and four Arado Ar 234 jet bombers in aerial combat as well as fistfuls of Me109s and Fw190s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwqTN5fhMR8:963

One minor correction. The P47 was nicknamed "Jug", which was short for "Juggernaut".

One minor correction.

I tend to agree with you there. A juggernaut in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. This usage originated in the mid-nineteenth century. The English loanword juggernaut in the sense of "a huge wagon bearing an image of a Hindu god" is from the seventeenth century. The figurative sense of the word has origins in mechanics comparable to figurative uses of steamroller or battering ram to mean something overwhelming.

Just adding a bit here. First off check out the ww2 training films on how to fly the jug - Pretty cool:

On a personal note I used to fly from a DDay era airfield called Headcorn in Kent, UK. While driving around I found a small dedication to a group of about a dozen WW2 pilots who died flying from there. They gave their lives flying Jugs with most of them cut down within a few months of DDay on very dangerous ground attack sorties - cutting Axis communication lines and close in ground support for the Allied coastal bridgeheads.

I checked out each of the pilots names on the internet and became focused on one guy in particular called George Rarey. He was killed in late June 1944 and never met his unborn son. Before the war he was a budding New York newspaper cartoonist and kept a cartoon diary of his wartime experience [he also painted personalised all the nose art for the pilots in his squadron].

His son published his work online and its a bitter sweet experience to read it: George Rarey's World War II Air Force Cartoon Journals

It’s a little off topic but if you’re interested in the P47 there’s some interesting insights here.

That link is definitely one to bookmark for later in-depth perusal.

One minor correction. The P47 was nicknamed "Jug", which was short for "Juggernaut".

Not sure where I saw it now, but I read somewhere that the "Jug" referred to the fact that when stood on its nose, it resembled a milk jug.

Wikipedia backs that up (not an infallible source, I know) and has as its citation "Dorr and Donald 1990, pp. 84–85, 88."

A French memorial to Capt. George Rarey in the link below. Damon Rarey, his son, is now also deceased. Makes you realise just how far back WW2, is now.

I noticed the number of WW2 veterans in our Anzac Day march, start to fall away rapidly about 10 or so years ago. It won't be long before the last WW2 veteran is gone.

https://www.database-memoire.eu/prive/en-us/normandy-all-soldiers/64-colleville-r-us/1326-rarey-george-w-379-fs-362-fg

On 09/08/2020 at 11:11 PM, onetrack said:

A French memorial to Capt. George Rarey in the link below. Damon Rarey, his son, is now also deceased. Makes you realise just how far back WW2, is now.

I noticed the number of WW2 veterans in our Anzac Day march, start to fall away rapidly about 10 or so years ago. It won't be long before the last WW2 veteran is gone.

 

https://www.database-memoire.eu/prive/en-us/normandy-all-soldiers/64-colleville-r-us/1326-rarey-george-w-379-fs-362-fg

Yes, so sad to think of all their amazing stories, lost forever. My Uncle by marriage, (Duncan, married to my aunt) had a brother, Don Tilley. At 24 years old, Don Tilley was a Lt Col, DSO, DFC and bar, commanding 19 Sqn SAAF, flying Bristol Beaufighters on interdiction over the Adriatic coast. Amazing people. Don would never talk about the war. I’m glad some of the British RAF vets starting talking towards the end of their lives, chaps like Tom Neil, Geoff Wellum and George Unwin. Invaluable! 

The Jug was huge! Pilots said, the cockpit was so big, you could dodge the flack by unstrapping and running around in the cockpit! Tough too, Robert Johnson the USAAF ace, was badly hit on a fighter sweep and trying to make it out of France. The Jug was clanking and banging, barely flyable and was peppered with bullet holes. His heart sank as he saw what he describes as a beautiful blue coloured Fw190 pulled in behind and let him have it. All Johnson could do, was hunker down behind the seat armour plate. The Jug took a pasting, but flew on. The German pilot pulled up next to him and he could see the German pilot look over the P47. He then pulled back in behind the Jug. He had now used his cannon ammunition, so emptied the remaining machine gun rounds, into the helpless Jug. Still, it flew on. The Fw190 again pulled up alongside. The German pilot again looked the aircraft over, then locked eyes with Johnson, slowly shook his head, saluted, abruptly broke formation and dived away back into France. Johnson’s Jug staggered back across the channel, Johnson making a crash landing at RAF Manston on the Kent coast. After a battle damage assessment, where it was seen, one entire engine piston and barrel, had been sheered off by cannon fire, it was subsequently written off!