Question: Battle over Germany late Summer 43: How deep into Germany P47 with drop tanks could fly really?

[kraut1]

Hi All,

I am working on a 1943...early 45 Battle over Germany EMG and Radar Mod.

On a sketch with escort fighter ranges I found the information that P47 with drop tanks could fly in August 43 even to Frankfurt, which would mean effectivly more or less to each location on the Rheinland Map.
 

And I found notes of an german unit that had already in late 1943 to escort BF110 Bomber Destroyers (II.Jg11 in Plantlünne).

Was this realistic? Does anybody has reports of late 1943 P47 long range escort missions?

Many thanks in advance!

 

Concerning the not existing drop tanks and missing part of England: allied missions until Sept.44 from Dummy Airfields, no action in west Netherlands.

 

Edited February 20 by kraut1

[Stonehouse]

For what it's worth I have a pdf of a Jan 1943 pilot's manual covering B, C, D and G models that appears to indicate there was a 200 US gal belly tank available. I also have a pdf of a Nov 1943 pilot's manual for the P47 same models that also mentions 300 US gal wing tanks on P47D-5-RE or later.

 

So based on that it sounds feasible, no idea of when the tanks reached the squadrons and allowed such missions, but you would expect they were a priority considering that 1943 wasn't a great year for losses in the 8AF bomber units. So, getting raids escorted deeper would have received a lot of push from up the top.

 

Also have a parts listing in pdf that covers the P47D-5-RE and it's dated Sept 15 1942 and also talks about the external aux fuel tanks for P47D-1-RE and up (pic below) which is interesting. Maybe LukeFF can advise as service dates for equipment is something researched for careers.

 

Edited February 21 by Stonehouse

[Heliopause]

[kraut1]

Hi @Stonehouse and @Heliopause,

Thanks very much for your help!

I found just now by chance a very interesting historical document about 8th Airforce Tactics:

https://ia801903.us.archive.org/4/items/EighthAirForce00/EighthAirForce00.pdf

On more than 200 pages really everything concerning USAAF daylight long range bomber is explained in detail.

[357th_KW]

Another thing to keep in mind with the escort ranges is that internal fuel load became the limiting factor for all escorts in the ETO once they had adequate drop tanks.  Escorts in the ETO couldn't know exactly where or when they would have to engage enemy interceptors, as the enemy could takeoff from anywhere in the Reich (in the Pacific, where targets were often isolated islands surrounded by water, it was usually a given where any engagement would occur).  And performance between the US and German aircraft was similar enough, that an escort had to drop their external tanks in order to successfully engage the enemy.  And so combat radius was limited by an aircraft's range on what internal fuel would remain after normal startup, takeoff (which generally had to be done on internal fuel for safety) and then 10-15 minutes of dog fighting after dropping external tanks. 

 

These two factors allowed for much longer missions to be flown in the Pacific, like the famous Balikpapan raids carried out in late 1944, where escorts flew at relatively low altitude to conserve fuel and oxygen on the way to and from the target, and then climbed to meet their bombers over the target (or arrived slightly ahead as a sweep).  The P-47s on those missions retained their centerline tanks in order to have the necessary fuel to make one quick sweep over the target - the likely opponents were much slower Ki-43s that they could outrun even with their tanks still on.

 

As it became apparent that longer range fighter operations would be necessary in all theaters, the USAAF sent a request to Lockheed, North American and Republic back in February 1943 asking them to increase the internal fuel capacity of their fighters.  In the case of the P-38, this came from the extra internal wing tanks of the P-38J-5 and later, filling the space formerly occupied by the intercoolers on earlier variants with two 55 gallon fuel tanks.  These aircraft started entering service at the end of December, 1943.  For the P-47, Republic added an additional 65 gallons of fuel capacity in the fuselage, started with the D-25 model (which was also the first bubble canopy model).  These aircraft started entering service late in May, 1944 but Thunderbolt groups would continue to fly mixed formations until well into fall of 1944 (and so units were realistically limited to the shorter range of the earlier razorback models).  For the P-51, North American developed an 85 gallon fuselage tank which could be retrofitted to any P-51B (and was added to production aircraft from the factory around the -15 and later aircraft).  All of the USAAF Mustangs in the ETO had been retrofitted by the beginning of March, 1944.

 

The movement of the Allied advance in Europe in Fall of 1944 also helped to ease these fuel constraints as escort fighters now had the option of landing and refueling at Allied fields in Belgium and Holland, giving them a much shorter initial return leg from a target like Berlin.