Crew of B-24J 44-40783 Photographed in Front of "Tough Titti"

Image size: 1600 x 1139 pixel. 355 KB
Date: 1944
Place: Liuchow, Guangxi, China
Photographer: Unknown

Crew of B-24J 44-40783 photographed in front of "Tough Titti," a B-24J-155-CO serial number 44-40296. On the evening of August 31, 1944, ten crew members of the 14th Air Force, 308th Bomb Group, 375th Bomb Squadron, lifted off in a Consolidated B-24J-180-CO Liberator serial number 44-40783 from a base in Liuchow, China, on a mission to bomb Japanese ships anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa. Intercepted by an A6M3 Model 32 Zero-Sen fighter piloted by Chief Petty Officer Takeo Tanimizu of the Tainan Air Group, who shot down B-24J 44-40831 and damaged 40783. On its return flight, it was diverted to an alternate field because Liuchow was under air attack. On its way to the alternate strip, it crashed into Mount Arisan (known as Mount Maoer or Kitten, 6000 feet, 1829 meters) and tumbled into a deep ravine. All aboard were killed. The crew: Pilot, Second Lieutenant George H. Pierpont (Salem, Virginia); Co-Pilot, Second Lieutenant Franklin A. Tomenendale (Shabbona, Illinois); Navigator, Second Lieutenant Robert Deming (Seattle, Washington); Bombardier, Second Lieutenant George A. Ward (Jersey City, New Jersey); Engineer, Staff Sargeant Anthony DeLucia, age 24 (Bradford, Pennsylvania); Radio, Sargeant Ellsworth V. Kelley (Newark, Ohio); Radarman, Private Fred P. Buckley (Garden City, Kansas); Gunner, Staff Sargeant William A. Drager (Washington, New Jersey); Gunner, Sargeant Robert L. Kearsey (McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania); Gunner, Private Vincent J. Netherwood (Kingston, New York), age 20, engaged to be married. On October 2, 1996 two Chinese farmers discovered the crash site 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of Gualin, Guangxi Province. Jiang Zemin, president of the People's Republic of China, presented President Clinton with five identification tags and a video of the crash site during a state visit the next month. The names on the military dog tags included: Buckley, Kelley, Netherwood, Tomenendale and Ward. Four times between 1997 and 1999, a joint U.S.-Chinese team excavated the crash site, recovering numerous pieces of wreckage, personal effects and remains. Using DNA, they identified the crew. Six were buried in Arlington and three in their hometowns.  

Source:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sunday/2013-07/28/content_16842543.htm

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1076

B-24D Liberator of 308th Bomb Group Passes P-40Ks of 23rd Fighter Group

Image size: 1600 x 1097 pixel. 429 KB
Date: Wednesday, 10 February 1943
Place: Kunming, Yunnan, China
Photographer: Unknown

Consolidated B-24D-25-CO Liberator of 308th Bomb Group passes P-40K Warhawks of 23rd Fighter Group on its way to attack Japanese targets. Both groups were part of the 14th Air Force, created from the American Volunteer Group, the famed "Flying Tigers" under Brigadier General Claire L. Chennault on March 10, 1943. In his memoirs, Chennault praised the 308th: "They took the heaviest combat losses of any Group in China and often broke my heart by burning thousands of gallons of gas only to dump their bombs in rice paddy mud far from the target. However, their bombing of Vinh railroad shops in Indo-China, the Kowloon and Kai Tak docks at Hong Kong, and the shipping off Saigon were superb jobs unmatched anywhere. When the Army Air Force Headquarters in Washington tallied the bombing accuracy of every bomb group in combat, I was astonished to find that the 308th led them all." Before the 23d Fighter Group returned to the United States in December 1945, it accounted for the destruction of 621 enemy planes in air combat, plus 320 more on the ground. It sank more than 131,000 tons of enemy shipping and damaged another 250,000 tons. It caused an estimated enemy troop loss of more than 20,000. These statistics were compiled through a total of more than 24,000 combat sorties, requiring more than 53,000 flying hours, and at a cost of 110 aircraft lost in aerial combat, 90 shot down by surface defenses and 28 bombed while on the ground. Photo taken sometime between February 10 and September 1943. 

Source:

NARA (National Archives) Identifier 535780.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberator_bomber_crosses_the_P-40_fighter_planes.jpg

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1048

B-24L Liberator "Hell Hen" Returns to Bradley Field

Image size: 1600 x 1261 pixel. 245 KB
Date: Tuesday, 22 May 1945
Place: Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, USA
Photographer: Unknown

The crew of a Consolidated B-24L Liberator of the 8th Air Force, 2nd Wing, 389th Bombardment Group, 565th Bombardment Squadron elated at their return to the United States, just after landing at Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut on May 22, 1945. Top Row: Tail Gunner Staff Sergeant Joseph C. Carl (January 15, 1926 - October 3, 1998), Altoona, Pennsylvania; Flight Engineer Technical Sergeant Charles Eads Leach (October 20, 1924 - April 17, 2006), Maroa, Illinois; Pilot Captain Elmer V. Schindler (November 21, 1923 - September 22, 2009), Cleveland, Ohio; Navigator Lieutenant Edward G. Fronko (February 2, 1924 - February 15, 1986), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Middle Row: Bombardier Lieutenant Orville F. Burda (April 1, 1918 - July 13, 2004), Dickinson, North Dakota; Co-Pilot Lieutenant John H. Cooley (1916 - ????), Chicago, Illinois. Bottom Row: Waist Gunner Staff Sergeant Louis Singer, Brooklyn, New York; Nose Gunner Staff Sergeant Henry F. Spears (May 12, 1924 - April 26, 2000), Harmony, Oklahoma; Radio Operator Technical Sergeant Charles F. Smith, St. Louisville, Ohio; Gunner Staff Sergeant Paul J. Bordewich (December 9, 1917 - June 10, 2008), Long Beach, California. Captain Schindler and his crew flew twenty-eight missions in Europe before returning home. the pane was christened "Hell Hen" by the Associate Press; none of the crew knew of that name until this image appeared in newspapers around the country. A total of sixty-five bombers, B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators carrying 275 officers and 800 enlisted men (including former prisoners of war), landed between 1142 and 2033 Hours on May 22. They flew from bases in England and France to Iceland and Labrador before landing at Bradley. Starting that day, some 3,500 aircraft and over 40,000 men returned to the United States by air by August 30, 1945, to Bradley, the designated field for returning aircraft from the 8th and 15th Air Forces. After a thirty-day furlough, they were scheduled to be trained in Boeing B-29 Superfortress operations, but for many the end of the Pacific War cancelled their transition to that bomber and they were discharged. Most of the planes returned to Bradley were flown to scrapping yards around the country and recycled.

Source:

National Archives and Recoreds Administration (NARA) NWDNS-208-AA-1H(12)

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0013

Jedburgh Special Forces Board B-24D Liberator, Bound For France

Image size: 1600 x 1273 pixel. 327 KB
Date: Friday, 11 August 1944
Place: Kettering, Northamptonshire, England
Photographer: Unknown

Jedburgh Team Aubrey seen just before boarding Consolidated B-24D-35-CO Liberator "Fightin' Sam" (#42-40506) of 8th Air Force, 801st Bombardment Group, 788th Bomb Squadron, for parachuting into France. Left to Right: E. W. Appel, plane crew; unidentified woman; Sergeant Ivor Hooker; Captain Jean-Francois Chaigneau (back to camera) Captain Godfrey Marchant (behind Chaigneau) and unidentified American aircrew member. "Fightin' Sam" was painted black for this mission. The Jedburghs were special forces 3-person teams, formed from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (Intelligence and Operations Central Bureau), and later personnel from the Dutch or Belgian Army. During Operation Overlord, Jedburghs were inserted via parachute or by landing in Douglas C-47 Dakotas behind German lines to work with the Forces Francaises de l'Intérieur (French Forces of the Interior, FFI, the Resistance) to organize sabotage, intelligence, and engage retreating German forces. Team Aubrey consisted of of Captain Marchant (British, code name RUTLAND), Captain Chaigneau (French, nom-de-guerre J. Telmon, code name KILDARE), and Sergeant Hooker (British, code name THALER, radio operator). They dropped into France at 0115 Hours on August 12, 1944 at La Plessis-Belleville. Two other B-24s accompanied the mission to drop weapons, food and supplies. Aubrey operated in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris; they completed their hookup with the "Spiritualist" SOE network the night they landed. As German forces retreated from Paris on August 27, 1944, Major Rene Dumont-Guillemet, the leader of the "Spiritualist" circuit, ordered the FFI to ambush them. Only the Jedburghs were trained with PIAT anti-tank rockets, and only two Bren machine guns were available. LVIII Panzer Corps, shattered in the Normandy breakout, had elements of the Panzer Lehr and 9th Panzer Divisions in the area and engaged the FFI, killing eighty-six French. Captain Chaigneau was killed by a tank shell as he attempted to rescue a nurse. Hooker and Marchant were separated in a river bed, using the deep, thick mud to hide from the Germans until they were able to independently escape eight hours later and rejoin the American VII Corps at Nongloire-par-Puisieux. By August 30 both Hooker and Marchant were back in London. Marchant was killed in Burma in April 1945 on another Jedburgh mission; Hooker survived the war and died in 1988. 91 Jedburgh teams operated in France in July and August 1944, destroying bridges, railroads, communications, and reporting to London that the Germans had fled Paris. These operations laid the groundwork for the creation of dedicated intelligence operations in the United States, United Kingdom and France after the war.

Source:

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) 226-FPL-T-25 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0009

Consolidated B-24D Liberator "First Sergeant" of 458th Bomb Group

Image size: 1600 x 1053 pixel. 255 KB
Date: Saturday, 27 May 1944
Place: Norwich, Norwalk, England
Photographer: Unknown

Consolidated B-24D-30-CO Liberator (#42-40127) "First Sergeant" of the 8th Air Force, 458th Bombardment Group, 754th Bombardment Squadron, is shown on the apron at the group's base at RAF Horsham St. Faith, 27 May 1944. Originally "Thar She Blows Again" in operation from Algeria against Ploesti with the 93rd Bombardment Group, 329th Bombardment Squadron, and received moderate damage. Her crew, led by Lieutenant Charles Merrill, all returned safely. Originally named "Bucket of Bolts" when it was first received by the 458th, "First Sergeant" became the 458th's first assembly ship and was painted with the polka dots for high visibility. "First Sergeant's" job would be to take off before the other combat aircraft, and then lead them of the group into a combat formation, to provide maximum coverage for each ship. Then "First Sergeant" would return to base. She was crewed by rotation, usually pilots or aircrew that had suffered combat fatigue or were in need of flight time. On May 27, 1944, "First Sergeant" was the victim of a flare. While loading the plane's Very signal pistol, the gun discharged and lit other flares. This caused the war-weary B-24 to burn on the runway.

Source:

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) NLR-PHOCO-A-65343B 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0007

Sergeant William Watts Manning B-24D Liberator Tunnel Machine Gun

Image size: 1600 x 1281 pixel. 364 KB

Date: Sunday, 1 November 1942

Place: Unknown

Photographer: Unknown

United States Army Air Force gunner Sgt. William Watts of Alexandria, Louisiana, demonstrates the tunnel-mounted Browning .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun of the Consolidated B-24D/LB-30 Liberator. This photo appeared in the LB-30 Erection and Maintenance Instruction manual (TO 01-5ED-2) in 1942. This could have been a staged photo by Consolidated. It is not clear if he is engaged in combat, as he is not wearing an oxygen mask and the machine gun is not exhibiting recoil (note spent .50 caliber casings caught in the gunner's window), but some sources said that this pic was taken in the first all-American air attack in Europe, 17 August 1942. The waist gunner is visible behind him. Originally introduced in the B-24C model, which did not see combat, the tunnel gun had a limited field of fire and was difficult to operate in combat. As result 287 B-24Ds were equipped with Bendix power turrets that could be retracted into the aircraft for takeoff and landings. The Bendix turret induced nausea and disorientation in the ball turret gunners, and soon the turret was deleted and replaced with the tunnel gun again. It was not until the successful Sperry turret was installed (like the one used on the B-17E/F, only it could be retracted into the fuselage) that the B-24 had a workable belly gun defense. Eventually a nose turret like the tail turret was also added, bringing the total number of .50 caliber machine guns to over thirteen. The B-24 never upgraded its engines, resulting in diminished performance since the extra turrets added significant weight. The first B-24D combat mission was on October 9, 1942 by the 93rd Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force against locomotive manufacturing in Lille, France. Out of twenty-four aircraft, one was shot down.

Source:

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) NLR-PHOCO-A-65639(31)
http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0005