Us Official Photographs

P-47 at Thabutkan Burma

AIRBORNE RESERVES FOR THE BATTLE OF MEIKTILA - An unexpected arrival on the field at Tha-butkan, Burma, was this Republic P-47 of the 1st Air Commando Group which landed a few minutes after the field was opened. While on a close support mission a few miles away the planes oil line was shot out and the pilot had to make an emergency landing at Thabutkan. Only the nearness of the field to the target saved the pilot from having to bail out. If it had been a few hours earlier the field would not have been in any condition for him to make a landing. February 1945.