Germans Couldn't Believe 200 Bullets Didn't Kill This P-47 — So The Ace Saluted and Left

Описание: Why Lieutenant Robert S. Johnson refused to abandon his bullet-riddled P-47 Thunderbolt during WW2 — and survived 21 cannon shells plus 200+ machine gun hits. This World War 2 story reveals how one pilot's refusal to quit proved the P-47 could withstand impossible damage.

June 26, 1943. Lieutenant Robert S. Johnson, 56th Fighter Group pilot, flying tail-end position over northern France. Sixteen Focke-Wulf Fw 190s attacked his formation. Twenty-one 20mm cannon shells ripped through his P-47 "Half Pint." Canopy jammed. Hydraulics dead. Face covered in oil. Every training manual said this aircraft was finished. German ace Egon Mayer emptied his guns at point-blank range — over 200 more hits. The P-47 should have been falling.

They were all wrong.

What Johnson discovered that afternoon wasn't about following procedure. It was about trusting Republic Aviation's engineering in a way that contradicted everything the manuals taught. The Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine kept running with cylinders shot away. Self-sealing fuel tanks prevented explosion. The armor plate took fifteen direct hits. By the time Johnson belly-landed at RAF Manston, mechanics counted over 200 bullet holes without even walking around the aircraft. Mayer had saluted and left. The P-47 refused to crash.

This incident spread through fighter groups as proof the P-47 could survive punishment no other aircraft could take. Pilots who'd doubted the seven-ton "Jug" started trusting it with their lives. The story passed crew to crew, squadron to squadron, transforming the Thunderbolt's reputation from "flying bathtub" to the most survivable fighter in the European Theater. Republic Aviation used Johnson's battered aircraft as evidence their design philosophy worked — build the pilot's survival into every rivet and spar.

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