Fighting Irish Forums

"This unfortunate P-47 was the victim of a 500 pound bomb which fell from its fuselage shackle and exploded. The pilot, Lt. Hallberg had been unable to release the bomb and was forced to land with it. Somehow, the safetywire preventing the fusing vanes from turning had broken. The result was that the bomb had armed. As Hallberg taxied across the rutted field, the demolition bomb fell off and detonated. Amazingly, the Lt. Hallberg suffered only minor injuries and was flying again within days, albeit with the radio volume turned up considerably. If there was ever a testimony to the ruggedness of the Thunderbolt, this incident is proof positive."

but everytime i fly one in the game one German bullet takes me out

yeah, buddy... the jug was a VERY tough mother! your photo proves it, as does the incident where the German ace caught a damaged/ammo-less P-47 seperated from his group and trying to make it home and pumped his ENTIRE 109s weaponloadout into the plane and it did NOT go down. and hundreds of other stories about the Jug surviving near impossible damage and still flying or getting the pilot in safely.

and yet as you say, a bullet or two in IL2 will take a Jug out in a heartbeat...

yet the cheaply made yaks and migs and such put together by unskilled labor can take heaps more punishment in the game.

go figure.

Beowolff

yes many stories of the P47
you can read one of Major Robert S. Johnson (June 26, 1943 mission details:) at http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_rsj.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I suppose one can't call into question the effectiveness of that particular 500lb bomb?

question, why would you call out the 500 pounder's effectiveness? it did its job. nicely too. it destroyed the P-47. which is basically all that a five hundred pounder high ex bomb was designed/required to do. sure, it didn't pulverize the jug or blast it to cosmic dust---but then a five hundred pounder under those same or similiar circumstances most likely wouldn't have (unless maybe DIRECTLY under the fuselage---wing tanks etc and the plane was perfectly stationary---ie not moving AWAY from the bomb and its blast) anyway. with the bomb being dropped only a few feet to the runway, any K-energy from a long (normal bomb) drop was non-existant relying only upon the pure Ex-energy of the blast itself to do the damage. and in the Hi-Ex explosion, much (even most) of the actual damaging energy was directed elsewhere....ie, the runway, the open air around the sides, etc, etc... leaving only a moderate amount to connect to, and act upon the P-47. in fact, i would lay odds that the shockwave of the detonation actually 'shoved' the movable Jug out of the way of the more damaging actual explosive blast. had the Jug been instead a solid, immovable object,,,like say a building,,,that could not actually move with the shock wave, the five hundred pounder would have surely created more direct pulverization/destruction.

the bomb did its job though. it destroyed the P-47. but the facts are, that DESPITE the nasty blast that destroyed the Jug---the pilot survived...and with only minor injuries too boot----coming to the real meat of the post that the P-47 was a DAMNED rugged plane in real life and could many times protect its pilots from even the most awesome of damage. and the secondary point to the post, ie that in IL2 the game...most often a single bullet or two from AI or human gunners will destroy that same plane.

or so i think.

anyone else?

Beowolff