Quote:
Originally Posted by kalender1973
Hm, my number is from Prien JG1/11. It could be other mission or combined mission with 15th Air Force. Or my memory is not good 
I can not verify your info about range of P47 but it was primary escort fighter until march/april and in this time the 8th Air force attack e.g. Eisenach, Marburg, Magdeburg,Schweinfurt, Stuttgart, Regensburg, all points deep in Germany. Who provide the escorts? |
The P-47 was used for the short/medium range escort.
At the end of July 1943, the P-47s got the leaky 200gal drop tanks. This allowed the P-47 to reach the German/Dutch border. In mid Jan 1944 the much better 150gal d/t was introduced. This allowed the P-47 to reach the Dummer Lake area.
On May 8 1944 the 56th FG claimed 6 enemy a/c while the 352cd FG claimed 27 enemy a/c out of the total of 44 enemy a/c claimed that day. The ascendancy of the P-51 is clearly shown.
Source of my data for May 12 1944
http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/