56th Fighter Group

By Roger Freeman and Chris Davey

One of the first Thunderbolt groups to see action in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) with the US Army Air Forces, the 56th Fighter Group (FG) was also the only fighter unit within the Eighth Air Force to remain equipped with the mighty P-47 until war's end. Led by the inspirational 'Hub' Zemke, this group was responsible for devising many of the bomber escort tactics employed by VIII Fighter Command between 1943 and 1945. By VE-Day the 56th FG had shot down 100 more enemy aircraft than any other group in the Eighth Air Force, its pilots being credited with 677 kills during 447 missions. The exploits of this elite fighter unit are detailed in this volume together with photographs, their aircraft profiles and insignia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Sep 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781782004370

Roger Freeman

Dr Roger Freeman FRCP(C) is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and Senior Neuropsychiatrist at the Neuropsychiatry Clinic, BC Children’s Hospital Vancouver, Canada. He is co-founder of the Neuropsychiatry Clinic at BC Children’s Hospital and co-founder and manager of the Tourette Syndrome International Database Consortium, a world-wide clinical dataset on Tourette syndrome. Dr Freeman is the author of numerous papers on Tourette syndrome and is a frequent presenter at Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada (TSFC) conferences. He has been honoured as a Clinician of the year (2006) by the TSFC and was given a distinguished service award by the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.