A large-format book providing a detailed look at what it was like to fly Liberators in combat over the Reich and occupied Europe. Aside from numerous large color photos showing the interiors of warbird B-24s, there are many illustrations of preserved “little things” as well – route forecast sheets, aircrew ration boxes, flak vests, oxygen masks, and more.
by Martin W. Bowman
Fall River Press / Metro Books, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1-4351-1220-9 (hardcover; approximately 156–160 pages, large-format illustrated edition)The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was produced in greater numbers than any other U.S. military aircraft of World War II. It served extensively with the U.S. Army Air Forces in both the Eighth Air Force (England-based) and Fifteenth Air Force (Italy-based) campaigns over Europe. Martin W. Bowman’s B-24 Combat Missions focuses on the human experience of flying and fighting in the Liberator over Nazi-occupied Europe, combining technical descriptions of each crew station with first-person accounts from veterans.
Content and Structure: The book is organized primarily by crew position, giving readers a clear sense of the aircraft’s layout and the specific responsibilities of each man on board. Chapters typically cover:
- Pilot and co-pilot
- Navigator / nose gunner
- Bombardier
- Radio operator
- Flight engineer / top-turret gunner
- Waist gunners
- Ball-turret gunner
- Tail gunner
Each section outlines the physical station, equipment, and duties, then presents personal recollections drawn from interviews and oral histories—many previously unpublished. The accounts describe the full range of a combat mission: pre-flight briefings, formation flying, the cold and oxygen challenges at altitude, encounters with flak and fighters, emergency procedures, and the return to base. Additional material addresses nose art, daily life on English or Italian airfields, and periods of rest and recuperation.Illustration is a major strength of the volume. It includes more than 200 archival photographs of B-24s and crews, approximately 50 specially commissioned color photographs of restored Liberator interiors and crew stations, and over 100 items of memorabilia (personal equipment, documents, and related artifacts). The large-format presentation allows many images to be shown at a useful size.
The true heart of the book, however, are the crew recollections. All wars are hard, and that of the B-24 crews was no exception. Living in often spartan conditions, at least early on, far from home, and then having to go to war on a daily basis, braving flak and fighters while withstanding temperatures in unpressurized aircraft that were often far below zero, it was far from glamorous.
Other B-24 References:
H.A. Taylor “Flying the Consolidated Liberator” Air Enthusiast February 1972 Includes several photos of RAF aircraft, and a 3-view illustration of a Liberator Mk I
Warbirds International May 2000 p.60 Photos of B-24M/C-87 N299A, B-24J N79428