On an unrelated note, how is it that you are such a fan of Italian planes? I understand that you are neither Italian, nor live in Italy. I'm just curious.
A few P-47N's were flown by the 56th Fighter Group in Europe (alongside P-47M's), however the bulk flew in the PTO. There were evidently two P-47N Fighter Wings (3 FG's each), and they flew out of Ie Shima, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and briefly from Saipan. The following 318th, 413th, 414th, and 507th FG's were all equiped with P-47N's - there may have been more. The first 318th, 413th, and 507th were all part of the 301st Fighter Wing, 7th AF (which appears to have become the 8th around Aug/Sept 1945?), where the 414th was part of the 20th AF. So at least 4 FG's existed. Missions started being flown in May 1945 and continued to the last day of the war. IIRC something around 30,000 sorties were flown.
Note that the "Oscars" were in fact really Franks (Ki-84's), and they were piloted by two of the most experianced Sentai's of the IJA.
It should also be noted that while Pedermo is famous as being the last "ace in a day" of WWII, and thus in history, Lt. Richard Anderson also became an ace in a day in the P-47N on May 25th 1945.
The 318th FG history (including a little 413 and 507 history) in the P-47N can be read here:
On an unrelated note, how is it that you are such a fan of Italian planes? I understand that you are neither Italian, nor live in Italy. I'm just curious.
Well, Italian planes have bucket loads more character than any other country. Most of them look absolutely fantastic, and they performed surprisingly well. Also Italy do everything brilliantly, and I just wish I lived there instead of crappy UK 8)
I agree. At the point in time that Italy withdrew from the war in 1943, its 5 Series fighters were probably superior to the best fighters of Germany, the U.S. and Britain.
Lastly, if I lived in the U.K., I would probably rather live in Italy as well. My family comes from Moneglia which is a little south of Genoa on the coast.
Again, just a guess, but I'd think not. P-51's operated off the same bases that P-47N's operated from. The also operated from other bases, including bases in Burma and China.
It would be interesting to see actual unit deployment info from about March 1944 through the end of the war in the PTO.