HiRes Weathered P47C-2-RE Thunderbolt "56th.FG,61st.FS." for Emil's ETO 9th.USAAF.& 2nd.TAF Campaign

This Weathered P47C (circa: June 1943) skin (HV-P) s/n41-6235 is based on an aircraft of 
the 61st.Fighter Squadron, 56st.Fighter Group of the 8th.USAAF stationed at Horsham St.Faith, 
England engaged in the Allies Battle for Europe. 
One of the most successful Fighter Groups in the ETO with a total of 1000+ German fighters to it's credit.

This aircraft "Half Pint" was the mount of Lt. Robert S.Johnson. 
Capt.Robert Johnson's unique story occurred during a mission in which he and other pilot's
of 'Zemke's Wolfpack' were assigned to escort the withdrawal of 250 USAAF heavies returning
from a raid on Luftwaffe airbasr at Villacoublay.

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Pilot's Story

On June 26,1943, Robert S. Johnson was one in a flight of sixteen P-47 Thunderbolts assigned to escort 
B-24 bombers to their target. Bob was the first to sight approximately sixteen Focke-Wulf 190's 
approaching his group from 5 o'clock high but was not able to get any response from his group 
when he tried to warn them over the radio. On a previous mission he had been the first to sight enemy fighters 
and broke formation to attack them, successfully breaking up the attack and claiming his first victory. 
However, he was severely chastised for this by the Wing Cmdr. and was told never to break formation again, 
no matter what. On this occasion he held his position and on the first pass of the enemy fighters six Thunderbolts 
were shot down, including Bob's ship "Half Pint".His aircraft fell out of control for several thousand feet 
and was on fire. The fire extinguished itself and Bob regained control of the aircraft. 
He had not worn his goggles that day ( the only time he did this) and his eyes were soaked in hydraulic fluid 
making it difficult to see. He had two bullet fragments in his right leg. 
Another bullet had nicked his nose and shattered part of the wind screen. 
Bob tried to bail out but discovered that metal behind the cockpit had been splintered in such a way 
as to prevent the canopy from sliding back more than six inches. With a parachute on there was obviously 
not enough space to slip through to safety. The only option left was to try to fly the Thunderbolt home, 
or at least to friendly territory, if the aircraft could make it. 
Somewhere over France another Focke-Wulf 190 spotted Bob flying alone and made a firing pass at him. 
The Fw-190 had only 7.9mm ammo on board and although every round of it was fired into Bob's plane, 
the German was not able to finish the job. The German pilot then realized Johnson's rather defenseless position 
and decided to pull in close to inspect his would-be quarry. 
The German pulled his left wing in behind Bob's right wing so that the wingtips of each plane were but 
a few feet from touching each other's fuselage. From his close vantage point, 
the German calmly inspected Bob's plane from nose to tail and shook his head, not understanding 
how the P-47 could still fly so perfectly. Bob kept looking over at the German pilot. 
He was a good looking man with blue eyes. He was not a rookie. He projected confidence and had somewhat of 
an aristocratic air about him. Occasionally their gazes met. Bob could clearly see the German pilot 
and noticed he was wearing a light blue leather or suede flying jacket with a white scarf wrapped around his neck 
and tucked into the jacket. He had on a dark brown summer style flying helmet and his black shatter-proof goggles 
were pushed up above his forehead. In this manner the two men flew alongside each other for almost 30 minutes. 
When reaching the English channel near Dieppe, France, The German pilot looked over at Bob one last time. 
He raised a black-gloved hand and saluted Bob, then peeled of to the right to head for his own base, 
presumably Abbeville, the home of JG26.Bob flew on toward the English coastline, constantly in radio contact 
with a coastal air controller. He was low over the water now and thought he might have to ditch into the channel. 
Surprisingly, he was able to gain enough altitude to clear the cliffs and was vectored to the nearest airfield 
by the controller.Bob declined, opting to fly to his own airfield. He landed safely, but his Thunderbolt had 
to be scrapped. It had over 210 holes in it, with at least twenty being deadly 20mm cannon rounds 
which had initially brought him down.He walked into HQ for debriefing and a shot of bourbon just in time 
to hear a live radio interview on a German radio station that some officers had tuned in. 
It was the German pilot who had just flown with him! Although they did not get his name, 
Bob was sure from the interview that it was the same pilot from his description of events. 
The German mentioned Bob's identification letters on the side of the Thunderbolt. 
He thought that Bob must have crashed into the Channel due to his low altitude and the amount of damage 
to his aircraft. It is believed that the German pilot was Georg Peter Eder of JG2 who was 
ferrying a JG26 aircraft that day.

Capt. Robert S.Johnson would survive the war as one of the highest scoring aces in the USAF history
with an impressive tally of 28 aerial victories.

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The aircraft's colour scheme and Squadron markings where derived from a coloured aircraft 
profile plate of a painting called "Not My Turn to Die" by Jim Laurier 
The colours are as accurate as possible with the use of standard EAW Palette. 
Further reference material came from a Polish & English publication #17
'Republic P-47 Thunderbolt' vol.1 by Tomasz Szlagor & Krzysztof Janowicz.... 

Special thanks to Alessandro Borges for his excellent EAW Batch File Converter V1.5 Utility...

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Original HiRes P47C Modder Notes:
Zip folder includes all *.3dz, *.tpc, *.pcx and conversion Batch File utilities. 
These batch file utilities are courtesy of John "Chompy" Masters who also created the 3d model. 
Much thanks to you John!


Installation
Simply extract only the *.3dz & *.tpc files into your EAW folder, or install into your skin manager program as it's 
instructions reccomend. To uninstall, just delete these files from your directory.
This particular skin was created to be used in the P47C Slot for Emil's 9thUSAAF/2ndTAF Campaign.....
Install the *.3dz & *.tpc files into your EAW directory.....


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Skinner Note:
Would like to extend my personal thanks to John "Chompy" Masters for his excellent work in making the 
movable flaps and sliding canopy addon for this sircraft model plus the remodelling of the verticle 
and horizontal tail assembly.

Enjoy and watch your six....

David "Skylark" Phillips     