World War II veterans remember: Sellars flew P-47 fighters in the Army Air Corps in Italy, France and Germany before being shot down over Germany and being taken as a POW for the last few weeks of World War II. 

The first time Arnol Sellars flew one in the skies over Europe, he was sold on the P-47 Thunderbolt.

“It was a good ol’ airplane,” he said. “You could shoot all kinds of bits off of it and it would still bring you home.”

But it wasn’t invulnerable. And on his 56th and final mission of World War II, Sellars learned that the hard way.

Forced to bail out of his plane after taking two direct hits, he spent the last few weeks of the war in a German hospital with a broken leg.

In recognition of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2015, the Tulsa World is trying to capture and preserve some of the personal stories of veterans living in the Tulsa area.

Stories in the series "Serving Our Country: World War II Veterans Remember" will be collected at tulsaworld.com/ww2veterans.

Article written by Tim Stanley on Tulsa World. WW2live has special and granted permission from the Tulsa World to use part of this article and this video.