Clues from Everybody's Sweetheart

Almost every photo has a story to tell, but getting it to speak is sometimes harder than at other times. Sometimes, a little bit of sleuthing can reveal a bit about a photo that initially looks like it contains no usable information, and that chase is part of the fun of finding and preserving these photos. Take, for instance, this group photo of at least some of the personnel from a B-24 Liberator squadron. Found in a pile of snapshots at an antique store, there is no information written on the back, so very little to go on, especially since the plane shown is seen nose-on. But if you look close, at the far right of the image, you’ll see a B-24 vertical stabilizer, and it’s lower than one would expect, meaning that it’s been removed from the aircraft.

While I can't say with 100% certainty, this is probably the 345th Bombardment Squadron at Lecce, Italy

The number on the stab, 264372, means that this came from aircraft 42-64372, a B-24J which was known as Everybody’s Sweetheart. After returning from a bombing mission against the Steyr Walzlagerwerke (or Steyr Ball Bearing Factory; this facility was responsible for 10-15% of Germany’s ball bearing production capacity, and thus was a critical target) in Austria on 2 April 1944 (yes, there’s a reason this post is running on April 2nd!), Everybody’s Sweetheart was shot up by ME109s and badly damaged, with four of the crew injured. The right tire had been hit, so the plane ran off the runway on landing.

There are two photos on the internet that show the wreck of Everybody’s Sweetheart, one here and one here. The photos show that the left vertical stabilizer had been pretty well shot up, but the right appears unscathed. Army records show that the plane was “salvaged” on 4 April 1944, and it would make sense, then, that the maintenance crews would save a perfectly good stabilizer and rudder that then might be able to be used on another aircraft, later.

Everybody’s Sweetheart was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force, and during this timeframe, the 345th was stationed at Lecce Airfield, Italy (way down in the “heel” of the country), so it’s likely that this is the squadron and location where our photo was taken.

There is also a first-person account of the landing by waist gunner Gene Robinson that has been preserved online, here.

Sadly, though, the identity of the main Liberator in our photo remains a mystery.

Lightnings After the Dance

Handwritten on the back of this small snapshot is "1946, Memphis Tenn."

During World War II, over 10,000 P-38 Lightnings were produced by Lockheed, and was the only US fighter that remained in continuous production throughout the entire duration of America's participation in the conflict. But as soon as hostilities ceased, the Army Air Corps had a huge number of surplus aircraft on its hands, ones that were quickly made obsolete by the new-fangled jets. The last P-38 was retired from US military service in 1949, and some were transferred to friendly foreign governments, some were sold on the civilian market and used as air racers, but most were scrapped to recover the aluminum.

Today's post features two photos that came from unrelated sources, but both of which show P-38s in 1946. The first shows a plane at a Memphis open house. In the background can also be seen a C-46, B-24 and C-54.

A mix of P-38s and B-24s at a scrapyard in Ontario (presumably Calif.).

The second shows what became of so many of the machines that brought America and her allies victory. The caption written on the back reads, "From atop the Ford, scene at Ontario, May '46." The P-38 in the foreground is tail 213377, which makes this one of 548 Block 10 P-38Gs that were built.

It's scenes like this that make me extra thankful that at least a handful of these old vets were save and still fly!

Raid on Sète

Smoke and B-24s fill the skies over Southern France on June 24, 1944.

Sunday, June 25, 1944, dawned bright and sunny over southern France. The invasion of northern France was all of 19 days old, and the Allied planners were going full-steam ahead with their bombing campaign against Nazi petroleum-related targets. On this day, over 400 B-17s and B-24s, flying from bases in Italy, hit the rail yards in Sète, as well as the oil refineries at Frontignan la Peyrade and  Balaruc-les-Bains.

The B-24 Liberators over this target area were from the 464th and the 485th Bomb Groups, 55th Bombardment Wing, part of the 15th Air Force, operating from Pantanella  (464th) and Venoza (485th) Airfields. Escorting the heavy bombers were 41 P-38 Lightnings from the 82nd Fighter Group, and others. Opposing them in the skies over occupied France were 59 Bf-109s from Jagdgruppe 200. JGr. 200 records show claims of two B-24s shot down, as well as three additional aircraft damaged. The fighters clashed about 0935, and one P-38 was seen diving nearly vertically after a Bf-109, and did not pull out  (P-38s in dives at high Mach numbers had a nasty habit of that). One Bf-109 is known to have been shot down.

Chart showing photo locations with current condition by Eric Radecki

The 8x10 glossy shown above is one of the Archives most recent acquisitions. My brother, Eric, who is an expert in maps and aerial photograph interpretation, helped immensely by assembling the chart on the right, showing the target areas as the appear today, 68 years later. Surprisingly, there is still an oil refinery at Frontignan.

Both the 464th and 485th have active association groups, and if anyone from those groups has details on this mission, I'd love to hear from you!

The First Liberator

Today's photo starts a new series of press-release wirephotos which originally came from the St. Petersburg Times and which were recently acquired by MojaveWest. For those unfamiliar with wirephotos, they were essentially faxes, with the technology having been developed in the 1920s and 1930s (a fascinating article from Popular Science in 1935 about the technology can be found here). The amazing thing about wirephotos is that they were able to produce high-quality photo prints transmitted across old-fashioned telephone lines, decades before fax machines became popular - and the typical fax quality doesn't even come close to the image clarity that wirephotos have, as you can see here.

This is a tale about what happens when someone has a better idea than what was proposed, and doesn’t give up when that idea fails to meet expectations the first time around; it’s a story which demonstrates that a superior idea will win out in the end, and really can exceed the original expectations. It's also a demonstration that you can't always trust media releases to be accurate. But, since we're telling the stories behind the photos, let's at least look at the photo first:

The official caption accompanying this wonderful old image reads, "ARMY'S NEW SUPER BOMBER TESTED

SAN DIEGO, CAL. - The Army Air Corps' new bombardment plane, technically known as the XB-24, pictured after completing initial test flights at Lindbergh Field, San Diego. The four-motored plane, of all-metal construction, is capable of a speed of 300 miles an hour and a range of approximately 3,000 miles and a bomb carrying capacity of approximately 4 tons. It has high wings with a span of 110 feet. The motors are 18 cylinder, twin row radials, air-cooled. The propellers are three-bladed and 12 feet in diameter. A crew of six to nine men will fly the ship, which was built by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. Credit line (ACME) 2/12/40."



Dittoed caption pasted to the back

Not so fast! The numbers touted to the public weren't even close. That's where the "fails the first time" aspect of our moral comes in, and to understand that, we need to look at the "better idea" part. In 1938, the Army Air Corps needed more B-17 Flying Fortresses, and they needed them faster, so they approached company officials at Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego, to inquire about the ability of that company to crank out B-17s under license. But the Consolidated folks decided that they could do the Army one better, and offer a bigger, faster and longer reach bomber for the same effort - a belief which resulted in the Model 32, designed around twin bomb bays, each one having the capacity of a B-17. Intrigued, the Air Corps issued a set of specifications in January 1939, designed so that the Model 32 - redesignated the XB-24 - would be an automatic winner, and then invited Consolidated to submit a design. It was from this specification that the numbers in the press release text quoted above were derived.

After its first flight on December 29, 1939, it became apparent that the XB-24 fell quite short of the goals. Rather than the specified 311mph, the plane could, full bore, eek out a mere 273mph top speed. There were other issues, as well. The aircraft was redesigned with different engines and a slightly changed tail, and re-christened the XB-24B, with a bit more success. Even so, the top speed never met the specs...being listed for production aircraft at 290mph. Instead of a 3,000 mile range, it could only go 2,100 miles, and that only when empty. When loaded with the four tons of bombs that the press release touted, its range was a measly 400 miles!

Even so, it was considered one of the most successful aircraft designs of the war, and 18,482 aircraft were produced (compared to only 12,731 B-17s). At peak production, B-24s were pumped out at a rate of one aircraft per hour!

In 1944, the now-XB-24B was modified to be used by Consolidated as a VIP transport, an assignment which didn't last long. On June 20, 1946, this historic aircraft was unceremoniously scrapped at Brookley Field, in Mobile, Alabama.

Alaska wrecks, Part 3: Liberator Down

For Part 3 of the Alaska series, we have this sad, tailless B-24 to consider. Other than the obvious "20" on the nose, I can detect no other markings, and so this plane's identity and location - other than it being in Alaska - is a mystery.

The salvage crew that the photographer was a member of has clearly been hard at work, note the chains laid out on the ground in front of the aircraft, and scaffolding of sorts has been erected alongside the aft fuselage. The #3 engine in missing completely, and the #4 appears to have sheared off the prop shaft.

As always, if you have information on the story behind this bird and its ignominious fate, please comment below!