A total of around 2, 110 bombers were lost on operations by its fifteen B-24 and six B-17 bombardment groups, while its seven fighter groups claimed a total of 1, 836 enemy aircraft destroyed.

The 404th lost its last B-24 in June.

The 389th lost four aircraft over the target area, including B-24 " Ole Kickapoo " flown by 2nd Lt. Lloyd Herbert Hughes.

The episode was based on the discovery of the B-24 Liberator four engine bomber Lady Be Good and her crew's remains, which had crash-landed at night, deep in the Libyan desert after running out of fuel, while returning from a WWII bombing mission over fascist Italy.

The wreck of the B-24 bomber Lady Be Good — discovered north of Kufra 15 years after it was reported missing during WWII — had a less happy ending.

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the need for bombardiers was evident, soon after an announcement was made by Lieutenant Colonel Isaiah Davies, Commanding Officer of Midland Army Air Field ( MAAF ), that Midland AAF would be used exclusively to train bombardiers in the AT-11 Kansan for eventual assignment to bomber aircraft such as the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell, B-26 Marauder and B-29 Superfortress.

After a brief service as a pilot of C-54 Skymaster cargo planes into Karachi, and over " The Hump " to Kunming after VE Day, he ferried bombers ( B-24 Liberators and B-29 Superfortresses ) from the U. S. mainland to Tinian in the Mariana Islands and into other bases in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Fifth Air Force followed up the carrier strikes an hour after they ended with a raid by 27 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers escorted by 58 P-38s.

His first assignment after flight training was at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, where, as a member of the 344th Bombardment Squadron of the 93d Bombardment Group, he flew Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

Shortly after graduating from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Lounsberry served in World War II as a U. S. Air Force B-24 pilot in the Asiatic Pacific Theater, where he received several military honors including the Distinguished Flying Cross, four Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Philippine Liberation Medal.

During the fighting at ' Helen ' B-24 Liberator heavy bombers were used for close air support for the first time, with P-38 Lightning fighters dropping napalm immediately after the bombing.

Some were diverted ( e. g. to the RAF airfield on Cyprus ), and one B-24 with 365 shell holes in it landed in Libya 14 hours after departing ..

* The B-24 is featured in the classic novel Goodbye to Some by Gordon Forbes, a former pilot, who seems to know the foibles of the aircraft.

Palance's rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was said to have become disfigured while bailing out of a burning B-24 Liberator bomber during a training flight over southern Arizona ( where Palance was a student pilot ).

* 2d Lt. George Olesen ( cartoonist ), B-24 pilot 7th Bomb Group

As a B-24 bomber pilot, he flew 62 combat missions, logging more than 500 hours of combat time.

He entered the construction business, then served as a B-24 pilot in World War II, and eventually headed JELCO ( later EMKO ), a major contracting company in Utah.

The base began as a pilot transition school for the B-26 Marauder before becoming one of the first B-24 transition schools in operation.

This factory was set up in order to spread out strategic aircraft production and rented to Convair during the war to produce B-24 Liberator bombers.

On 22 June of the same year, nine B-24 Liberators of the United States Army Air Forces used Azon glide bombs against the Samur Bridge ; escort was provided by 41 of 43 P-51 Mustangs.

The design was a development of the C104, but with the delta wing raised to the top of the fuselage allowing for simplified structure, easier access to the engines and the weapons bay in the belly, as well as a weapons bay larger than that of the B-24 Liberator or Lancaster bombers.

During World War II an American squadron of B-24 Liberator bombers of the 834th Squadron ( H ), 486th Bomb Group ( H ), 8th Air Force was based at RAF Sudbury.

The host unit at Clovis AAF was the 16th Bombardment Wing, a training unit for Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber crews for Europe, and later becoming a major training / conversion base for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers heading to the Pacific Theater.

Sperry also was the creator of the Ball Turret Gun that was mounted under the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, as commemorated by the film Memphis Belle and the poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.

In 1941 Sewart Air Force Base was established and served as a B-24 advanced training facility.

In 1944, a B-24 " Liberator " airplane was christened " The Chester and Lili Morris " in honor of him and his wife, and their contributions to the United States war effort.

A secondary target of the Oil Campaign of World War II, Münster was bombed on October 25, 1944 by 34 diverted B-24 Liberators during a mission to a nearby primary target, the Scholven / Buer synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen.

Piccard developed a frost-free window, that was used on this flight and later by the Navy and Air Force in the B-24 Liberator or B-26 Marauder.

* Another mission was flown during September 11, 1943, when Eleventh Air Force dispatched eight B-24 Liberators and 12 B-25s.

The large gap in the middle of the Atlantic that had been unreachable by aircraft was closed by long range B-24 Liberator aircraft.

The 98 RANW can be traced to the World War II 98th Bombardment Group, which was a B-24 Liberator heavy bomb group that fought in North Africa and Italy.

In mid-1944, the production of the B-24 was consolidated from several different companies ( including some in Texas ) to two large factories: the Consolidated Aircraft Company in San Diego and the Ford Motor Company's spawling factory in Willow Run, near Detroit, Michigan, which had been specially designed to produce B-24s.

A B-24 airman writing in 1998 also noted the distinction between the character of Smoe and Kilroy ( who he says was never pictured ), and suggested that Smoe stood for " Sad men of Europe ".

General Andrews organized and commanded the General Headquarters, Air Force ( 1935 – 1939 ), and at the time of his death on 3 May 1943 in the crash of a B-24 Liberator in Iceland, he was Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theater of Operations.

He served in Europe in World War II, was inside of B-17, B-24, B-25 bombers and had four years as a flight test engineer.

To cover the Mid-Atlantic Gap that existed the British introduced a " Very Long Range " version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber which was capable of patrolling the areas between Iceland and Greenland and attacking German submarines.

The American innovation of the manned, ventrally-mounted Sperry ball turret on the B-17 and B-24 bombers was a virtually self-contained defensive weapon system that rotated a full 360 degrees horizontally with a 90-degree elevation, and its pair of M2 Browning machine guns had an effective range of one thousand yards.

The gap was eventually closed in 1943 with longer-ranged versions of aircraft such as the Short Sunderland and B-24 Liberator, making submarine actions in the Atlantic nearly impossible.

He was killed when the B-24 Liberator aircraft he was travelling in crashed into a marshalling yard at Port Moresby, New Guinea, on 1943.

The B-24 crashed at Krüllenkempe, near Havelberg, as Ehrler's jet fell to earth in the woods of Scharlibbe, where he was killed.

On 7 April, Eighth Air Force dispatched thirty-two B-17 and B-24 groups and fourteen Mustang groups ( the sheer numbers of attacking Allied aircraft were so large in 1945 that they were now counted by the group ) to targets in the small area of Germany still controlled by the Nazis, hitting the remaining airfields where the Luftwaffe jets were stationed.