Mr. Kramer,

I had a chance to talk to some of our Air Force's veterans who flew
P-47's in Italy (1st Fighter Squadron - Brazilian Air Force -
Tarquinia and later Pisa) and one of them told me that out of his 90+
missions (99% ground attack missions), the one that really "shocked"
him was one where he took part on a bomber escort. The mission took
place on Jan 28th 1945, and the target of the 30 USAAF B-25's teh
Brazilians escorted was a heavily defended "railway complex" at the
Brenner Pass. There was no enemy fighters activity so the Brazilian
pilots could just observe the B-25's going into the bomb run and
keeping that steady course as the bombs were released and flak started
to pop around them. Despite his combat experince (70 + missions at the
time), he said he was horrified to see those brave men going through
the flak without any evasive action, flying as if nothing was
happening around them and focusing only on their targets. Soon
parachutes appeared in the skies and bombers began to go down...

Our pilots escorted 30 B-25's to the target, but 6 never made it back
home. According to this veteran, he didn't fire a single shot that
day, but having a chance of escorting such brave men is a mission he
is most proud of.

Greetings,

Vicente Vazquez
São Paulo - Brazil