Browse Items (7 total)

Laughlin_Press_Release_1.JPG
This press release, also found in a partial article from a Nebraska newspaper also in this collection, describes the recent successes of Colonel Laughlin in France. It includes the details behind a Ninth Air Force record-setting flight that was…

bomb_and_50cal_guns_left.JPG
The bombs were positioned just to the outside of the last machine gun, which was also where the bullets to the machine guns were stored in the wings. That made the wings the most vulnerable part of the plane, especially if the bombs had not been…

P47_50_cal_guns_left_wing.JPG
The 8 .50-caliber machine guns on a P-47 could fire at a rate of up to 500 rounds per minutes. Even without the use of bombs, this made the P-47 a very deadly weapon in the hands of a capable pilot.

Ninth_AF_rubble.JPG
As the fighters and bombers of the Ninth Air Force did their jobs, ground troops would have to clean up after them. Cleaning out rubble with bulldozers and shovels was common when Allied Forces moved into the cities that had been occupied by Germans…

Ninth_AF_Thunderbolt_humor.JPG
Grounds crews were responsible for getting extra fuel tanks loaded on the planes if the missions called for it, and they gave the aircraft a once over before the pilot came out to do the same. Ordnance men would have to prep bombs before loading them…

362nd_No_Mans_Land_Airstrip.JPG
A pilot from the 362nd Fighter Group poses for a picture with his foot on a bomb. With the caption "Ready in Pairs" on the back, it is also noted that the air strip used to be in No Man's Land during World War I.

P47_bomb_under_wing_left.JPG
In addition to the .50-caliber machine guns, the P-47 was able to hold multiple kinds of bombs. This P-47 decorated as the one flown by Colonel Joseph Laughlin has 500-lb bombs attached under each wing. The planes were also capable of holding…
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