P47 Thunderbolt

This article is fucking 'Murican. Expect copious amounts of Freedom with an infrequent side of Awesome.

Brrrt before brrrt could even be conceived.

"The P-47 wasn't so bad because we could out turn and out climb it, initially. But that big American fighter could roll with deceiving speed and when it came down on you in a long dive, there was no way you could get away from it."

– Walter Wolfrum

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is one of the most iconic aircraft in all of World War II and one of the more successful fighters utilized by the USAAF. The Thunderbolt was quite large compared to most other fighters of the time, and it earned its nickname "The Jug" due to it's rotund profile. The P-47 was also ARMORED AS FUCK and could shrug off fire that would tear a lesser plane to shreds (which is to say, it was one of the few fighters of the war that actually had significant armor coverage over certain vital areas).

Mid War

The Stats.

In Real Life

When you absolutely positively need to make some fresh swiss cheese, accept no substitutes.

The Thunderbolt was an aircraft developed by the now-defunct Republic company during the Second World War. American fighter design during the early part of the war favored survivability over other factors. The Thunderbolt achieved this goal while also supporting no less than EIGHT Browning .50 Caliber machine guns (most American fighters only had 4-6 Brownings).

The Thunderbolt lacked the maneuverability of other aircraft, such as the Spitfire, Mustang, or BF 109, but they got around this in two ways. The first was that American pilots just didn't give a shit and flew straight in guns blazing. In fact the Germans were often shocked by the balls out suicidal bravery of such tactics. Given that said batshit insane pilots also had eight .50 cals and a highly durable aircraft did not make things any easier. The second factor was the P-47's superior dive characteristics. A common tactic for P-47 pilots was to gain altitude, dive towards whatever poor idiot made themselves a target, and hold down the trigger until said target disintegrated.

That said, despite the aircraft's ruggedness and the pilots' bravery, the P-47's downside of weighing almost 8 tons eventually proved too much: while it claimed an impressive tally of around 4,000 air-to-air kills (total over all theaters) it also suffered around 3,500 combat losses once the enemy realized they should not dive away, thus denying "The Jug" its major advantage. This led to the P-47 being replaced by the P-51 Mustang in the primary fighter/bomber escort role due to the Mustang's superior performance at the B-17's operational altitude.

However, the P-47 received a second lease of service in another role. Due to its durability and large weapons load the Thunderbolt developed a secondary reputation as an effective fighter-bomber, providing close air support for ground units and advancing armies. The latter part of the air war in Europe had General Doolittle order his P-47's to strafe Luftwaffe airfields to great effect, though this decision was not terribly popular among bomber crews at the time.