My father, Thomas 'Penn' Leary, was the test pilot filmed at the beginning of this film. He most likely flew the B-24 filmed during the various maneuvers.
My grandfather just passed away last November. He was a bombardier in a B-24 in the 13th AF / 5th Bombardment Group. Thanks for posting this... it means a lot to those of us who loved someone who crewed these birds.
I wear a bracelet with Navigator's wings, my father's service number and blood type are inscribed on the back. The bracelet flew 44 missions and 440 combat hours out of Kunming China in 1944 to 6May1945. Dad was a member of the 308th Bomb Group, 373rd Squadron of the 14th Air Force, otherwise known as The Flying Tigers. He was the oldest of his crew at 23. I still have his service records.
I have all of my Great Grandfather’s service records and artifacts. They are treasures to me and I enjoy having them in my possession. He was a B-24 Co-Pilot and flew 29 combat missions with a total of 654:30 minutes of flight time. He was in the 15th Air Force, 485th Bomb Group (H), 831st Squadron. He was a 1st Lt. He received an Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. And he is still with us today, although he has dementia and cannot recall his flying days. he is 97 years old. 98 March 2021. Our family loves and cherishes him greatly. Truly heroes.
@@austinjeffris38 My mom's cousin was a navigator on a B24, 15th Air Force, 449th Bombardment Group, 716th Bomb Squadron. Him and his crew survived 19 missions including 3 runs on the oil fields at Ploiesti Romania, but their luck ran out on their 20th mission on a run on the railroad bridge at Ferrara Italy when their plane was hit by two 88 shells. Three after action reports from witnesses in adjoining B24's all tell the same story, approximately two seconds after bomb release it was struck in the #3 engine by a shell that lit the engine on fire, approximately two seconds after that it was struck in the fuselage by the 2nd 88 shell just forward of the bomb bay, after a slow continuous downward spiral during which 3 parachutes were seen coming out of it at about 4,000 feet the wing folded where the #3 engine had burned through and it plummeted nose first into the ground, the pilot and two others were the one's that made it out and all three were taken prisoner but only the pilot survived the war because the other two died in their POW camps. So for 2nd Lt Virgil Davison and six other members of the Weiss crew the last thing they did in their lives was put their bombs on target, and that's why he's buried in Arlington National Cemetery with the other heroes.
@@dukecraig2402 True Heroes my friend. My Great Grandfather has unfortunately passed away peacefully in January. He didn’t make it to 98 but I am pretty sure he was the last surviving of his crew. He was buried with full military honors in Tahoma National Cemetery. Although his days walking this earth are over, his impact and hard work during the war along with his crew will last a lifetime. I appreciate you taking the time to share the story of your family’s heroic actions. They will always be remembered for the actions.
Great video! Thing that get's me is just how much work was needed to keep these old warbirds in the air. The engine management is a nightmare on its own. You gotta hand it to the pilots back then.
My grandpa was a fighter pilot for the Italian Air Force flying the MC 202... They encountered b-17s and b-24s quite a lot during the North African/Sicilian campaign. He said the b-24s didn't take much to knock down but their gunners were far more accurate than the B-17 gunners mostly due to the great visibility You had in the b-24 I'm guessing. He's had quite a few bullet holes in his birds, aside from battling spitfires and p-40s
My father-in-law piloted a B24 in the Italian/Sicilian campaigns. All my wife and I have left of records is her mother’s scrapbook and news clippings at the time regarding her husband’s group.
Love this bird. It didn't get nearly the amount of attention it should have. I also had the opportunity to speak with Col. Keith Compton who flew "Teggie Anne" in operation Tidalwave.
My father was a radio operator and sometime gunner in one of these in the Royal Air Force Coastal Command during WW2. They flew from Scotland towards North Germany and Sweden in pursuit of German U boats. Brought him softly home.
My great Uncle was a B24 pilot in the south pacific his son has a copy of his flight logs for the last few months. in his last entry they were flying back after a mission and they say the mushroom cloud of the first A BOMB he wrote down his feelings on what he just witnessed. its one of my most cherished possessions
The author of the excellent book, "Unbroken", states the B-24 "Flying Coffin" had numerous technical shortcomings, (example, it sank quickly on ditching), and that many more 24 crews were lost in non-combat crashes, than in combat. Just what I read.
I asked an old ww2 B24 pilot if he could flight check & do a check-off at his age.(83 at the time) He thought a few seconds and said, "Yes I think could." Then added quickly..."but I wouldn't want to land it". You had to come in at power with engines maxed at touch down, which was achieved principally by flaps & airbrake.He said the 24 had to be literally flown into the ground.
My father was a air gunner in a B24 (RAF)..1943 - 45..saw action in the middle east and asia.. ....he never talked too much about the war....I'm trying to find his service records...will post if I do...
That was a very economical climb but the impressive thing is that with the continuously variable turbocharger output they could keep on up to 35,000 feet if desired. They could operate well above the enemy fighter’s optimum altitudes for their mechanical supercharger engines especially for the more heavily armed FW 190A.
The amount of aileron input in the approach to those stalls would truly horrify a current instructor. There should be none *before* _as well as_ after the stall.
Ernest K Gann (who wrote Fate is the Hunter) was definitely not a fan of the C-87, the cargo variant of the B24. He liked the engines & its high cruise speed but little else.
They could not be trimmed to fly hands off so the B-24 combat boxes over Germany had to be more open to avoid collisions which made their collective defensive firepower weaker. The German fighters preferred to attack the B-24s.
Well the reason you cannot bank much above 60° in a loaded Bomber is that you cannot keep that turn level without either stalling (and a power-stall at that - could be very nasty) or structural overload, but you can bank it to any degree of bank as long you don't pull to much load, that's what that pilot executed, a kind of Wingover where the banking occurs largely unloaded and relatively low speed, the aircraft then moves on it's own the nose below the horizon. If the aircraft is lightly loaded - no guns, minimal crew and fuel you might even try towards a looping - they do it with B-52s (well - partly DID, because the one pilot who did then crashed when he was in a tight situation with a crewmember - stalled in during ultra low high banking turns - huge ball of fire....)
He didn’t try to hold height as past about 75 degrees of bank the required load on the wings to maintain height approaches infinity. It is 1/cosine of the bank angle. For a steep 60 degrees of bank it is 1/0.5 equals a load factor of two, for 80 degrees of bank it is 1/0.17 equals a load factor of 5.8, for 85 degrees the load factor is 11.5, for 88 degrees the load factor would be 29. The engines and wings can only do so much so at the end it banked and pulled the turn while losing height.
It is nice to watch an information video, without the distraction (or propaganda) of music. Not sure why our politicians have made background music (particularly, obnoxious lyrics/sounds) a part of our educational system; however, Considering despots like Senator Packwood, Congressman Weiner, etc..., I am sure it was for their personal benefit, and not the country's benefit.
Pilotage of coarse but without navigation all for not. A crack navigator an amazing man indeed. Foul weather conditions, dark of night, radio silence and enemy falsification of radio beacons, unknown wind speed at various altitudes, extremely long range missions oft over featureless ocean. Also possible aircraft battle damage or mechanical issues mean no following other bombers in formation. Flying in close formations in heavy cloud. Flying at high altitude with unpressurized and hardly air sealed from slipstream intrusion and constant high engine noise throughout aircraft. Just few challenges of flying B-24 in combat.
My Uncle LT. Bill Goodman hated this aircraft. Wanted to be a fighter pilot but the Air Force said he would fly the 24 so off to China and the Hump for him. Made it home OK.
My father, Thomas 'Penn' Leary, was the test pilot filmed at the beginning of this film. He most likely flew the B-24 filmed during the various maneuvers.
My grandfather just passed away last November. He was a bombardier in a B-24 in the 13th AF / 5th Bombardment Group. Thanks for posting this... it means a lot to those of us who loved someone who crewed these birds.
My dad was in the top turret on B-24 in the Philippines.
13th AF 5th BGH, 31st BSH.
What was your grandfathers name?
I wear a bracelet with Navigator's wings, my father's service number and blood type are inscribed on the back. The bracelet flew 44 missions and 440 combat hours out of Kunming China in 1944 to 6May1945. Dad was a member of the 308th Bomb Group, 373rd Squadron of the 14th Air Force, otherwise known as The Flying Tigers. He was the oldest of his crew at 23. I still have his service records.
I have all of my Great Grandfather’s service records and artifacts. They are treasures to me and I enjoy having them in my possession. He was a B-24 Co-Pilot and flew 29 combat missions with a total of 654:30 minutes of flight time. He was in the 15th Air Force, 485th Bomb Group (H), 831st Squadron. He was a 1st Lt. He received an Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. And he is still with us today, although he has dementia and cannot recall his flying days. he is 97 years old. 98 March 2021. Our family loves and cherishes him greatly. Truly heroes.
@@austinjeffris38
My mom's cousin was a navigator on a B24, 15th Air Force, 449th Bombardment Group, 716th Bomb Squadron.
Him and his crew survived 19 missions including 3 runs on the oil fields at Ploiesti Romania, but their luck ran out on their 20th mission on a run on the railroad bridge at Ferrara Italy when their plane was hit by two 88 shells.
Three after action reports from witnesses in adjoining B24's all tell the same story, approximately two seconds after bomb release it was struck in the #3 engine by a shell that lit the engine on fire, approximately two seconds after that it was struck in the fuselage by the 2nd 88 shell just forward of the bomb bay, after a slow continuous downward spiral during which 3 parachutes were seen coming out of it at about 4,000 feet the wing folded where the #3 engine had burned through and it plummeted nose first into the ground, the pilot and two others were the one's that made it out and all three were taken prisoner but only the pilot survived the war because the other two died in their POW camps.
So for 2nd Lt Virgil Davison and six other members of the Weiss crew the last thing they did in their lives was put their bombs on target, and that's why he's buried in Arlington National Cemetery with the other heroes.
@@dukecraig2402 True Heroes my friend. My Great Grandfather has unfortunately passed away peacefully in January. He didn’t make it to 98 but I am pretty sure he was the last surviving of his crew. He was buried with full military honors in Tahoma National Cemetery. Although his days walking this earth are over, his impact and hard work during the war along with his crew will last a lifetime. I appreciate you taking the time to share the story of your family’s heroic actions. They will always be remembered for the actions.
My father was in that same group and squadron…
Great video! Thing that get's me is just how much work was needed to keep these old warbirds in the air. The engine management is a nightmare on its own. You gotta hand it to the pilots back then.
Imagine having to pilot this thing with flak and then enemy fighters coming for you. The stress.
Thank you for preserving this!
I think this was filmed at what is now Davis-Monthan AFB. MyDad went through combat crew training here in 1943. He later flew in the Pacific theatre.
My grandpa was a fighter pilot for the Italian Air Force flying the MC 202... They encountered b-17s and b-24s quite a lot during the North African/Sicilian campaign. He said the b-24s didn't take much to knock down but their gunners were far more accurate than the B-17 gunners mostly due to the great visibility You had in the b-24 I'm guessing. He's had quite a few bullet holes in his birds, aside from battling spitfires and p-40s
My father-in-law piloted a B24 in the Italian/Sicilian campaigns. All my wife and I have left of records is her mother’s scrapbook and news clippings at the time regarding her husband’s group.
Love this bird. It didn't get nearly the amount of attention it should have.
I also had the opportunity to speak with Col. Keith Compton who flew "Teggie Anne" in operation Tidalwave.
Always did like the 24. Bigger than the 17 and faster too. That last turn looked like a wing over. Snazzy for a B-24.
Amazing how these pilots remember all this information.
My father was a radio operator and sometime gunner in one of these in the Royal Air Force Coastal Command during WW2.
They flew from Scotland towards North Germany and Sweden in pursuit of German U boats.
Brought him softly home.
My great Uncle was a B24 pilot in the south pacific his son has a copy of his flight logs for the last few months. in his last entry they were flying back after a mission and they say the mushroom cloud of the first A BOMB he wrote down his feelings on what he just witnessed. its one of my most cherished possessions
With your permission please make sure a copy of those gets to the National Archives. Thank you.
The author of the excellent book, "Unbroken", states the B-24 "Flying Coffin" had numerous technical shortcomings, (example, it sank quickly on ditching), and that many more 24 crews were lost in non-combat crashes, than in combat. Just what I read.
That is precisely why the armed services used B24s so well in so many rolls.
Thank you for this Information about liberator one of my favourite bomber :)
They made such beautiful and durable machine like B-24 B-17 B-29
And the Queens Willys MB and Ford GPW.
I have Willys MD jeep it is fantastic.
I asked an old ww2 B24 pilot if he could flight check & do a check-off at his age.(83 at the time) He thought a few seconds and said, "Yes I think could." Then added quickly..."but I wouldn't want to land it". You had to come in at power with engines maxed at touch down, which was achieved principally by flaps & airbrake.He said the 24 had to be literally flown into the ground.
Please increase sound levels. Thanks for saving this film....cheers
My father was a air gunner in a B24 (RAF)..1943 - 45..saw action in the middle east and asia.. ....he never talked too much about the war....I'm trying to find his service records...will post if I do...
1000 feet per minute?? Damn, that thing climbed fast!
That was a very economical climb but the impressive thing is that with the continuously variable turbocharger output they could keep on up to 35,000 feet if desired. They could operate well above the enemy fighter’s optimum altitudes for their mechanical supercharger engines especially for the more heavily armed FW 190A.
The amount of aileron input in the approach to those stalls would truly horrify a current instructor. There should be none *before* _as well as_ after the stall.
super . cool Chanel jo
Ernest K Gann (who wrote Fate is the Hunter) was definitely not a fan of the C-87, the cargo variant of the B24. He liked the engines & its high cruise speed but little else.
To me?
This plane seems, EXCEEDINGLY touchy and delicate.
Annoyingly so.
☮
They could not be trimmed to fly hands off so the B-24 combat boxes over Germany had to be more open to avoid collisions which made their collective defensive firepower weaker. The German fighters preferred to attack the B-24s.
Was that last turn a 90 degree bank turn or it was just a trick of the perspective? It seems too much for a 4 engined bomber.
Well the reason you cannot bank much above 60° in a loaded Bomber is that you cannot keep that turn level without either stalling (and a power-stall at that - could be very nasty) or structural overload, but you can bank it to any degree of bank as long you don't pull to much load, that's what that pilot executed, a kind of Wingover where the banking occurs largely unloaded and relatively low speed, the aircraft then moves on it's own the nose below the horizon. If the aircraft is lightly loaded - no guns, minimal crew and fuel you might even try towards a looping - they do it with B-52s (well - partly DID, because the one pilot who did then crashed when he was in a tight situation with a crewmember - stalled in during ultra low high banking turns - huge ball of fire....)
He didn’t try to hold height as past about 75 degrees of bank the required load on the wings to maintain height approaches infinity. It is 1/cosine of the bank angle. For a steep 60 degrees of bank it is 1/0.5 equals a load factor of two, for 80 degrees of bank it is 1/0.17 equals a load factor of 5.8, for 85 degrees the load factor is 11.5, for 88 degrees the load factor would be 29. The engines and wings can only do so much so at the end it banked and pulled the turn while losing height.
It is nice to watch an information video, without the distraction (or propaganda) of music. Not sure why our politicians have made background music (particularly, obnoxious lyrics/sounds) a part of our educational system; however, Considering despots like Senator Packwood, Congressman Weiner, etc..., I am sure it was for their personal benefit, and not the country's benefit.
My dad flew them in N. Africa🙂
Given Google Earth and a few hours, I could probably work out where that was filmed and flown from.
Washington state based on the volcanoes.
Did the gunners and bombardiers go along on these training flights as ballast?
They were also training ... the bombardier especially had multiple responsibilities as a navigator and sometimes radio operator
Pilotage of coarse but without navigation all for not.
A crack navigator an amazing man indeed. Foul weather conditions, dark of night, radio silence and enemy falsification of radio beacons, unknown wind speed at various altitudes, extremely long range missions oft over featureless ocean. Also possible aircraft battle damage or mechanical issues mean no following other bombers in formation. Flying in close formations in heavy cloud. Flying at high altitude with unpressurized and hardly air sealed from slipstream intrusion and constant high engine noise throughout aircraft.
Just few challenges of flying B-24 in combat.
I heard these B24's were easy targets for german fighter planes, due to placement and number of their defensive guns. The B17, not so much.
My Uncle LT. Bill Goodman hated this aircraft. Wanted to be a fighter pilot but the Air Force said he would fly the 24 so off to China and the Hump for him. Made it home OK.
Love to roll it.....
Groom Lake Nevada the garden spot on the south western United States.
Wonder how she would do in a "Flat Spin Stall".
I wish I could here the audio.
230622
Well I would only fly the Ford made B 24 I am a USMC combat veteran and tanker and Ford is what I drive and it's a old Ford