At the start of 1939, the United States Army Air Corps wanted
more of its favourite aircraft, the B-17 Flying Fortress.
The development of heavy bombers in
the 1930s had led American commanders to adopt a doctrine of high
altitude precision bombing that was intended to maximize devastation.
They believed aerial bombardment was a war winning tool,
and with conflict looming on the horizon, they needed more aircraft.
So the US Army Air Corps approached Consolidated
with a request to build the B-17 under license.
Consolidated took one look at the aircraft and decided they could do better.
They responded with a proposal for a new aircraft which would fly faster,
higher, further and carry more bombs.
The US Army Air Corps could hardly refuse, and the prototype took
flight in December 1939, Named for its intended role in the war to come.
The aircraft would play a key part in America's bombing effort around the world,
becoming the most produced military aircraft of all time.
The B-24 Liberator
In the 1930s,
Consolidated was known more for making flying boats than bombers,
and their counter offer to the US Army Air Corps took full advantage
of signature seaplane features to land on water.
A plane's critical flight components
like the wings, tail and engines need to be kept high
while the fuselage needs to be deep and buoyant to help the aircraft float.
These concepts are all visible in the B-24.
Consolidated repurposed the big boxy fuselage into a bomb bay,
which could take a huge bomb load of up to 8,000 pounds.
The bomb bay doors also opened up
by rolling inside the aircraft, which reduced drag in flight.
The high shoulder mounted wings also increased
the capacity of the bomb load and the speed of the aircraft.
The design was the brainchild of Consolidated Engineer David Davis,
who invented a laminar airfoil, a wing, where the air flows smoothly
over the surface without generating turbulence.
And this is before the science of laminar flow was fully understood.
The design of the Davis wing was long and narrow,
which generated less drag and more speed and lift.
It was also unusually thick, particularly on its leading edge
being designed support the liberator for engines and carry their fuel.
Though a flying boat was the starting point for its design.
The Liberator proved truly terrible at landing on water.
The aircraft was so prone to sinking that crew
survival rates after ditching were worryingly low.
British and American forces both attempted to solve this problem
with some success by reinforcing the bomb bay but concluded
only a complete redesign would make the B-24 less sinkable.
The first B-24s were not flown
by the Americans, but by the British.
Already at war with Germany and wanting to strengthen their bomber forces, Britain
and France placed orders for the B-24 before the prototype was even completed.
But France had surrendered by the time the production run was complete.
So that order was transferred to the RAF, who received the first models
in March 1941.
B-24 was designed to be a heavy bomber,
but its deep fuselage and long range lent itself to adaptation to other roles.
The RAF used its first liberator to transport pilots between the US and
the UK, but adapted its next allocation for use by RAF Coastal Command.
As an island nation, Britain needed supplies
from the US and its empire to support the war effort.
But shipping was threatened by German U-boats which could operate
beyond the range of aircraft in an area known as the mid-Atlantic Gap.
The modified very long range liberators were the first RAF aircraft
in the range to protect convoys crossing the Atlantic.
Fitted with U-boat detecting radar and the ability to launch surprise air attacks.
The VLR liberator could hunt for German submarines trying to starve the UK.
Coastal aircraft fly
at relatively low altitude, usually between 1000 and 1500 feet.
The bombing level is normally 50 feet.
The depth charges are aimed so as to straddle the U-boat.
The lethal range is 19 feet and they are set to explode
at a 25 foot depth We didn't get many liberators.
In fact, we started with about four
The Americans were so niggly and they wouldn't let us have any more.
And eventually we got up to ten
and the squadron became operational
at the end of 41.
And from then
until early in 43, we were the only
long range VLR, which is very long
range, Liberator squadron in the Royal Air Force.
The arrival of these aircraft in increasing numbers helped the allies
to close the Mid Atlantic Gap and minimize the U-boat threat.
By 1943, the Battle of the Atlantic was all but won.
After the US joined the Second World War in December of 1941,
American liberators began to see service around the world.
The 44th bomb group equipped with B-24 Liberators
were the first to arrive in Britain in September 1942.
They would form a key part of the allied strategic bombing campaign
against Nazi Germany alongside the B-17 Flying Fortress.
The B-24 Liberator was flown from British, North African and later Italian bases
to bomb industrial military and economic targets in German occupied Europe.
Statistically speaking, it was one of the most dangerous postings
of the Second World War.
The most famous B-24,
raid of the Second World War took place on the 1st of August 1943.
Operation Tidal Wave. A force of 177 Liberators
set out from bases in North Africa to bomb axis oil refineries in Romania.
Nazi Germany was already short on fuel and the US Army Air Force's belief
that by destroying Ploiești, they could severely weaken their enemies.
However, the operation proved to be a resounding failure
and one of the bloodiest allied air raids of the whole war.
53 liberators were lost and around
660 airmen were killed, captured or interned.
And there was ultimately no impact on oil production.
The B-24 served in huge numbers.
By the summer of 1944, almost half of the U.S.
Army Air Force's bomber strength in Europe was made up of B-24s,
with many serving under the 15th Air Force in Italy
and the second Air Division of the eighth Air Force in Britain.
The allies ability to produce and maintain equipment
in huge quantities was vitally important to their eventual victory.
The B-24, built at five plants across the US serves as an excellent example of this.
The largest factory; the mile long Ford production line at Willow Run in Detroit.
In total, around 19,000 liberators were built
between 1940 and 1945, the most of any bomber ever.
Around a third of those, including the one behind
me, were built at Willow Run.
Given it service history,
the B-24 Liberator should have emerged as one of the most successful
and famous bombers of its day.
But ultimately, with its boxy appearance, it was never quite
as popular as the more streamlined B-17.
While it could fly faster, further, and with a greater bomb load,
the Liberator was more difficult to control and gained
a reputation as a dangerous aircraft.
Well, I'd never seen an airplane as big as that before
It had four very powerful engines.
It was very impressive look that with the twin tail.
It was quite different from the flying Fortress.
It was more difficult to fly and was heavier on the controls.
In 1943, the aircraft became known as the so-called problem plane
because of how frequently it was involved in accidents during training.
We can attribute this problem more to inexperienced pilots
and insufficient training rather than the liberator itself,
as the overall accident rate proved to be very similar to that of the B-17.
B-24 accidents did, however, lead to more fatalities than B-17 ones,
both in training and in battle.
There was a belief
that the B-17 could withstand greater battle damage in combat than the B-24.
While this claim is hard to prove, there is certainly more photographic
evidence of B-17s that managed to limp home with extreme battle damage,
as well as many dramatic images of stricken B-24s exploding in mid-air.
What perhaps is more likely is that the B-17 was more escape-able.
Escape hatches on both aircraft were in roughly the same place,
but with the radio operator, engineer and two pilots crowded into the flight
deck, these crewmen had to squeeze past each other to get in and out
of the aircraft through the bomb bay, creating a bottleneck in the B-24,
which just didn't exist in the B-17. Design also made a difference,
the lower mounted wing on a B-17 helped the fuselage to absorb the shock
of a crash landing while the shoulder mounted Davis wing on the B-24 placed
A lot of weight on the fuselage, which in a heavy landing caused it to crumple.
There are instances when pilots managed to land the Liberator
only for them to be killed and crushed by the top turret, landing upon them.
Overall, for the bomber, crews tasked with flying either
aircraft in combat during the Second World War, there was not much
notable difference in terms of safety or survivability.
Like in a B-17, flying conditions inside a B-24 were cramped, cold and noisy
while the aircraft itself offered little protection from enemy flak and fire.
The life expectancy of a bomber
crewman was determined more by when their mission was taking place,
especially the availability of long range fighter escorts and whether the allies
had achieved aerial superiority at the time more than the type of bomber
that they were flying in. Ultimately neither
the B-17 nor the B-24 proved up to the task
of delivering victory through aerial bombardment alone
and thousands of men lost their lives in the skies over Europe,
executing the flawed doctrine of strategic bombardment
When the Second World
War ended, the B-24 was considered surplus to requirements by the U.S.
Army Air Forces, outclassed by faster, heavier nuclear capable bombers
like the B-29 superfortress B-24 Liberators were scrapped in large numbers.
This aircraft is one of only 13 surviving B-24 Airframes.
It was used for scientific research until 1956, then spent 43 years
on the edge of the parade ground at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
IWM disassembled this aircraft and shipped it to Duxford in 1999
where it was restored externally
and it's been on display in the American Museum since 2001.
Most B-24 survivors, however, owe their existence to the Indian Air Force,
which was the last military force to fly the B-24 Liberator.
At the end of the war, the US left around 70 B-24s to the RAF in India,
who disabled them and dumped them at Kanpur Airfield
when war broke out between the newly independent nations of India and Pakistan
in 1947, the Indian Air Force recovered and restored
around 50 of these aircraft to flying condition.
They kept them in operation through repair and salvage until 1968.
The B-24 has largely been forgotten compared to the fame of the B-17,
but it can lay claim to most of the accolades
the B-17 is now remembered for, including the famous Memphis Bell.
It was actually a B-24 Liberator called Hot Stuff
that was the first aircraft
to complete 25 combat missions over Nazi occupied Europe, and it achieved this feat
in February 1943, three and a half months before the Memphis Bell.
Unfortunately, Hot Stuff crashed in Iceland on its return
flight to the US, killing 14 of
the 15 men on board. The US War Department decided Memphis Bell should therefore
be celebrated as the first aircraft to survive 25 missions.
Despite its appearance and reputation, the B-24 was a cornerstone
of allied victory during the Second World War
and its exploits and crews should not be forgotten.