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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 355
EAN num: 9781846033155
ISBN number: 1846033152
Label: Osprey Publishing
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 80
Printing Date: August 19, 2008
Publishing house: Osprey Publishing
Release Date: August 19, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 272073
Studio: Osprey Publishing
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The P-47 climbed like a homesick angel and dived for the deck like a rock. This was due to the mighty power of its air-cooled, turbo-supercharged Double Wasp engine, combined with a brutish barrel-shaped airframe. The deadly firepower was totally destructive. The world's largest single-engined fighter when the USA entered the war, the P-47's 18 cylinders vibrated the whole aircraft like it was going to destroy itself. More Thunderbolts were built than any other American fighter in history. In December 1942, the P-47 was the only readily available American-produced high performance fighter. At altitudes up to 15,000 ft, its rival, the Bf 109G, had all-round better performance than the P-47C, most notably in rate of climb. The Thunderbolt's performance progressively improved above 15,000 ft, and between 25,000 to 30,000 ft it surpassed those of the enemy fighters, except for rate of climb and acceleration - the P-47 was double the weight of a Bf 109. Although the latter could initially accelerate well in a dive, the P-47C soon overhauled it and easily out-dived the Messerschmitt from high altitudes. P-47 pilots were advised to avoid combats at low altitudes and slow speeds. Thunderbolt pilots were synonymous with the might of the Eighth Air Force's fighter strength from the summer of 1943 until the end of the conflict, during which time the P-47 was operated in the escort, ground strafing and dive-bombing roles. The P-47 was flown exclusively by Gabby Gabreski and Robert Johnson, the top two scoring American fighter aces in the ETO/MTO. All told, the Thunderbolt was flown by 18 of the top 30 American aces in Europe during the war, while the Bf 109G was the staple Defense of the Reich fighter from 1943 to war's end. The numerous aspects of the pilots' training, the tactics they used once in combat and the leading edge technology employed by these second generation World War 2 fighters is covered in detail, as is the continual development of both fighter types. Finally, the key elements of both fighters - the airframe, engine, armament and flying characteristics -are also explored through very first hand accounts from the aces that went head-to-head in the war-torn skies of Europe.
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In Osprey's P-47 Thunderbolt vs. Bf 109G/K, aviation author Martin Bowman describes the duel for aerial supremacy over Western Europe during 1943-45 in terms of two of its main protagonists. On the American side, the P-47 Thunderbolt was a heavy but powerful fighter with an ability to out-dive any opponent. On the German side, the Bf 109G was a nimble and maneuverable fighting, but no longer cutting edge technology. The author notes that when the very first P-47 groups arrived in England in April 1943, "the Thunderbolt pilots were initially handicapped by poor tactics and combat inexperience." For a time, the battle-wise Bf 109G pilots held the edge in aerial combat against the Thunderbolts, but by early 1944 the duel was swinging in favor of the Americans. This volume in the Duel series gets off to a good start, with a focused, well-written narrative on the duel between these two classic fighters but then starts to wander off course and by the conclusion, the author has dropped the duel format and is unable to fully assess the results of the P-47 vs. Bf 109G duel. Overall, this could have been a great volume, but unfortunately it only partially delivers.
The very first 25 pages of the volume cover the design and development of each aircraft and the technical characteristics of the numerous variants. In short, these sections are detailed but a bit bland. I was also surprised that there was no discusion of protection (armor, self-sealing gas tanks, etc), since clearly the larger P-47 could absorb more damage than the Bf 109. Digital artwork includes colour 3-view (top, side, front) plates of each aircraft and colour plates depicting their armament. The 9-page section on the Strategic Situation is one of the better parts of the volume and describes how the Luftwaffe started with only about 200 Bf 109s to defend Western Europe in 1941 but had to keep stripping fighters from other fronts to reinforce their homeland defense as the Allied air offensives grew in intensity in 1943-44. The author also describes the various means by which the Americans began to extend the range of their P-47 fighters to escort bomber groups deeper into occupied Europe. This section does a great job framing the `duel' between the P-47 and Bf 109 units in operational terms.
The 12-page section on the combatants focuses heavily on the pilot training offered by each side, with the Americans clearly holding the edge. It is well known that the Luftwaffe could not keep up with losses by 1943 and had to continually water down its training until the replacement pilots it was producing in mid-1944 were little more than cannon fodder. Furthermore, the Luftwaffe's veteran pilots suffered heavy attrition in the aerial battles of 1943-44, greatly reducing the main advantage of their side. This section also provides profiles on pilots Francis Gabreski and Theodor Weissenberger, as well as digital artwork depicting the cockpit layout of each aircraft.
The section on Combat is disappointingly short, with only 13 pages of text. The author begins by describing American P-47 tactics, which sought to avoid low-altitude combat where the Bf 109 was superior and to use the Thunderbolt's superior diving capabilities to best advantage. While the P-47 was sluggish below 15,000 feet, it was a powerhouse up above 20,000 feet and that is where the Americans wanted to fight the duel for aerial supremacy. The section on German tactics is shorter and doesn't provide enough insight into how the Luftwaffe attempted to counter the P-47. Overall, this section was promising but ultimately fails to describe the actual `duels' in sufficient detail for a reader to properly evaluate the two combatants.
In the concluding sections, the author appears to drop the "Duel" architecture altogether. The section on Statistics and Analysis focuses almost entirely on the P-47 and fails to deliver key statistics, such as about how many Bf 109s were shot down by P-47s and vice versa (he does provide the vague figure that `4.6 enemy aircraft were destroyed for each Thunderbolt lost in aerial combat' but since this includes numerous non-Bf 109 losses by the Luftwaffe, it provides little insight into the duel equation). He does provide a number of irrelevant statistics about how many bombs the P-47 dropped on close support missions and such, none of which relates to the duel with Bf 109s. No figures on Bf 109 losses on the Western Front in 1943-45 are provided. From the scant data provided, it is clear that the Americans won the aerial duel, but it is not possible to really assess the role that the P-47 played in it (remembering that the P-51 and P-38 fighters also played a significant role in the ETO). The final section, discussing the role of Thunderbolts in the Pacific and Bf 109s in the Mediterranean and Russia is simply non sequitor, since it does not evaluate the performance of the P-47 vs. the Bf 109 and the author seems to have abandoned ... Read More
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