The thunderbolt performed 546,000 combat sorties between march of 1943 and august 1945 and is considered the real forerunner of today's multirole fighters Their response was to build a new factory at evansville The 15,000+ thunderbolts produced and used in world war ii, saw service in every theatre of operations except alaska
By the end of 1944 it equipped 31 usaaf groups and served with many other allied air forces, including the raf who took 830 machines. As the number of thunderbolts on order increased, republic realised that their farmingdale factory would not be able to keep up with demand By the end of wwii, more than 15,000 thunderbolts had been built
Army air forces, was also supplied, under lend/lease to great britain, russia, france and brazil.
