B-24 Liberator

[RMXC51]

They had no female aircrew in the RAF during WWII. There were some female pilots that delivered new planes from the factories to Squadrons, with no ammo in the guns! Much to the disgust of at least one pretty young Spitfire pilot who wanted to “dance” with the Luftwaffe. The photo certainly looks like a young lady has crept in, sadly I can no longer ask Dad, I will have to find a larger copy of that photo that has the crew names on the back, it is hiding somewhere, it may shed some light on who that is.

I found my list of crew names, that is no female crew member, he was their Mid Upper Gunner, came from London but his name is unkown to me. These were a bunch of boys, Dad was only 19 when the photo was taken.

Its too bad we didn't let female pilots fly combat, they were some good fliers and we could have used them. There is at least one confirmed case of a female ferry pilot getting bounced by a 109 in an unarmed spitfire, she outflew the German right down to the deck and he ended up crashing into the sea. The kill was awarded to the pilot's male CO.

[RRCo.]

Great stuff John.

:D

I mean your "sig line" by the way!

[Alonzo]

Thanks for sharing the photos and documents.
An incredible group!!!!!

[00Buck]

Thanks for sharing.

[jimbo45]

awsome post thanks for shareing reminds me of an old guy that ran an old rambler shop turned to skidoo parts and marine he was a spitfire mechanic in england during the war and had some awsome stories and pics to share would go to get parts and half the time ended up talking for hours

[purple]

There are still a few flyable B-24s around. I've seen the Collings Foundation's "Dragon and his Tail" in Florida. Also saw one flying around Keene, NH some 20 yrs ago.

My best B-24 encounter happened at RCAF Station Trenton in 1968. We were playing golf on one of the holes which parallels the main runway when I heard a multi-engine aircraft on final which sounded a lot different than the usual C-130 traffic. Turned out this was a B-24 from the Indian Air Force which was returning to Canada for the National Aviation Museum. We went over and had a look at it on the tarmac later. The thing was totally stock, like it had flown out of a 1944 time warp- guns, turrets, the whole sh$teree!

The B-24 had very long legs and was used by the RCAF/RAF/ US Navy for ASW patrols for this reason. It played a big part in supressing the German U-Boats.

[RMXC51]

Liberators, Sunderlands, and Catalinas. I used to house sit for a guy who flew ASW patrol on Catalinas during the war. He told me they dropped a depth charge on a whale once, just to see what would happen (plane full of bored teenagers with guns, what else would happen?). And like many other crews, they removed the tracers from their MGs. He said they were great fun to shoot coyotes with.

[TheTooner]

Its too bad we didn't let female pilots fly combat, they were some good fliers and we could have used them. There is at least one confirmed case of a female ferry pilot getting bounced by a 109 in an unarmed spitfire, she outflew the German right down to the deck and he ended up crashing into the sea. The kill was awarded to the pilot's male CO.

Commander Charles Bentall Lamb DSO DSC Royal Navy, flew Fairey Swordfish torpedo planes in WWII, and in his memoir To War in a Stringbag recounted being set upon by a German fighter which of course far outclassed the old Swordfish in most measures of performance, but he was able to use his biplane's slow speed maneuvrability to evade the German at lower and lower levels until the latter crashed into the sea. Since he didn't actually fire his own guns during the encounter, it wasn't awarded to him as an air combat "kill."

Tragically, he was able to do this in part because he had unintentionally led a British fighter pilot to the same end during training pre-war.

[RRCo.]

Excellent book. The way the Vichy French treated prisoners was disgusting. A bunch of Quislings from Darlan on down.

[GunnerySgtJackson]

Picture is a prop from a USAAF B-24 that crashed in NL during the war.