The Republic Thunderbolt, also known as the P-47 Thunderbolt, arrived in January of 1943. The P-47 was a fighter/ bomber airplane. The main purpose of this aircraft was to escort the Allied bombers to the target zone because the bombers were not able to defend themselves. It proved to be an important plane to the Allied forces.
             It's wingspan was forty feet nine inches, it's height was twelve feet eight inches, and the length was a little more than thirty-six feet. The Thunderbolt was a seven ton monster with a flying range of 550 miles. It contained a rugged 2,000 horsepower single radial- engine that allowed the plane to reach a top speed of 433 miles per hour and allowed the plane to climb as high as 42,000 feet. It was the first American fighter to fly into the sound barrier and not be destroyed. It had eight .50 caliber machine guns on its' wings. One of the problems that the Thunderbolt had was that it was not able to climb very fast like the German planes could. However, it could out dive any German plane. When a pilot put the Thunderbolt into a screaming dive from 35,000 feet, it dropped like a bullet. A pilot shot down a German FW-190 and followed it down until the German plane crashed. He later said, "Heck it ought to dive. It certainly will not climb." (Loomis p. 78). This climbing problem was later corrected by engineers who developed a new propeller for the Thunderbolt in January 1944. It could now climb as well or better than most planes.
             The only major drawback of the P-47 was it's flying distance. It could only fly 550 miles before it ran out of fuel. The Germans knew about this. When a bombing attack would come their way, all the German fighter pilots had to do was wait until the Thunderbolts had to turn around to get back. Then, the Germans would launch their attack on the "defenseless" bombers. In one mission, sixty B-17's had been blown out of the sky by hundreds of...