Liberator : the Consolidated B-24

393 Pages·2012·16.22 MB·English

by  Graham M. Simons

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
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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