BEFORE AND AFTER PAGE 3

More phases of an airframe life in combat

BA3 #1 42-41041 in the US, originally intended for the AAF anti-submarine programme which was handed over to the US Navy in July 1943, was selected for the Scott Project and modified as an SB-24D.

BA3 #1a A repainted 42-41041 was sent to the 43rd BG and on 1 March 1944 was damaged by AA over a convoy and crash landed at Cape Gloucester, killing four of the crew.

BA3 #2 BEN BUZZARD 42-40670, 43BG

BA3 #2a BEN BUZZARD. On 18 October 1943 it ditched in Bootless bay in bad weather. Only four of the 10 crew survived. Today: The port wing is against the reef at 1m. The starbord wing is 9m deep. The fuselage is broken in half behind the wings, and the rear is missing. Inside the fuselage is filled with silt and debris. One machine gun is visible. Visibility on the wreck is almost zero due to its proximity to shore.

BA3 #3 BLACK MAGIC, 42-41116, an Oklahoma City 'Droopsnoot' nose modification of 43BG.

BA3 #3a BLACK MAGIC. On 7 March 1944 it crashed on take-off on Borio Bobi Strip, Dobodura after the undercarriage was retracted too soon by the RAAF crew training with the 43rd,

BA3 #4 COME AND GET IT 42-40941. Originally with the 90th BG, it was later used as a transition trainer at Charters Towers in Queensland when the 22nd was re-equipping with the B-24.

BA3 #4A COME AND GET IT lying in the Nadzab graveyard.

BA3 #5 THE DRAGON AND HIS TAIL 44-40973. One of the more famous of the WWII aircraft artworks and one of Sarkis Bartigan's best. 43BG.

BA3 #5a THE DRAGON AND HIS TAIL in the Kingman storage facility, Arizona, awaiting the scrappers guillotine and cutting torch.

BA3 #5b A re-creation of the artwork on the Collings Foundation B-24 prior to its repaint as WITCHCRAFT.

B3 #6 FLAMIN' MAMIE 41-41062, 43BG New Guinea

BA3 #6a FLAMIN' MAMIE in the graveyard.

BA3 #7 FLYING WOLF, 42-41091 43BG

BA3 #7a FLYING WOLF force landed 23 December 1943 near Faita, New Guinea, here being inspected by Australian Commandos soon after.

BA3 #7b FLYING WOLF was stripped and abandoned. It was later cut up by the scrappers who never returned to pick it up and ravaged by grass fires, eventually giving up its wing to the RAAF fuselage found in Moe Victoria and used in that restoration.

BA3 #8 HEAVENLY BODY , 42-73484, 43BG

BA3 #8a All that remains of HEAVENLY BODY after it crashed in September 1944.

BA3 #9 JOLTIN' JANIE of the 90th BG in a Port Moresby revetment. Janie was named by Bill Martin after his wife and later transferred to 43BG.

BA3 #9a JOLTIN' JANIE down in Bootless Bay after suffering problems on take-off during a training mission. The crew chief stowed away and was killed.

BA3 #9b JOLTIN' JANIE some years after the war, still in the shallow waters of Bootless Bay.

BA3 #10 LIBERTY BELLE 42-40686 (third aircraft back in the left row) on the Consolidated Fort Worth production line being built for the anti-sub role. It was sent to the 6th AF operating in the Caribbean, then returned to the US and went to Langley and received the 'droopsnoot' nose conversion.

BA3 #10a LIBERTY BELLE with the 43rd BG in the SWPA which is where it gained the name.

BA3 #10b LIBERTY BELLE's other side showing the mission markers for its earlier 6AF life.

BA3 #10C LIBERTY BELLE: Took off on a night bombing mission over Bacuit Bay, Palawan on 30 October 1944. Spotted a Japanese task force of cruisers and destroyers. Hit by anti-aircraft fire in one of the engines, forcing the bomber to head eastward towards Tacloban, the nearest Allied base. En route, a second engine failed. When the bomber arrived at Tacloban airfield the area was under Japanese air attack and American gunners were firing. He attempted a force landing with only two engines, but obstructions forced him to abort. During the second landing attempt, a white phosphorous bomb burst on the runway. He applied the brakes causing the nose wheel to blow out, but the bomber landed without injury to the crew. Abandoned in a swampy area at the north-western end of the airfield.

BA3 #11 MILLION $ BABY 44-40435 43BG.

BA3 #11a MILLION $ BABY salvaged just before the end of the war and left to rot.

BA3 #12 QUEEN OF HEARTS 42-40904, 43BG

BA3 #12a QUEEN OF HEARTS (last aircraft in line) lies in the Nadzab "spare parts warehouse" after crashing on 4 December 1943.

BA3 #13 RIO RITA, 41-24127, 43BG

BA3 #13a RIO RITA. Suffered a broken oil line, fire & runaway prop in #2 aproaching Rabaul, had further trouble with #1 & subseqently crash landed at Ward’s Strip with nosewheel retracted. It was repaired and passed to the RAAF as a trainer and was scrapped at Tocumwal in 1952.

BA3 #14 SATAN'S SISTER, 42-40680, 43BG

BA3 #14a SATAN'S SISTER, last heard of as a 22BG transition trainer at the same time as COME AND GET IT, lying in an unidentified graveyard.

BA3 #16 WHO'S NEXT?, 42-40149 43BG

BA3 #16a WHO'S NEXT? Original Scott Project aircraft. Here it has collapsed the nosewheel after running across a ditch during taxying. Repaired, it crashed 7 December, 1944 into Mt. Malasimbo (near or in the town of Calapan in the province of Oriental Mindoro) on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, killing the crew headed by Lt. Savage

BA3 #17 THE CAPTAIN AND HIS KIDS, 41-23800, 44BG. Peter Yee, whose Great Uncle was the Bombardier on 41-23800 has weighed in on this sequence. There were two different B-24Ds coded 'Y' named similarly in the 44th, and it seems that this picture is actually 41-24112 CAPTAIN AND HIS KIDS RIDE AGAIN. The wording was printed on an opened newspaper headed 'SECOND EDITION'. The newspaper was not present on the original artwork and this is JUST visible on the picture above, meaning that it is actually 41-24112. Rather than remove the sequence altogether, since both aircraft were SO similar, I have elected to retain both images with this explanation.

BA3 #17a THE CAPTAIN 15 February 43 crash landed 1 mile south of Ramsgate on the Sandwich flats, Kent, 10 yards from the water's edge with combat damage. Three of the crew who baled out at low level were killed.

BA3 #18 EAGER EVE 42-40731 44BG

BA3 #18a EAGER EVE was either re-named, or carried the extra name HAG MAG THE MOTHBALL QUEEN on the right side.

BA3 #18b EAGER EVE/HAG MAG THE MOTHBALL QUEEN flew on the a August 1943 Ploesti mission and on 6 October 1943 while taking off on the return flight from Marrakesh to the UK, hit a wall when just airborne. All but the pilots bailed out and the pilots crash landed it. It remained there and was reduced to components.

BA3 #19 E Z DUZIT 42-99980 of the 44th BG was also named BANSHEE IV on the left side.

BA3 #19a EZY DUZIT 9 March 1944 crash landed at Shipdham & salvaged after AA DAM at the bomb release point on the Brandenburg mission.

BA3 #20 42-40182, later to be named FORKY II with the 44th BG seen at Consolidated's Fort Worth modification centre before assignment.

BA3 #20a now named FORKY II seen at dispersal at Shipdham in the UK.

BA3 #20b The remains of FORKY II on 1 August 1943 after being shot down while exiting Ploesti, just one on many B-24s lost that day.

BA3 #21 HEAVEN CAN WAIT 42-7507 was originally assigned to the 392nd, but transferred to the 44th before flying any combat missions.

B3 #21a HEAVEN CAN WAIT burns at Friston, Sussex after crash landing wheels up on 12 March 1944 on return from a mission with mechanical failure.

BA3 #22 HELEN HYWATER, 42-63971 44BG

BA3 #22a HELEN HYWATER 18 November 1943 landed Trollhattan and interned (Sweden) after damage from a mission to Norway; set on fire by crew

BA3 #23 HELL'S KITTEN, 41-29236 was originally with 448BG but flew no combat missions before transfer to the 44th BG.

BA3 #23a HELL'S KITTEN 9 February 1944 after crashing at Shipdham; the left gear pulled out & left wing damaged & the aircraft was salvaged.

BA3 #24 THE IMPATIENT VIRGIN 41-29231 was another original 448th BG aircraft transferred out to the 44th before flying combat.

BA3 #24a THE IMPATIENT VIRGIN shown on its belly at Lympne, Kent, on 25 February 1944 on RET from Furth

BA3 #25 THE JINX 42-7551 started out with the 392nd BG and transferred to the 44th without flying combat.

BA3 #25a THE JINX lived up to its name; repaired after a crash landing at Garveston, near Shipdham, receiving extensive battle damage from the 13 November 43 mission, JINX later crashed and burned 13 January 44 at Letton Hall, Cranworth, Norfolk, after turning into a dead engine, losing height and crashing into a fir spinney, 2 miles east of the main runway. Lt. Glenn Hovey and crew were all killed before ever flying a mission. I note the recurrence of the #13!!

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