Echoes of a Thunderbolt

摘要

For the Hell Hawks, flying in World War Ⅱ was nothing like the bright, blue, antiseptic realm depicted in aviation movies and recruiting posters. The Air Force sometimes is chided for living in comfort and waging war from a distance, but there was little luxury in living at dirt airstrips close to the front lines in Europe, and P-47 Thunderbolt pilots on air-to-ground missions often confronted their foes at close quarters. Although the group destroyed 150 Luftwaffe fighters in air combat, the Hell Hawks took the war to tree-top level, dive-bombing and strafing Adolf Hitler's ground forces from before D-Day until the fall of Berlin.