16

P-47D-25-RE 42-26628 LM: C, named Miss Fire and Rozzie Geth II was the personal aircraft of Fred Joseph Christensen Jr. (1921–2006). In 1942, Christensen joined the United States Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet and was commissioned in December 1942. After pursuit training, 2nd Lt. Christensen went to the Eighth Air Force in England in July 1943. Completing an operational training unit course at RAF Atcham to familiarize himself with the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, he joined the 56th Fighter Group, based at RAF Halesworth, as a replacement pilot on August 26, 1943.
On 5th July 1944 he scored his 16th victory over a Fw-190 in the vicinity north of Evreux. Two days later he will become an "ace in a day" shooting down 6 Ju-52 transporters and raise his score to 21.5, his final score in Europe.
Christensen's 21.5 officially credited kills rank him 12th among all Army Air Forces aces, 7th among aces of the Eighth Air Force, and 5th among P-47 aces.
While in England, Christensen adopted a stray black cat and named it Sinbad. He is reputed to have taken Sinbad with him on missions, carrying him in the cockpit of his P-47 as both a good luck charm and inspiration to his fellow pilots, then bringing the cat to the United States as a pet in September 1944 after the end of his tour. A family anecdote held that a war correspondent covering the 56th FG tried to photograph the cat, which kept jumping all over packed parachutes. All of the pilots using the gear returned safely, contributing to his legend.
I have read the Combat Report for his 16th claim over the Fw-190 and it looked NOTHING like this image, it was really 15:45 hours, overcast and the the german aircraft flew just above the deck, in fact, it collided with a chimney after being hit and spattered on a street. So, I got an artistic license over this, I know. Also, the pilot and crew chief plate is missing from just beneath the windshield, I really couldn´t found for sure what was written in it but I´m working on it.