My dad flew a thunderbolt in WW2.
He was stationed in England got shot down i germany taken prisoner and escaped. He said his first missions were bomber support. His plane had " Easys Angels" painted on the tail. His issued plane was so shot up, he told my brother he was flying a different one when he got shot down. It had Maj Mac painted on the fuselage. I found a picture of that plane on the internet. It's a pretty cool deal to see the plane my dad got shot down flying. I would suppose he flew for the eight?
After the 8th got enough P-51s, the P-47s were mostly shifted to the 9th AF, who did ground support work against airfields, trains, troops, tanks, convoys, etc. I think the 8th kept ONE P-47 group, who didn't want to give up their T-bolts.
To find out which AF your father flew for, it would mostly depend on timing. I think the 8th AF was all P-51 by late '44, excepting the 56thFG, who wanted to keep their -47s. If you can find out which Fighter Group he flew for, the rest of the data is easy enough to find out.
