Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War II podcast I'm Angus Wallace

in this episode we're going to be looking at the P47 Thunderballs and the US 362nd Fighter Group.

The P47 was a fighter bomber and very much suited to a ground attack role with its 850

caliber machine guns and a bomb load of 2,500 pounds or it could carry rockets

and on top of that it could take a lot of punishment. I'm joined by Chris Buchholz. Chris is an aviation

historian with a number of books under his belt including Thunderbolts

Triumphant, the 360 second Fighter Group versus the German Vemact.

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Chris, thanks for joining me.

We're going to be looking at the 362nd Fighter Group which was activated in March

1943. What was to be the unit's rule? How was it envisaged to be used?

Well, when the curb stood up, I think they were just trying to get enough units in the Army

Air Force to have some weight against the Germans because there wasn't a structure in place.

The Ninth Air Force, when it was first envisioned, was just another Air Force.

They didn't really come up with the division of labor, so to speak, between the Ninth and the

eighth until a little bit later on.

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