P-47D-27-RE Thunderbolt #605, "OH JOHNNIE".

This P-47D was assigned to pilot Lt. Raymond Knight, 346th Fighter Squadron, 350th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force in April 1945. The aircraft was named after his wife. They were from Houston, TX.

This P-47D was originally with the Brazilian Air Force operating in Italy with the US 12th Air Force as were many of these aircraft flown by the 350th Fighter Group. The Brazilian Air Force usually assigned letters and numbers on their cowlings. The USAAF added a number just aft of the cowling. Often, our numbers were converted Brazilian style letters. Hence, our zeros looked like the letter D, eights looked like the letter B and so on. The irregular placement and style of these numbers was typical fo the 350th Fighter Group.

In April of 1945, Lt. Knight led several low level strafing attacks against airfields in northern Italy. During the attack on Ghedi airfield, he went in alone to find the location of the enemy aircraft, drawing heavy fire in the process. He then led his flight in the attack, destroying five aircraft. He returned to base to lead another attack against Bergamo airfield. As before, he went in alone to locate the enemy aircraft, drawing heavy fire. He then led his flight destroying eight aircraft. During this attack, his aircraft was heavily damaged. The next day, he led another attack against Bergamo to destroy the remaining aircraft and again his aircraft was severly damaged. Lt. Knight was killed trying to bring his damaged aircraft home when it crashed in the mountains. For these actions he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Lt. Knight flew 84 missions destroying 24 enemy aircraft before his death.