POINT BLANK!

Jugs Over the Battle of the Bulge

- CHRIS BUCHOLTZ

A P-47D Thunderbolt pilot had many ways to die: flak; German fighters; engine failure at low altitude; premature detonation of his own bombs; hitting trees or power lines while strafing; and terrible weather—weather that led to midair collisions, takeoff and landing accidents on icy airfields, pilot disorientation and fatal spins, and collisions with hillsides disguised by low-lying clouds.

Weather kept the Thunderbolt-equipped 362nd Fighter Group grounded for half of November 1944 and limited operations in the first three weeks of December, even after the German Ardennes offensive began on December 16. The squadrons in the group, the 377th, 378th and 379th, were shifted to the Ardennes on December 23. That day, the weather changed for the better, and once committed to the fight, weather was not going to keep them grounded anyway. “We knew that [the ground troops] were bound to be in a bad way, and we flew every hour that the weather would permit,” said Capt. Joe Hunter.

By this stage of what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne was encircled, the German offensive neared its peak, and a bloody chapter in the 362nd’s history was about to begin. Between December 23 and January 23, the group would lose 17 Thunderbolts and 13 pilots killed or captured—but would exact from the Wehrmacht a terrible price.

December 23