P-47D-5-RE "Lucky”
Unit: 9th FS, 49th FG, USAAF
Serial: HV-P (42-8461)
Plot - Lt. Robert Johnson. Halesworth, UK, 1943.
Lt. Johnson was the first to break Rickenbacker’s record.
After Half Pint went out of action, Johnson scored 21 kills in Lucky. His “one-finger salute” nose art was also unfit for family magazines back home.
(Robert S. Johnson's "Half Pint", was a C model. On June 26th 1943, Johnson, while escorting bombers in Half Pint, was badly shot up by an FW-190. Engine on fire, he managed to pull out of a spin, stabilize the aircraft, then miraculously stay airborne. His windscreen was covered in oil, canopy damaged and he couldn't eject, so he had no choice but to try to limp back to England. Unfortunately JG2 Ace Egon Mayer stumbled upon Johnson's stricken Jug and decided to go for the easy kill. Mayer pumped all of his ammo into Half Pint but the fighter shrugged it off, essentially denying him his 69th kill. All he could do was salute Johnson and fly away. Ironically Mayer would succumb to the guns of a P-47 in March of 1944.)