Brazilian soldiers during slack in a unidentified region of Italy.

Brazilian soldiers during slack

The Lecco’s marshalling yard, Lombardia, Northern Italy, under attack of 1st Grupo de Caça of Brazilian Air Force, 15 March 1945. Photo taken by Thunderbolt aircraft C5 during the Mission 275. Victor Sierra

Brazilian fighter-bombers over Northern Italy

Pisa airfield, January 27, 1945: the Thunderbolt of the Ten. Av. (Lt) Raymundo da Costa Canário, “Canarinho”, a Brazilian pilot of the 1º Grupo de Aviação de Caça (1st Fighter Group) of the FAB-Força Aérea Brasileira (Brazilian Air Force) with a background of 50 war missions over the Italy, is returned to base after the loss of 128cm (more than four feet) of the right wing because the impact with a factory’s chimney during a very low level attack. A return seemingly impossible: a proof of the Thunderbolt’s reliability, of the pilot’s skill but also of the low level’s missions heavy risk. The Canário’s aircraft is the Republic P-47D USAAF s/n 44-19633, part of the USAAF’s contracts to Republic Aviation no W535-AC-29279-17, 106th of the sub-series P-47D-28-RE of a total of 750 aircraft, built at Farmingdale, accepted by USAAF on 14 July 1944 and destined to Mediterranean Theatre of Operations (MTO) on 2 August 1944. Switched to Brazilian Air Force’s 1st GAvCa (1º Grupo de Aviação de Caça) at this time based at Tarquinia, Tyrrhenian Coast, North of Rome, prior of deployment at Pisa, on 28 October 1944, FAB number 4120, and assigned to Esquadrilha Vermelha (Vermilion Squadron) with the Código de Esquadrilha (unit code) A6, pilot Ten. Av. Raymundo da Costa Canário. According Brazilian sources this plane is still existing and is the P-47D show into the Rio de Janeiro’s Museu Aeroespacial. The s/n 44-19633 was repaired and, returned in Brazil at the end of the war, was in service in the Base Aérea de Santa Cruz until 1953 when was stored in the Parque de Material Aeronáutico de São Paulo and afterwards transferred to a military base at Guaratinguetá, São Paulo, as gate guardian from 1959 to 1968. The airframe was transferred to Airspace Museum en 1986 and restored as P-47D s/n 44-19662, FAB 4119, D5, the Thunderbolt of 2nd Ten. Av. José Rebelo Meira de Vasconcelos, another Brazilian pilot of the Italian Campaign. On the list of the Brazilian Thunderbolts is recorded another A6, the P-47D-28-RE, USAAF s/n 44-19665 shot down by the AA fire at 9.45 a.m. on 23 December 1944. The pilot, 1st Ten. Av. Ismael da Motta Paes, bail out and was taken POW. Clearly this A6 isn’t the A6 of the photo. Victor Sierra