
Vintage Aviation News has received the September/October, 2022 report from Chuck Cravens concerning the restoration of the Dakota Territory Air Museum’s P-47D Thunderbolt 42-27609 at AirCorps Aviation in Bemidji, Minnesota. We thought our readers would be very interested to see how the project has progressed since our last article on this important project. So without further ado, here it goes!
Update
The major news this month is that the P-47 has moved out to AirCorps Aviation’s hangar at Bemidji Regional Airport. Work on the wings, cowl, and fuselage continued as the restoration nears completion.
Fuselage



When the aircraft is resting on its gear, the fuel gauge will report lower levels than the actual amount of fuel available, because the tanks are not in a level attitude while the aircraft is on the ground. A conversion table visible in the upper center of the above image allows the pilot to know what the actual fuel level is in such situations.



In the July/August Update, I wrote about the P-47’s strength and resistance to damage. Part of the airframe’s resilience following a belly landing is that the fuselage actually has crash skids built into its lower side. The skids themselves were covered by skin sections at the time of the July/Aug update, so I included an engineering drawing at that time, but this month it just happened that the skids were clearly exposed for a good photo.



Cowl
The P-47’s complex nose cowl assembly is approaching completion… this has been a challenging task!

Wings
Work on the wings this month focused upon completing the armament installation.

Hangar Move

Pilot Impressions of the P-47
Major General Dewitt Searles

Major General Searles was extremely generous with his time; he corresponded with me on several occasions via email and telephone.
In an email on May 12, 2016, Major General Searles relayed his opinions about the P-47’s capabilities as a fighter aircraft. He was 98 at the time and didn’t feel up to traveling, but he suggested that we send him a removable panel from the P-47 so he could sign it.
When General Searles remarked on his flying experiences in the P-47, he stated: “I remember it fondly and preferred it to any other fighter in the war – including the P-51’s that were assigned to us during my last few months in the Pacific.”
“I do remember escorting B-25s when flying with both the 342nd and the 460th squadrons. My first mission escorting B-25s was to Wewak. The B-25s flew directly down the airstrip dropping parachute retarded fragmentation bombs. We provided top cover. We also joined B-25s during attacks on Japanese shipping in Ormoc Bay. We provided top cover during their bomb run and then followed up with strafing attacks after they were done. Unfortunately, I have no recollection or record of the Group or Squadron numerical designations. Yes, I remember the in-theater installation of the fuel tanks behind the pilot to give us a little better range. We were warned to avoid high G maneuvers until the tank was completely empty as the weight of a full tank would upset the aerodynamic balance which could lead to a loss of control. The P-47 was the sturdiest and most stable propeller-driven aircraft that I have ever flown. It had an almost unlimited diving speed. I don’t recall a single incident of one breaking up in flight because of aerodynamic stress. And it could absorb more hits by enemy fighters or ground fire, and keep flying, than any other fighter plane that I know of. Its versatility was not fully exploited until late in the war, in Europe and the Pacific, after enemy fighter strength had been severely reduced or eliminated. Then we found out that we had the most rugged and effective fighter bomber ever built. With eight fifty caliber machine guns and a 2000-pound bomb loads, it was unmatched as an air-to-ground fighter aircraft.”
Major General Searles was also kind enough to send me a written summary of his war experiences, which I will reproduce below in his words:
“BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE WORLD WAR II EXPERIENCES OF DEWITT R. SEARLES, A FIGHTER PILOT, IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY AIR CORPS DURING THE 1943-45 TIME PERIOD”
In February 1941, with flying school completed, I began an accelerated training course in the combat aircraft I would fly when assigned to a unit overseas. It was my great good fortune to be sent to Dale Mabry Army Airfield, Tallahassee, Florida, to begin training in the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. Nicknamed the “Jug,” the P-47 was the biggest, most powerful, and arguably the best multi-purpose fighter aircraft employed in World War ll. After completing transition training in July we traveled by train to Hamilton Field, California for further deployment to the Southwest Pacific Area and assignment to the recently formed 348th Fighter Group commanded by Col. Neel E. Kearby, soon to become a leading fighter ace and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I was assigned to the Group’s 342nd Fighter Squadron and flown across the Pacific in the bomb bay of a modified B-24 bomber. We departed San Francisco and touched down at Hawaii, Canton Island, and on into the air base at Townsville, Australia where our aircraft awaited us – in crates. So our first mission was to uncrate the aircraft, put them together, test fly them, and then head across the Coral Sea to an airstrip 5 miles from Port Moresby, New Guinea.
There we lived in canvas communities with tents on the bare ground for just about everything: sleeping, eating, supplies, maintenance and operations, flight line alert shack, field hospital, recreation, and even privies. Purified drinking water was delivered in water trailers and dispensed from huge canvas “lister” bags suspended from six-foot high tripods.
Our two greatest and most lethal challenges during my 22-month tour in New Guinea and the Philippines were the weather and mosquitoes. We lost more to them than we did to the Japanese. Just about every fighter pilot who flew in that area had a bad weather story to tell. The reason is that we had received little or no instrument flying training in any aircraft before being shipped overseas. “Needle, ball and airspeed” was about it, and that wouldn’t hack it in an area famous for massive, towering cumulus clouds and torrential rains. The worst weather experience for the Fifth Air Force – and perhaps the worst in aviation history – was on 16 April 1944: “Black Sunday.” On that one day, we lost 37 aircraft to weather or weather-related causes including A-20s. B- 25s, P-38s, B-24s plus a P-39, a P-47, one F-5A, and one F-7A. To my knowledge, there has never been a comparable one-day, noncombat, military aviation loss.
As for mosquitoes, they were our constant companions. They brought us Malaria and Dengue Fever. We fought them with Atabrine, DDT, and mosquito nets. Daily Atabrine tablets turned the skin and the whites of the eyes yellow. DDT was the most effective and widely used killer/repellent but it came with harmful side effects, and mosquito nets were essential for a good night’s sleep. Used religiously, all three kept most of us fever free but mosquitoes got to enough of us to keep the hospital tent busy. DDT was banned for use in the United States, and in the military, in 1972, but it kept a lot of us going some 4O years ago in New Guinea’.
Food was the third thing that we found a little discouraging: powdered things like milk and eggs; canned things like C-rations and spam; dehydrated things like lemonade and coffee; and experimental things like tropical butter that wouldn’t spread or melt and that stuck to the roof of your mouth. And the lack of things like fresh fruit and vegetables added to our dietary problems. All of these point toward the thing we enjoyed most: combat flying.
The Jug was a devastating combat machine: eight .50 caliber machine guns, a 2000 horsepower supercharged engine with a four-bladed prop; an unmatched high altitude capability that enabled us to gain speed while diving down into a fight instead of losing speed climbing up into one. We flew with confidence that if we used our heads we could survive just about anything that the Japs had to offer. And, surprisingly, was also the best fighter bomber in either theater of the war. We could easily handle a 100O pound bomb load. A favorite configuration was two 500-pound bombs, a belly tank, and a full load of .50 caliber ammo. Jettison the tank, bomb the target and then follow up with a strafing attack more deadly than any other fighter plane could deliver. “
Major General Searles lived to be 100 years old and passed away attended by his children on Saturday, February 27th, 2021.
First Lieutenant Kermit Bjorlie




1 Personal interview, July 13, 2019
Lt Col Huie Lamb
2 American Air Museum in Britain, https://www.americanairmuseum.com/person/98855, accessed 10-5-2022

3 American Air Museum in Britain, https://www.americanairmuseum.com/person/98855, accessed 10-5-2022
And that’s all for this month. We wish to thank AirCorps Aviation and Chuck Cravens for making this report possible, and look forwards to bringing more restoration reports on progress with this rare machine in the coming months… and, hopefully, news of the aircraft’s first flight!
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