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RUM AND COKE, B-24L-15-FO 44-49827 of the 43rd Bomb Group, shot down over Formosa on 13JUN45

 

The plan for this website is to provide a forum, firstly for B-24 images which have to date defied identification by team members from www.b24bestweb.com (the BBW Team) and secondly to put up other images which are all associated with the B-24 in one manner or another.  The image above is simply one of my favourite "B-24 nosearts" and, I admit, one of my favourite tipples!  None of your White Rums here - Dark Rums are the go and the BEST is Queensland Bundaberg Rum, found all over the world in backpacker hostels as I have found.

The b24bestweb Team is a group of B-24 afficianados with personal agendas who have come together through the WWW to pool their research, knowledge and information, and in the process of acting as a "group mind", identify with some certainty the B-24 images which we access through all media.

The process of attaching artwork on B-24s to specific AAF serials is a complex one.

The B-24 remained in production throughout the war and at a number of plants additional to the two managed by CVAC.  Each found its own specific way of doing things which can sometimes be discerned in a photograph.  Additionally, modifications were constantly being incorporated into the production line, paint schemes and markings changed and these are also pointers towards probable serial ranges when they can be discerned.

Additionally, the Stateside post-production modification centres added their fingerprints to many airframes, followed by the field modifications often required by specific Army Air Forces across the globe; then there were the non-AAF Allied operators of the type, including AXIS and neutral countries.

The fact that 19,256 individual airframes were built makes the process just a little more difficult.  Outside of a few single engined fighters (Spitfire, Me-109) and some designs (particularly the IL-2) from the USSR, the number of B-24s and its derivatives exceeds the production of almost all other aircraft in history - a record unlikely to ever be broken.

Because of the essentially transient nature of the B-24 in combat, artwork sometimes lasted a very short time.  For those aircraft which lasted longer, crew changes often meant a change of artwork, and often different artwork was carried on either side of the nose of the same aircraft, and relating the two can be difficult.
Photos themselves are ephemeral, personal cameras were not offficially allowed, film was difficult to obtain and expensive and processing equally difficult.  Censorship of both the artwork and the photographs meant that no record of the artwork exists, and many photographs were thrown away in the years after the war.  The artwork is often photographed in isolation from the rest of the airframe thus reducing identification features.  Images available to the Team are often significantly degraded and lack the ID features we would look for.  Many B-24s served in more than one role which involved paint-stripping or a full re-paint and thus a loss of artwork and the opportunity for fresh artwork.

Further complicating the task is the 65-year history of pilots, writers, journalists and historians who have unwittingly incorrectly "identified" B-24 names or artwork to serials;  the BBW Team has been able to isolate and correct many of these errors and is working to negate those which they find.

Despite this accumulation of knowledge and experience, many images collected remain unidentified.  My personal collection of B-24 images now exceeds the number of B-24s built, but still the BBW Team has accumulated a collection of images for which a specific ident has not been isolated.  More are held than those displayed on the following pages but if these could be identified we would make a large step forward.

If you have any information on any of the images, or just wish to share some comments with me, send me an email via the contact page or sign up to the Bestwb WebBoard at http://b24bw.proboards.com/ and post your comments for all to see.


 

Hangover Haven II, F-7A 42-64053, 6PRG 20CMS, salvaged on Biak Island in 1945

 Another favourite of mine.  Now, select a page from the menu and either enjoy some of the B-24 trivia on
this website or see if you can help put an identity to any of the aircraft featured on the serious pages.

OzBob from the B-24 Bestweb Team