First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Pen & Sword Aviation An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS Copyright © Graham M Simons, 2012 9781783035915 First Published 1990 by Arms and Armour Press. Revised and expanded by Pen & Sword Aviation 2012 The right of Graham M Simons to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Printed and bound in England by CPI Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION ORIGINS EARLY MODELS CONSTRUCTION THE B-24D VARIANTS PB4Y-1 AND PB4Y-2 LATER MODELS YOU BEND ’EM - WE MEND ’EM! OTHER USERS FROM THE COCKPIT IN COMPARISON VARIANTS UNITS INDEX BIBLIOGRAPHY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project of this nature could not be undertaken without considerable help from many organizations and individuals. Special thanks must go to Col. Richard L Upstromm and Tom Brewer from the USAF Museum, now the National Museum of the USAF for the provision of many photographs and details. Lynn Gamma and all in the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala. The same applies the valuable services provided by the History Office of the Air Technical Service Command, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. Much other primary source documentation is also located in the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland. The archives of the Institute of Aircraft Production provided much information and a number of photographs, as did the RAF Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the Science Museum in London. The late Roger Freeman provided photographs, as did Simon Peters and Martin Bowman and Peter Green from their respective collections. Personal thanks must also go to David Lee, the former Deputy Director and Curator of Aircraft of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, John Hamlin and to Vince Hemmings, the former curator of the East Anglian Aviation Society’s Tower Museum at Bassingbourn. The author is indebted to many people and organisations for providing photographs for this book, many of which are in the public domain. In some cases it has not been possible to identify the original photographer and so credits are given in the appropriate places to the immediate supplier. If any of the pictures have not been correctly credited, the author apologises. INTRODUCTION I want to tell you from the Russian point of view, what the President and the United States have done to win the war. The most important things in this war are machines. The United States has proven that it can turn out from 8,000 to 10,000 airplanes a month. Russia can only turn out, at most, 3,000 airplanes a month. The United States, therefore, is a country of machines. Without the use of those machines, through Lend-Lease, we would lose this war. Joseph Stalin In the late 1930s the United States of America faced the possibility of being forced into a war which was being fought by the great powers in Europe. The American aircraft industry was also facing the problem of manufacturing huge quantities of aircraft suitable for national use. The industry rose to the challenge and rallied to mass-produce thousands of aircraft. Between mid-1940 and V-J Day, the United States spent an estimated $45 billion on military aircraft. This sum was only for the cost of aircraft and engines – it did not include ordnance, government-financed factory expansions, marketing, equipment, housing for workers and other necessary expenses. In support of the strategic bombing mission, American industry mass-produced an estimated 12,761 B-17s and 18,481 B-24s. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was almost certainly the most versatile of all the Second World War bombers - for some reason it has also played ‘second fiddle’ to what is often perceived as the more glamorous B-17 Flying Fortress. Indeed, throughout its short operational career the Liberator was oveshadowed by its more famous comrade-in- arms, just as was the Halifax by the Lancaster and the Hurricane by the Spitfire. The B-17 ‘glory boys’ looked upon the slab- sided Liberator with disdain, referring to it as ‘the crate that ours came in’ In recent years the design and use of the B-17 has achieved an almost mythical, ‘god-like’ status through the activities of a few so-called ‘third mythical, ‘god-like’ status through the activities of a few so-called ‘third generation veterans’ - whatever that means - who love to over-glamourise the war-horse of their ancestors. To read some authors, one would have to believe that this huge bomber sprang fully formed out of the box it was delivered in clad in more armour than a tank and carrying more guns than a battleship! Apart from its bombing role in all theatres of operation, the B-24 hauled fuel to France during the push towards Germany, carried troops, fought the U-boat in the Atlantic and, probably most important of all, made a vital contribution towards winning the war in the Pacific. Its most famous single exploit is possibly the raid on the Ploesti oilfields in August 1943. But the B-24 was never to gain the recognition it deserved by press and public alike. Without doubt there is a clear, strong requirement to ‘put the record straight’, using primary source documentation to record the undoubted achievements alongside and in context with the shortcomings to the type’s design and operation that have otherwise received scant attention. This is not a book that details the many thousands of combat operations flown by incredibly brave aircrew in the European, CBI and Pacific theatres of operations - we prefer to leave that to the likes of good friend and colleague Martin W Bowman, who does a far better job at that than we could ever do! Making any sort of attempt to sort out Liberator production and usage into some sort of chronological sequence is like trying to unravel spagetti - production was split over five manufacturing centres often producing almost identical models, but with different designations and block numbers - and that does not take into account that the aircraft were also used in different theatres around the world and were subject to work by Modification Centers and changes at Group and Squadron level! For many years there have been endless battles as to which was ‘best’ the B- 17 or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. We decided to carefully study not only those two designs in comparison, but also to put the B-17 up against other Axis and Allied designs of the time - the results were interesting to say the least! As David Lee, the former Deputy Director of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford said upon reading the final proofs: ‘... there is so much new to me, also amazing production and usage facts and figures. For a technical treatise on the B-24, no-one else comes close’. Graham Simons Peterborough UK