P-47 s/n 42-29150 Timeline
- 1944
Summer
- 1944 Sep
19
- 1944 Sep
21
- 1944 Sep
30
- 1944
October
- Arrived Liverpool, GB
- Transported to Speke airport, Liverpool, GB
- Re-assembled
- Tested
by Lockhead
- 1944
December
- Issued
to 511 FS
- Christened "Dottie Mae"
- 1944 Dec
16 First Combat Mission
- 1945 May
8 Last Combat Mission
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The P-47
During the spring of 1944 The P47 D-25 and D-26 models were the first to
have the rear fuselage cut down and the fitment of a bubble canopy. This
change finally dispensed with the 20-degree blind spot and the
‘bubbletop’ became the definitive P47 model.
1944 - Summer
Republic P47-D-28-RA 42-29150 was manufactured at Evansville, Indiana
during the summer of 1944 under contract AC-24579, project number
92833-R. She was one of 1,028 D-28’s to be manufactured there with the
serials 42-28439 to 42-29466. (In total both Evansville (RA code) and
Farmingdale (RE code) produced 1778 D-28 models).
The D-28 model was
fitted with a Pratt and Whitney R-2800-59 Double Wasp (2000hp/2430hp
emergency boost) engine connected to a 13ft diameter Curtiss Electric
paddle blade propeller. |
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Bound for Duty
‘29150 was signed off and became available on 18
September
1944, being allocated to SOXO. (SOXO was the shipping code for the
Eighth Air Force). On 19 September it was delivered to Air Transport
Command who flew her to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the same day. On 21
September she flew onto Newark, New Jersey where she was cocooned ready
for her trans-Atlantic ship journey to the UK, departing New York on 30
September.
Around mid October, ‘29150 arrived at Liverpool docks and was unloaded.
As with hundreds of other US aircraft, ‘29150 was transported to Speke
airport (now John Lennon airport), Liverpool and re-assembled and air
tested by Lockheed Overseas Corporation ready for issue to the 8AF.
‘29150 did not end up with the Eighth, but instead was issued to the
Ninth. Interestingly, but not unusual, the record card for ‘29150 did
not carry the new shipping code GLUE of the 9AF.
 On 8 September, two new pilots
arrived at the 511FS, 405FG of the 9AF at Strip A-8 Picauville, France.
These two pilots were Lt. Larry Kuhl and Lt. Robert Torbet. (They were
probably replacements for five pilots who were KIA and one POW who had
been lost during the last two weeks of August). Five days later the
405FG moved en mass from A-8 to their new base at Site A-64 St. Dizier,
also in France. Both pilots carried out local flying before going on
their first mission on 3 and 4 October respectively.
On
1 November, a P47D ‘Razorback’ model (high back); coded K4-S ‘Little
Audrey’ of 511FS was relegated to second line duties due to the arrival
of new bubbletop examples. The code K4-S remained unused until mid
December 1944, when ‘29150 was issued to the 511FS. ‘29150 arrived on
site with lower D-Day stripes to the fuselage as well as a black cowling
and tailplane/fin bands.
Lt Kuhl, no longer a rookie pilot (17
missions!) had been with the 511FS for nearly three months and became
the guardian of a new $83,000 Thunderbolt. Although it was marked up as
K4-S, Kuhl had no personnel connection with this code as during the
first three month’s, he flew whichever P47 was available.
The
Paint
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An Artists rendering of
what she looked like.
All Drawings by
Kjetil Aakra |
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In
addition to the code K4-S of ‘C’ Flight, ‘29150 was painted with a
yellow cowling ring and yellow canopy; the colours of 511FS. (The two
other squadrons of 405FG, 509FS carried red and 510FS had blue markings
to these areas). The letter C was also added to the rudder trim. As was
often the case with many units within the 9AF, the 405FG had no Group
colours. Tail colours were generally used, but only to identify aircraft
within each Flight (A Flt – Red, B Flt – White, C Flt – Blue and D Flt –
Yellow) but for some reason blue did not seem to be applied. In December
44, ‘29150 was painted with yellow bands to her fin/rudder and to each tailplane and in early 1945 these were changed to red. As ‘29150
belonging to C Flight, the colours on the tailplane remain a mystery. As
was often the case, the flights were assembled on available aircraft and
pilots so flight colours were generally ignored.
The Name
 On
being assigned the new ‘Jug’, Kuhl commissioned a ground crew member of
511FS to do the artwork. On the port side of ‘29150 he had the name
‘Dottie Mae’ (his wife at the time) as well as some of the obligatory nose art. This was based on the model posing on the 10 of Clubs from a
Las Vegas playing card. Additionally, the pilots’ details - Lt. L. A. Kuhl
was painted below the cockpit whilst on the other side were painted the
names of the Crew Chief S/Sgt J A Thomas, Assist Crew Chief Sgt E A
Bergstrom and armourer Sgt L V Hitchman. ‘29150 was now armed and ready
to take on air support roles on behalf of the US 3rd Army
amongst others.
What must be taken into account is
that most P47 loses occurred from flak rather than air combat. It might
have been safer for the 8AF P47’s undertaking escorts in late 1944-45,
but the P47’s of the 9AF still had to contend with heavy and accurate
flak during ground attack sorties right up until the war’s end. Also, a
high proportion of 8AF P47’s loses actually occurred whilst undertaking
ground strafing on their return from escort duties. It was in the nature
of the job, that there was a high probability that ‘29150 would be
damaged or lost within a matter of weeks.
On
16 December, ‘29150 undertook her first combat mission, the first of
ninety over the next five months. Her primary role was air support for
the US Army, but on other occasions she hit targets of opportunity –
airfields, bridges, barges, all types of ground vehicle, gun
emplacements etc. All involved dive-bombing, low level bombing and
strafing. ‘29150 was damaged on three, maybe four occasions by flak. It
happened to be on an aerial demonstration flight on the last day of the
war that ‘29150 was finally lost and stricken from US records.
†Mark Sheppard
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