B-24 Liberator

[Alfred Forns]

This is the only flying B-24J Liberator left !! Started combat operations in March 1944 with the 467 th Bomb Group at Rackheath. One incredible fact is that it flew 130 mission (various crews) and never turned back from a mission !! After its service in Europe went on to the Pacific for further action. The plane was repainted as “Witchcraft” in honor of the veterans of the 8th Air Force.

The image was made as the plane was flying over Wako !! ... best flight shot of the day !!! ..... btw notice the dark semicircular line by the tail .... thats what a damage shutter blade looks like !!!

Peter could not find the pic of the 17 so posted the the 24 !!


Comments welcome and much appreciated

[Harold Davis]

looks like you and i had similar ideas tonite!! i have seen this bird in the area, but never been able to get a good shot. beautiful oldie!!!

i remember when you posted this in etl a couple years ago making everyone guess what the line was. would have never figured it out!!

[Alfred Forns]

... I didn't for a while either :) .. btw that bird was flying out of Kissimmee !!

[Danny J Brown]

Beautiful image of a beautiful aircraft, Al. Thanks.

[PeterCollins]

Hi Al, beautiful aircraft. I believe she visited here in the Uk a few years back, before my time but i remember my father talking about seeing a B24.

Tech wise, looks like it was a fair distance from you as you have lost some contrast on the aircraft and the high SS has frozen the props, but i bet you were hunting egrets at the time ;)

Well caught and a nice find, im off to post a Sabre shot now :)

[Alfred Forns]

Peter the aircraft was brought to the UK in parts and put up for sale, restored in Kissimmee Fl and do belie it went back to the UK !! Sure wish I could have gotten close ... made with 600 and 2X!!

[Ken Lassman]

Great photo Al...can't believe you got this over Wako....thanks for sharing

[Richard Waas]

Nice image of a bird that helped win the war...... TFS Al!!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Dumb question, would this have been in the Battle of Britain with the Luftwaffe?

[PeterCollins]

Hi Jackie,

The Battle of Britain is commonly described as July 1940 until October 1940. The B24 wasn't introduced into the Air Force until 1941 at that point although some American pilots were fighting in Britain there was no official USA deployment. The Air Force didnt arrive in Britain until mid 1942. It wasnt until January 43 that the Americans agreed to start conducting bombing raids so I imagine they were the first to be used from Feb 1943 onwards

So no it would not have fought in the Battle of Britain

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Peter Remember something about the peculiar origin of the Liberator and looked it up ... seems the first to enter service were the YB-24s and were used to ferry people around then in 1941 the RAF got its first Liberator IIs most use with Costal Command .. interesting history !!!

[Harold Davis]

some info i found on this particular plane:

The Collings Foundation’s B-24J is the only restored flying B-24J in the world. Initially, when we restored it in 1989, we honored the 15th A.F. in Italy with the selection of the ALL AMERICAN-a very distinguished A/C with a record of having shot down 14 enemy fighters on a single mission (only two B-24’s came back out of a squadron of 19). Then we selected the DRAGON & HIS TAIL, probably WWII’s most extensive nose art, to honor and represent the WWII veterans who served in the Pacific.

Now, it’s time to honor the 8th Air Force and all who served in England and in the ETO. We have selected “WITCHCRAFT”, a B-24 assigned to the 467BG, 790BS that compiled an amazing record of 130 combat missions. WITCHCRAFT is an olive drab aircraft, with red and white nose bowls, red and white rudders, 130 bomb markings and a cartoonish witch flying a machine gun as nose art. All the names of our Dedicated Crew, Lead Crew, Plane Sponsors and DFC Members will be proudly displayed on the co-pilot’s side of the aircraft. Honor Crew and aircraft names will continue to be on the bomb bay doors.

We’re very pleased that we have been able to keep this B-24J flying and look forward to continuing to honor our American Veterans.

[PeterCollins]

its interesting to note that it is in fact one of 3 airworthy B24's in the USA, no other world wide though

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Thanks for all the info Peter. I went to the Churchill War Rooms and found them fascinating. I am going to watch the Battle of Britain again soon. Such a scary, pivotal time in our history. Thank goodness for Churchill, Chamberlain was pretty out of it, not recognizing what a threat Hitler actually was.

[Alfred Forns]

Jackie when you watch the movie pay close attention to the word exchanges from the pilots outside the ready room ... particularly with the new replacement asking questions !! :)

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Got the movie, a weekend viewing is in order! Will watch for those scenes.

[Harshad Barve]

Thanks for sharing this excellent image Alfred , nice info too