When the first 8th Air Force fighter pilots were asked to trade in their Spitfires for the P-47, their British counterparts joked that they could still evade German fighters by running around inside the fuselage. Their joking soon turned to grudging respect as the "Jug" proved to be a fast, rugged and heavily armed plane that could give as well as it took and still have enough left over to terrorize German train engineers on the way home. Six thousand tank drivers, nine thousand engineers and sixty-eight thousand truck drivers would agree.

Cool stuff for P-47 lovers:

Check out the P-47 Thunderbolt T-shirt in the gift shop!