Welcome to the Central Florida WW2 Museum's RU-vid page.
The Central Florida WW2 Museum was a project that started in 2005 to build a World War 2 museum in the central Florida area. This project ceased in 2012 due to lack of interest and funding. Regardless, this page continues to serve our original mission and is dedicated to the wonderful veterans who participated in our Veterans History Project.
We hope you will learn from and enjoy the priceless memories shared on this page through personal first-hand accounts of World War II from the perspective of those who witnessed and survived it.
We still use the 81s today. I was a mortarman in the army. Even the tactics he explains are still done to this day. Dig the 81s in and wait for fire missions or ruck the 60s and send them out handheld if your super close.
You should really make this a comparison between the P-47 and the Spitfire. Make far more sense as they played similar roles. And the P-47 wins that one every time.
The P38 was was the US top fighter in ww2. But had limitations in a high altitude European air war. Cold cockpit. Great for Pacific. P47 had limits...if it was high ..it could dive...if it was low...it couldn't climb as well as lighter aircraft. It could take punishment though.
Actually p-51 mustang was the best escort fighter. But only because bombers were not flying at high altitude such as 10000m. They were flying at 6000m to cary more bombs and to bomb more precisely. Gunners of b17 were not equipped by pressurised cockpits and their guns froze on 10000m. Thats why p51 was the best. But if to use bombers accordingly to high flight conception such as b29, then p-47N with long range capacity would be the best cause in 10000m he was 50km/h faster then p51 mustang, and he was made for this conception and had no opponents. P38 lighting was also equipped with turbocharger his payload was 2 time more then p47, big range, great climb rate, but 100km/h slower then p47 and its flight performance was improved only to the end of war like p47s range. So, objectively, p-51 of course was the best escort and all around fighter. Cheap and low fuel consumption. Good performance without turbocharger. I wonder also why p47 maden for high alt fast flight were not equipped by laminare wings like p-51 !??
I read his story while in JR High, around 1964, it was in one of the Balentine Pocket Books. As I read it I gained great respect for the man. Read it again two more times over the years from the same book. I'm in my mid-seventies and still have the book, but my eyes aren't the same and I couldn't read the small print on the yellowed pages. I found re-prints on eBay, and I'm presently reading it again. I kept the cover off that old Pocket Book which was an artistic rendition of a pilot mounting a running P47. Mister Johnson had passed last year if I remember correctly.
I always wondered why so many people think the P51 was so much better than the P 47. The P51 might have been better on gas but compaired to the P47 it was very delicate. The P47 was like an armored tank in the sky.
This is an inside Army Air Force joke: “If you want to impress your girlfriend, fly the sexy P-51 Mustang,…….BUT if you want to come back home alive to marry her, fly the rugged P-47 Thunderbolt.”
I read some where a pilots 47 got shot all to hell and he limped it back to base when he landed the crew went up to inspect and one of the cylinders on Pratt was shot off and missing/ Being a Mechanic this just blows my mind
@CFloridaWW2Museum I typed up a transcript of this video, I can send it to you by email and I would like to see the captions updated with my transcript. Thanks.
Richard McKenna wrote several books about that time and place, the most famous of which was the "The Sand Pebbles" which was made into an academy award winning film. His book of short stories "The Left Handed Monkey Wrench" is also a good read if you're interested in this time.
There is an excellent war movie using the P47D. Titled "Fighter Squadron" with Bob Stack and Ed O'Brien. Filmed with the Air National Guard Thunderbolts gathered in Michigan.
I think you have to take in to account the next: How many P47's saw action compared to the amount of P51's dot not forget the time period each of these planes saw action during WW2.
I'd rather take a P-47 than any Mustang for high altitude long range escort. In the P-47, the higher it flies,the better it flies. P-47 could fly much higher than P-51 and had the most powerful turbo supercharger in WW 2. They never needed to even build the Mustang as the P-47D -23RA (razorback) had all the necessary ingredients to win the war. In the book JG 26 on page 214,Adolf Galland even says," in the P-47D ,the Americans had an airplane capable of driving the Luftwaffe from the skies. Read chapter 14 in the book "Thunderbolt" by Bob Johnson. Clearly the P-47D and the C had shot down the vast majority of their experienced pilots even before "Big Week" which also was a "Thunderbolt show". All groups wanted to continue using the P-47D for long range escort even when the first P-51B'd arrived. It was "Doolittle" that ordered the P-51 to do the high altitude escort, because the P-47D is now needed over HERE. Now needed was a strong tactical fighter bomber which the P-47 demonstrated on it's return flights strafing up targets. WW 2 was won by P-47's in the ETO,not the P-51. If the Pacific theater would have went on longer you would have seen the November P-47 totally replace the 51D. Many authors print books that have incorrect info that continues to be passed around.
Hate to break it, but the statistics quoted here are incorrect. Not his fault, but remain incorrect. The P-51 far out did the P-47 in air combat both in Europe and the Pacific despite arriving later; and Doolittle switched because it far outranged the P-47 (and did so until the November in 1945.) Despite what false claims Greg makes on his channel.
He is correct about the ground destruct record of the P47. However, looking at the official record shows the P51B/C/D/K shot down more than 4900 German planes in air to air combat from JAN, 1944 to wars end may-1945, while the P47 shot down more than 3700 German planes in air to air combat from about MAY-1943 to war's end May-1945. So the P51 shot down more planes in a shorter time than the P47 did. This is official USAAF records, primarily 8th Air Force.
The Mustang could escourt the bomers to Germany and back.. The fatty from Farmingdale could not, they would need gas and they would have to go back to England. When they did this the 109s were sent up to meet the bombers.
I saw an interview with Col Billy Edens, P47 pilot, but have been unable to find it again. An incredible story. His daughter is married to a friend of mine. Met him at their wedding. These guys were the real deal.
The Thunderbolt fought in the harder phase of the air war over Europe. Back when the Allies were on their heels and only starting out with the escorting of the heavy bombers. The Mustang was of course the next step and an amazing kite, but only had to fight a depleted enemy. Through the times when the Luftwaffe were on the back foot and without the decent pilots & strength to fight back in adequate numbers.
My Dad joined the US Navy in the last months of the war. When WW2 ended he was involved in hauling the surrendered Japanese from the Pacific Islands back to their homeland. He said they would kill themselves any time they could find a way to get it done rather than go home and live the rest of their lives. Young men who could have gone home and lived another 50 or 60 years. Dad understood their beliefs and the reason they were killing themselves but he couldn't rationalize it. He didn't hate them or anything like that. The war was over and he would have liked to see them go home and make a good life for themselves after surviving the war. Decades later when I was in highschool a Japanese kid named Kazunori moved in with the family up the street from our house. He and I became friends and Dad would make it a point to talk to Kaz and I think he was glad to get to know a Japanese person under circumstances that weren't awful.
Anything the P51 accomplished was made possible by P47's clearing the skieš over Europe previously. There were P51 pilots who flew 50 missions and never saw a German plane.
My dad was in the Navy and he was at Saipan after US forces took over. He told at night some Japanese soldiers would go through the cans near the mess hall looking for food. The sailors left the Japanese alone and in turn the Japanese did not bother anybody.
I was a sailor on a nuclear powered submarine in the eighties' and one night I went up on the sail (conning tower) just to see what the ocean looked like when the only solid mass to look at was the boat I was on and the moon. It was a clear night and there was nothing as far as the eye could see. So, I cannot imagine a bomb with intent blowing up near my submarine. It is humbling to view the ocean like this at night and even dreadful. Knowing someone was actively trying to kill you...oh my gosh. How terrifying is that? Thank you to this sailor who expressed a story for us in America. It personally means a lot to me.
