The 348th Fighter Group arrived in Australia on June 30th, 1943 with P-47D-2-RE Thunderbolts. These were soon followed by D-3 and D-4 models. These early versions of the P-47 did not have provision for wing drop tanks. While they could carry the standard P-40 52 Gallon droptank (as used on the Warhawk) but the thirsty Tunderbolts needed much more than this to be able to attack the further Japanese strongholds such as Wewak up the coast.

The US 27th Depot Repair Squadron at Port Moresby in New Guinea designed a 200 gallon steel drop tank. production items were built by the Ford Motor Company in Brisbane for the USAAF. The tanks were fitted to early P-47 Thunderbolts in the SWPA. The tanks became available in August 1943 and approximately 3,000 were built.

The early models only had 3 cowl flaps each side so it is necessary to cut way the lower ones if fitting the tank to a D-2 to 4 model airframe (the tank was of course used at times with later sub variants as per the example below).

The 1/72 version (RRR72181) reviewd here is AUD$8.00 plus postage direct from Red Roo Models at https://www.redroomodels.com/. There is also a 1/48 version (RRR48189) available for AUD$12.00 plus postage.

Use the index button to return to the main issue 37/2 index.