P-47 Load-out

33k in the air said:

Roger Freeman's Thunderbolt — A Documentary History of the Republic P-47 on pages 46-47 has some photos of ordnance loaded onto P-47s. One shows what seems to be a field modification allowing the carrying of twenty-four 20-lb frag bombs; another shows a 500-lb bomb with eight 20-lb frag bombs strapped to it.

Page 51 shows a combat test installation of four 5-inch HVAR rockets along with three 500-lb bombs; also shown is a P-47 equipped with a 150-gallon belly tank, two 500-lb bombs, and two M10 triple tube 4.5-inch rocket launchers.

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That first load out sounds like a video of "interesting" improvised arms out of the Ukraine, I've seen lately.. Wasn't the RPG warhead enough or did you really have to tape frags and 7.62 link on it for the extra oomph?

9th Air Force, European Theatre, P-47 ordnance on target (excludes jettisoned and lost)
Class High Explosive
8,987 x 1000 pound GP
260 x 1000 pound SAP
14 x 600 pound GP
167,981 x 500 pound GP
4,712 x 500 pound Comp B
1,840 x 500 pound SAP
65 x 300 pound GP
2,268 x 250 pound GP
73 x 200 pound GP
75 x 100 pound GP

Class Fragmentation
2,624 x 500 pound
128 x 400 pound
46 x 360 pound
20 x 280 pound
77 x 265 pound
24,467 x 260 pound
89 x 250 pound
4,218 x 120 pound
31 x 6 x 20 pound
9,205 x 100 pound
704 x 90 pound
8 x 80 pound
54 x 60 pound
11,068 x 20 pound

Class Incendiary
1,209 x 1100 pound FB
24 x 1000 pound FB
510 x 750 pound FB
4,175 x 500 pound FB
639 x 500 pound IC
3,724 x 500 pound IB
121 x 500 pound WP
62 x 300 pound WP
31 x 300 pound FB
141 x 280 pound FB
20 x 125 pound WP
1,221 x 100 pound WP
35 x 100 pound SM

Plus 13,783 rockets and 55,487,266 rounds of 0.50 calibre machine gun.

?

Geoffrey Sinclair said:

Class Fragmentation
2,624 x 500 pound
128 x 400 pound
46 x 360 pound
20 x 280 pound
77 x 265 pound
24,467 x 260 pound
89 x 250 pound
4,218 x 120 pound
31 x 6 x 20 pound
9,205 x 100 pound
704 x 90 pound
8 x 80 pound
54 x 60 pound
11,068 x 20 pound

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There was no U.S. 500-lb frag bomb or frag cluster; there was a 540-lb frag cluster (M27 consisting of 6 x 90-lb AN-M82). So I'm not sure what device the first line is referring to.
The 400-lb frag would be the M26 frag cluster consisting of 20 x 20-lb AN-M41.
The 360-lb frag would be the M29 frag cluster consisting of 90 x 4-lb M83.
There was no U.S. 280-lb or 265-lb frag bombs or clusters, so I'm not sure what devices those weights refer to. (There as a 280-lb British cluster, No. 23, consisting of 14 x 20-lb frag bombs.)
The 260-lb frag bomb would be the AN-M81.
There was no U.S. 250-lb frag bomb or cluster, so I'm not sure what device that weight refers to. (There was a British 250-lb class SBC which carried 12 x 20-lb frag bombs. There was also a 220-lb frag bomb, the AN-M88.)
The 120-lb frag would be the AN-M1A1/A2 cluster consisting of 6 x 20-lb AN-M41.
There was no U.S. 100-lb frag bomb or cluster, so I'm not sure what device that weight refers to. (There was a 96-lb frag cluster, the M28 consisting of 24 x 4-lb M83.)
The 90-lb frag would be the AN-M82.
There was no U.S. 80-lb or 60-lb frag bombs or clusters, so I'm not sure what devices those weights refer to.
The 20-lb frag would be the AN-M41.

Geoffrey Sinclair said:

Plus 13,783 rockets and 55,487,266 rounds of 0.50 calibre machine gun.

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Do you have any breakdown as to how many of those rockets were the 4.5-inch M10 triple tube-launched rocket and how many were the 5-inch HVAR? (The reference books I've looked at differ on whether the HVAR was used in Europe.)

All I have, Air 40/1096, including the focus problem.

Geoffrey Sinclair said:

All I have, Air 40/1096, including the focus problem.

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Very cool, thanks for posting that.

How many documents do you have on hand? You're always posting great details on subjects. I can only imagine how many hours you've spent going through archives in person or online.

Geoffrey Sinclair said:

All I have, Air 40/1096, including the focus problem.

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Out of curiosity, do you have similar documents for the 8th, 12th, or 15th Air Forces? It would be interesting to compare the distribution of ordnance dropped across the different air forces.

Air 22/321 8th Air Force, fewer bombs types used and only weights given, pictures 35, 36a, 36

15th Air Force, the war summary does not have bomb types dropped, that needs the monthly target and duty sheets I have December 1943 to October 1944, they will take a lot of time to process, for example a page of the targets of opportunity or alternative targets for October 1944, latitude and longitude. Picture 238 from Record Group 18 Entry 7 Box 5940.

Very little on 12th Air Force.

Geoffrey Sinclair said:

Air 22/321 8th Air Force, fewer bombs types used and only weights given, pictures 35, 36a, 36

15th Air Force, the war summary does not have bomb types dropped, that needs the monthly target and duty sheets I have December 1943 to October 1944, they will take a lot of time to process, for example a page of the targets of opportunity or alternative targets for October 1944, latitude and longitude. Picture 238 from Record Group 18 Entry 7 Box 5940.

Very little on 12th Air Force.

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Thanks for posting those images, they're excellent and very helpful.

In regards to the 15th AF, the image you attached shows the bomb load of the aircraft, which is something I've been trying to dig into. (Info on this online for USAAF bomb groups is rather sparse compared to RAF bomb squadrons.) If you have any additional images along those lines you'd be willing to share, that'd be great.

In regards to the 8th AF, it's interesting to note the 4-lb incendiary is not listed, even though these were used according to the AAF Statisical Digest – World War II. Presumably these have been rolled into the 500-lb incendiary category since the clusters using the 4-lb incendiary were in the 500-lb weight class (though of course their actual weight was different).

Geoffrey Sinclair said:

Air 22/321 8th Air Force, fewer bombs types used and only weights given, pictures 35, 36a, 36

15th Air Force, the war summary does not have bomb types dropped, that needs the monthly target and duty sheets I have December 1943 to October 1944, they will take a lot of time to process, for example a page of the targets of opportunity or alternative targets for October 1944, latitude and longitude. Picture 238 from Record Group 18 Entry 7 Box 5940.

Very little on 12th Air Force.

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Picture 238,

The numbers in front of Airplane type:

They represent the number of planes involved / damaged / lost.

Am I right?

The entry is Type of aircraft, Effective sorties / Non effective sorties / Non sorties.

A page with rather more data, target Ploesti, May 1944. Note the weather aborts.