Based on a wartime image, this vignette drawing shows two 366th Fighter Group P-47 Thunderbolts in position moments before taking off on a dive bombing mission. The runway flagman, a fellow fighter pilot taking his turn pulling the lowly but necessary duty, watches to make sure the previous element is safely airborne before waving these two off.
The 366th, nicknamed the “Hun Hunters,” was an elite group of professionals that left their mark in WWII. They earned a rare Distinguished Unit Citation for actions in France just after D-Day on July 11, 1944, where they discovered a hidden large enemy tank column getting into position for an attack on Allied ground forces. Despite extremely bad weather and withering anti-aircraft fire the P-47 pilots managed to neutralize the imminent attack. The pilots then resumed their briefed mission and destroyed that target as well. The group was also recognized by the Allies with presentation of the prestigious Belgian Croix de Guerre and Fourragère, and several other unit awards during their participation in six major campaigns against Nazi Germany.
The group went on to further success in the Vietnam war (see my painting “Chico the Gunfighter”), and today flies the F-15E Strike Eagle as one of the Air Force’s leading fighter wings.
Completed 2017
Collection of Zack Baughman
Based on a wartime image, this vignette drawing shows two 366th Fighter Group P-47 Thunderbolts in position moments before taking off on a dive bombing mission. The runway flagman, a fellow fighter pilot taking his turn pulling the lowly but necessary duty, watches to make sure the previous element is safely airborne before waving these two off.
The 366th, nicknamed the “Hun Hunters,” was an elite group of professionals that left their mark in WWII. They earned a rare Distinguished Unit Citation for actions in France just after D-Day on July 11, 1944, where they discovered a hidden large enemy tank column getting into position for an attack on Allied ground forces. Despite extremely bad weather and withering anti-aircraft fire the P-47 pilots managed to neutralize the imminent attack. The pilots then resumed their briefed mission and destroyed that target as well. The group was also recognized by the Allies with presentation of the prestigious Belgian Croix de Guerre and Fourragère, and several other unit awards during their participation in six major campaigns against Nazi Germany.
The group went on to further success in the Vietnam war (see my painting “Chico the Gunfighter”), and today flies the F-15E Strike Eagle as one of the Air Force’s leading fighter wings.