US Army Air Force

An amazing story

57th FG Association

The hair raising adventures of Joseph “Joe” Angelone, P-47D Thunderbolt’s pilot of the 66th Fighter Squadron “Exterminators”, 57th Fighter Group, USAAF, at Grosseto, Italy, September 1944: take off accident with “full fuel” and bombs under the wings, aircraft literally disintegrated, pilot unhurt. But leaving the word to the same Joe: “I had a tire blow out at 100 mph during a full load takeoff with it (i.e. the Thunderbolt). The ship swerved into a pile of dirt alongside the runway that was being used to finish filling bomb craters in the runway. The landing gear was wiped out as the ship dug a wingtip into the dirt and almost pitched over its nose onto it's back. A trail of fuel from ruptured fuselage tanks and the crushed torn away belly tank boomed into flames as the ship slammed back down onto its belly from a vertical tail up position. I was fortunate to exit the cockpit as the local fuel swooshed into flames, and then run like hell down the fire free corridor between the fuselage and belly tank flame trails. The bombs didn't cook off, so this photo shows what was left after the fire. This would have been my third mission for the day. Instead, I spent the remainder of the day admiring how blue the sky looked, how green the grass was, and how sore my internal organs were from the rough stop maneuver. I got a new airplane and it lasted for the rest of the war. I never had a tire blow-out before the incident previously described. But I later had another tire blow on takeoff. I recognized it and went through the water injection gate and snatched it off the ground. I flew the mission, and when we returned to the field I landed last. I was proud to keep it on the center-line during roll out”. (History from the 57th Fighter Group site). Victor Sierra