The FReeper Foxhole Remembers 376th Heavy Bombardment Group (1942-1945)- Nov. 12th, 2003

http://376hbgva.com/history.htm ^ | Captain Jack Preble

[snippy_about_it]

The above true story never before appeared in print, and to protect the reputation of the navigator, his name will not be divulged here. Just call him "Sam".

LOL. That got a chuckle out of me! - btw, I can read your tagline. :)

[snippy_about_it]

Bombardiers plied their trade at low levels in both the European and Pacific theaters. Above, B-24s descend into the "Mouth of Hell" at Ploesti, Romania; below, a B-25 heads for New Britain. In the B-25, the bombardier had to load the forward machine guns in addition to his primary duties.

[SAMWolf]

[colorado tanker]

What a ripping good read! Love the flowery prose.

I'm just amazed those flyers took such devastating casualties and kept such high morale.

Never knew we had an air force base in Palestine at one time. Wonder if young Yasser hung around the base - oops, he grew up in Cairo, not Palestine.

[SAMWolf]

I think there's a guy in charge of finding the worst hellholes in the world and setting up a military base in those locations.

[manna]

I love reading, too, SAM!

[snippy_about_it]

Hi tanker. I write flowery prose but not quite that wild. LOL. He was really trying hard wasn't he. In any event he got his point across and it was obvious he was very proud of them.

[colorado tanker]

The author had some very good reasons to be proud of that outfit. They saw some of the toughest combat of the war.

Nice to see an Air Force other than the Eighth get some pub, isn't it?

[SAMWolf]

Nice to see an Air Force other than the Eighth get some pub, isn't it?

Good Idea! I'll have to see what I can find on the 5th Air Force.

[PhilDragoo]

Domestically the glazed nose was used on B-24A, B, C, D, E and early G models. Modified Ds and all later models carried a nose turret.

From BombsLullaby.org

B-24 "Liberator"
SPAN: 110' LENGTH: 66'
APPROX MAX SPEED: 310 mph
SERVICE CEILING: over 30,000'

B-24 Liberator All American owned and flown by the Collings Foundation.

From AirSpaceMag.com

From http://home.sandiego.edu/~jcollins/specifications.html dedicated to Richard Collins

Notes:

* Serial numbers: 41-28574 to 41-29006; 41-29116 to 41-29608; 42-50277 to 42-50451; 42-51077 to 42-51225; 42-52077 to 42-52776; 42-64432 to 42-64501; 42-7465 to 42-7769; 42-94729 to 42-95503
* 1780 built by Ford at their Willow Run plant in 7 production blocks
* 738 assembled by Consolidated at their Fort Worth plant.
* 582 assembled by Douglas at their Tulsa plant.

SPECIFICATIONS

Span: 110 ft. 0 in.
Length: 67 ft. 2 in.
Height: 18 ft. 0 in.
Weight: 56,000 lbs. design gross weight
Armament: Ten .50-cal. and 12,800 lbs. of bombs
Engines: Four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-65 supercharged radials of 1,200 hp. each (take-off power)
Crew: Ten

PERFORMANCE

Maximum speed: 290 mph.
Cruising speed: 215 mph.
Range: 3,700 miles (max. ferry range); 2,100 miles w/ 5,000 lbs. bomb load
Service Ceiling: 28,000 ft.

B-24J Consolidated Turret, A6B

From "WE WENT TO WAR Part V: The Planes We Flew: Australia/New Guinea Campaign"

B-24 Emerson Turret, A-15

From B24 AIRCRAFT RADIO SYSTEMS

Und zen der petrolpricen vent tru de roof!

[Godebert]

My dad's A-2 flight jacket from the 512th Squadron, 376th BG.

He never talked much about those days.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for sharing the picture of your Dad's Flight jacket, Godebert. I thank your Dad for his service to our Country.

[Godebert]

Thanks to you for all your work with the Freeper Foxhole. You're one of Freerepublic's greatest assets.

[SAMWolf]

Good Evening Phil Dragoo.

WOW! Some great schematics and pictures of the B-24. The nose turret on the later models almost makes it look like another plane. What struck me about the B-24 was how narrow the wings were for a heavy bomber.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Evening all!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Godebert. Snippy and I try to bring attention to the stories of what our veterans sacrificed and went through for us. We're glad you like them.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Victoria. Nice graphic tonight.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi Sam, thanks. Did Snippy go to bed already?

[SAMWolf]

No We're having some problems she's looking into.

[Victoria Delsoul]

OK, hope everything works out.