B-24 War Story

Before Pearl Harbor, actor Jimmy Stewart walked away from his Hollywood career and enlisted in the Army. He fought to get into combat, and became a B-24 pilot, and ultimately retired from the Air Force Reserves as a Brigadier General. The book below is a terrific account of his life and his military service.

Last summer, I did a little road trip, and visited the Jimmy Stewart Museum in his hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. I went on from there to the National Museum of the US Air Force in Ohio, where he's featured as part of an exhibit on actors who served in World War II.

Jimmy Stewart was a great American, and a true patriot...

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Stewart-Bomber-Starr-Smith/dp/0760328242/ref=sr_1_1?crid=D62BMSEYT63D&keywords=jimmy+stewart+bomber+pilot&qid=1658381647&s=books&sprefix=jimmy+stewart+bom%2Cstripbooks%2C104&sr=1-1[/ame]
 

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Big plus on 8th museum near Savannah. One can spend Hours in their reference library upstairs. Many books and documents on units.
Located beside I-95 with a B-47 outside, ME-262 inside. By chance one is into the 8th, or USAAF in WWII, plan a day to spend there.
 
My mother was a "Rosie the Riveter" at a factory in Detroit that supplied the Ford Willow Run plant. She fabricated engine speed rings and wing sections for B-24s.

Used to work with a man who was a B-24 ball turret gunner who was stationed in Libya.
 
Beemerguy53 said:
Last summer, I did a little road trip, and visited the Jimmy Stewart Museum in his hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. I went on from there to the National Museum of the US Air Force in Ohio, where he's featured as part of an exhibit on actors who served in World War II.

Jimmy Stewart was a great American, and a true patriot...
Click to expand...

Punxsutawney is about 27 miles up U. S. 119 from Indiana, PA. Did you get a chance to go up and see Phil?
 
DWalt said:
There were also B-25s set up as gunships with as many as 12 forward-firing .50s for strafing ground and sea targets. Some even had 75mm guns. Sort the same idea as the A-10
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B-25H model had the 75mm canon. It was, I think, a standard M3 75mm canon, single shot. The Navigators second job was to load the canon during attacks, the pilot fired it. Read about The Battle of the Bismarck Sea to appreciate the devastation these B-25 Gunships had on Japanese convoys.

The Douglas A-26 Invader (later block numbers) had up to 18 forward firing .50 cals . Talk about devastating fire power…..
https://aviationtrivia.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Douglas_A26_Invader-1.jpg
 
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When I was in college, I worked for a company that bid on air tanker contracts with the US government. We had 6 Douglas A and B26's, 6 R5D's, 2 DC-7 air tankers, and several Lockheed PV-2's that were not tankers but had tanks and spray booms to spray insecticide. A neighbor of his had an un-modified Douglas B-26 that came out of a junkyard in central Kansas. Wish I'd taken pictures of them.
 
My father-in-law was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 with the 15th AAC, stationed in Africa. On base were both B-17's and B-24's. There was a rivalry between the two. He often called the 24's as the crates the B-17's came in. It was so ugly that the Germans called the flying furniture van.
 
DWalt said:
I suppose most have heard about the B-24 "Lady Be Good" that crashed in the Libyan desert on its return from a bombing mission over Italy. It wasn't discovered until 1958. It was the crew's first mission and no bodies were found. Seems that everyone at the base in Libya assumed it had gone down in the Mediterranean, so they didn't look for it on land. I remember that Rod Serling made an episode of "The Twilight Zone" about it back in the early 60s.
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I recently lost a friend that had been in the early OSS and later worked in the Air Force as an investigator and ultimately involved in cryptography and lastly lie detector analysis. He told the story about being stationed in Libya and being one of the first group that examined the LBG, according to him they were ignorant of correct procedures regarding traipsing all over the scene, handling stuff that could be used as evidence. He said that by the time the military had thoroughly screwed the pooch it was almost entirely rumor and speculation about what truly happened. Big surprise
 
When I was at Ohio State, my graduate advisor had been a B-24 pilot, and operated mainly out of North Africa, don't remember exactly where. He was almost deaf as a post from the engine noise. Even with him wearing a hearing aid you had to speak in a loud voice to carry on a conversation. He also had a loudspeaker on his telephone. I heard lots of war stories, don't remember any of them, far too long ago.
 
I grew up at the south end of DFW (my Dad was a Navy Recruiter). Being a Navy brat, once I got my DL I was able to drive to NAS-Dallas & Carswell AFB.

I remember watching Navy F8's dogfighting over our house, also remember the KC-97's flying overhead. I saw my first SR71 at an airshow at Carswell (back in a hangar) about 1970.

I bought my own school clothes (mostly mowing lawns) and my dollar went a lot farther at the Navy Exchange & the AF BX.

One of my chores was to do the grocery shopping at the Commissary at Carswell (my Mom died when I was 17). My Dad would give me $200 for the month of grocery shopping. I had to cover anything over that so I learned to do the math in my head (guesstimating). Can you believe $200 in those days filled four grocery carts?

Sorry for the thread drift, it just brought up some memories…

BTW, while I never met him I believe BG Jimmy Stewart is one of the finest men that ever lived.
 
My wife's Great Uncle was part of a B-24 crew in the Pacific. He went MIA 16Apr1944 and was declared dead 25Feb1946. Our youngest is named for him. In 2002 the wreckage of his aircraft (as well as that of another B-24) was discovered in the Finisterre Mountains of Papua New Guinea. The crew was interned in Arlington National Cemetery in 2007.
 
Carswell was the base they were supposed to be at for the B36 parts of the movie Strategic Air Command (a Jimmy Stewart movie - also a great movie if you haven't seen it).

Bomber Pilot is a great book (about Jimmy Stewart in WW2).

I still remember that Twilight episode. How the crew was standing around tossing a baseball and BS'ing about stuff when the plane was discovered. How each one would disappear as their bodies were found. As a kid, that was a pretty wild show.

Gen. LeMay (not a general then) was one of the pioneers of the really hard/long range missions over Europe. Taking off in B24's from England to fly over Europe to drop bombs on a target and then land in north Africa. Then rest up, work on the planes, fuel up, re arm and fly another bombing mission on the return to England. In the movie Strategic Air Command he was the character "General Hawks."

There's a pretty good book out there about the B24 in Europe. I think it's called "Wild Blue". Really makes you think about things as each chapter starts off with a report of the new B24's and crews that arrived at one air base or another on a certain date and then told you how many of them were still flying/how many crew members were lost by a date that was 3 or 4 months later.

Several years ago I was coming down Rt.10 here in Chesterfield, VA in my 81 Z28. I had the T-tops out and was just enjoying the breeze and listening to the radio. Suddenly I heard this noise that was unusual, rough, and getting louder and louder. I checked the oil pressure and coolant temp and they were normal. Pushed in on the clutch to let the engine rpm drop down and the noise was still quickly getting louder and louder. I hit the turn signal, pulled onto the side of the road at and noticed I was lined up with the Chesterfield County Airport runway. Before I could get the engine shut off a huge B24 passed right over me on it's way in to a landing for one of the little local weekend air shows they used to do there. Awesome experience to be that close to a flying/landing WW2 heavy bomber. I took our youngest son to the air show the next day and he got to walk through the B17 and B24 (for a fee). He loved it.
 
A picture of the Lady be Good.

b24ladybegood.webp

We "get" the idea of the size of the B17 and B24. We know the B29 was a good bit bigger than either of those. With a longer range, more bomb load/capacity, etc.

Here's a picture of a B29 and B36 sitting on the concrete somewhere. It's about the only way to understand how big the B36 was.

B29-B36c.webp
 
The " final" report on the LBG was that a navigational error caused the crash. They flew off the field that my Dads unit built and maintained in N. Africa but before he was assigned. He went in with them in Italy and had lots of pics and stories. He made friends with some crews and actually got to " fly" a B-17 and B-24 several times. Miss him every day…..
 
Earlier in my FIL's African tour he was stationed at Robert's Field, Liberia.
B-24s flew rubber from nearby Firestone Plantations across the S Atlantic to Natal, Brazil.
U's and Q's were running amok there and the Navy was tied up in the N Atlantic.
And we needed that rubber.
 
This just popped up on Facebook.
Tragic. Donald Pippett served as a tail gunner with the 392nd Bomb Group. He was killed on 20 December 1943. Lost from B-24 42-7510 'El Lobo' in accident with another B-24 in formation. The tail of the aircraft was severed and Don Pippitt fell from his position in the tail. His body was found near Texel Island, Holland.IMG_2740.webp
 
THE PILGRIM said:
This just popped up on Facebook.
Tragic. Donald Pippett served as a tail gunner with the 392nd Bomb Group. He was killed on 20 December 1943. Lost from B-24 42-7510 'El Lobo' in accident with another B-24 in formation. The tail of the aircraft was severed and Don Pippitt fell from his position in the tail. His body was found near Texel Island, Holland.View attachment 793815
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Sad, bad enough to die in combat, but because somebody screwed up...........
 
Just one more!
Is there no ending to these B-24 stories?
We did build a lot of them.
'A total of 18,482 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers were built between 1940 and 1945, making it the most produced heavy bomber and multi-engine aircraft in history.'
And some were built as C-87 Transport versions .
That's what this tale is about-
C-87A VIP transport
In 1942 and 1943, several C-87 aircraft were converted into VIP luxury passenger transports by adding insulation, padded seats, dividers, and other accommodations. The modified aircraft, designated C-87A, could carry 16 passengers. One C-87A, serial 41-24159, was converted in 1943 to a presidential VIP transport, the Guess Where II, intended to carry President Franklin D. Roosevelt on international trips. Had it been accepted, it would have been the first aircraft to be used in presidential service, i.e. the first Air Force One. However, the Secret Service, after a review of the C-87's controversial safety record, flatly refused to approve the Guess Where II for presidential carriage.[2]​ The Guess Where II was used to transport senior members of the Roosevelt administration and in March 1944, flew Eleanor Roosevelt on a goodwill tour of several Latin American countries.[2]​
 
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