My friend James M Rossman was the co pilot on Heaven Can Wait and he flew 30 missions in a B 24, it was my honor to have known a true American Hero and call him my friend. He was laid to rest with his wife Elizabeth at 301 and Clinton Ave. in Dade City Florida and I stop be periodically to tell them how much I miss them.

my dads b24 was blown out of the sky over germany. he survived bailing out but was shot then captured. he was interogated then thrown in prison camp. he wrote his experiences in a small red cross book that i found in his belongings after he died.

@renatoigmed

5 жыл бұрын

and why did he never tell you this before he died?

@renatoigmed

3 жыл бұрын

@Kcid Deah peolpe like me? what do you mean "people like" what are you rating me with what?

@renatoigmed

3 жыл бұрын

@Kcid Deah just because I wanted to know why the guy never shared a story like that for his own son Im stupid? what's your problem? no. Nevermind. I don't want to know your problem. just go screw yourself.

@jarnec9428

3 жыл бұрын

Wow that is a find. I and I’m sure many others would love to read about your brave Dad’s experience. My Uncle’s B-24 also lost power and crashed, but luckily they survived landing in neutral territory.

@jarnec9428

3 жыл бұрын

@@renatoigmed Ren, sometimes people don’t want to talk about an experience such as this. It is just too stressful and painful.

My great grandpa flew liberators in the South Pacific I never met him but I really wish I did. I have a ton of respect for these young men.

My father, 2LT Dean Peppmeier, was one of these men. He flew B-24s out of Flixton Air Base at Bungay, Suffolk, 446 BG 706 Sqdn 2nd Air Div. and was shot down on 26 Aug 44 returning from a mission to Lugwigshaffen. He was captured by the Wermacht and was a POW at Stalag Luft I at Barth, Germany. He was awarded the DFC.

My best friend’s grandfather was a Flight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner on a B-24J in the 489th Bomb Group - 397th Bomb Squadron out of Halesworth England, his tail markings were Green White Green Circle H. I am forever in your debt SSgt. James Myers! He passed away two years ago. May you always have a clear blue sky and always have a tailwind! RIP Sir! 😢

@hasanguner9412

6 ай бұрын

Allah rahmet etsin onlar bütün insanlik için bedel ödediler 😢

My uncle..Paggi, Hugo J., 2nd LT, 721st Bomb Squadron, 450th Bomb Group, downed 2/23/44 near Steiner Kirchen, Austria

My dad (Sidney C. Bouwer) was a navigator in the 466 from 22 Mar 44 to 13 Jul 44. He flew on the the 1st major mission over Berlin 22 Mar 44. I have his old flight log, and the hometown (Grand Rapids, MI) newspaper article of his mission. At some time, he received the Flying Cross (hanging on my wall), and there is a personal account by Barkev A. Hovsepian of their plane losing an engine, flying their plane like a P-24. 6 ME-109 German fighters showed up for the kill, until 6 P-38's showed up.

I'm proud to say my father, William Duda, flew on one of these, the Wells Cargo. Remembering all those who sacrificed on this Memorial Day

@ZenosWarbirds

5 жыл бұрын

sounds like a winner 👍

Unbelievably despite the great number built only one is still fly worthy today. 2021. Respect to the great men who flew this brave missions.

My father in law was a B24J pilot. Frank Ward from Maple Island MN.

My great grandfather flew libs with people that flew this missions, but he got to Italy in December, so he never made it to Ploesti. He still did 29 missions to hell and back and was awarded the Air Medal with two Oak Lead Clusters. R.I.P 1 LT Mearl A. Winkel, USAAC, Ret. 15 AF, 485th Bomb Group (H), 831st Sqdn.

I flew with Terence Bulloch testing new equipment for B24's radar on anti-submarine work.Addison Cole

@johncole5052

7 жыл бұрын

Before the Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, over 20,000 seaman had lost their lives to the work of U-boats. A little known fact is that U-boats operated more efficiently on the surface. With the advent of the radar mentioned, U-boats were driven from the Atlantic. Wow

@mercurym-7904

6 жыл бұрын

addison cole thank you for your service sir 🇺🇸

@shawnpa

3 жыл бұрын

@Addison. Excellent work.Everything was done asap in WW2 to get prototype to end use. Outstanding. How you guys accomplished so much so fast...Wow.

Thanks for uploading. I know several men who flew the venerable B-24. I will share this video with those who are still alive or their widows if they are deceased..

My cousin was pilot on B-24. He was officer in Yugoslavian Royal AF detachment. The RYAF (Royal Yugoslav Air Force) was assigned to the 376 BG / 512 BS in Oct 43. The RYAF B-24s flew as #20 thru #23. #23 is the only one to have survived the war. The American B-24 Liberator No.31 (44-40502) nicknamed Besame Mucho was badly damaged during the attack over the target to the east of Vienna on August 22nd 1944. Yugoslav crew provided assistance in guiding the damaged bombers through enemy territory. Unfortunately there was a collision between the American and Yugoslav B-24 Liberator No.20 (24-73085), which was destroyed during the collision, as well as the American B-24. Only one member of the Yugoslav crew survived, and it was Lieutenant Vojin Stojkovic and one airmen from US crew. (At 11:49, at an altitude of 3900 meters there was a collision of US and Yugoslav Liberator. American Liberator's right wing and blades cut the hull Yugoslav Liberator on some one meter in front of the tail, and the impact of his fuselage broke the left wing of the Yugoslav Liberator. Both planes were brought down relatively close to one another, about two kilometers from the road Knin-Sinj, which stretched along the river Cetina.) Killed the crew of the Yugoslav B-24 Liberator No.20 (24-73085) was: Captain First Class Blagoje Radosavljevic (my cousin) Captain First Class Borivoje Vulic Captain II class Slobodan Pavlovic Lieutenant Vuko Šijaković Lieutenant Obrad Crvenković Lieutenant Boris Parapatić Lieutenant Tom Zivanovic Sergeant Milutin Bobek sergeant Emil Trampuš

@jers59

7 жыл бұрын

RIP

@DavidHHermanson

7 жыл бұрын

Peace be upon them. My uncle flew Liberators over Europe. He was fortunate enough to come home.

My step-mother passed away back in 2004. Now here it is Oct 2020 and I am just barely looking into an old steamer trunk that she had and stored many old family history in. Her father fought in WWI. Came across some photos of Staff Sgt Leonard B Lee. He was killed in Italy 1 Nov 1944 in a B-24J #42-51274. I just had to see the history of not only the plane but the sacrifices these men made.

My late partner's Dad was a B-24 pilot, surviving a crash on takeoff during the first Ploesti raid and critical flak damage on the second. He and his surviving crewmates bailed out, regrouped, and walked out of Occupied Romania (he with broken vertabrae).

@MrWahooknows

7 жыл бұрын

My father was the pilot of a B-24 on the first Ploiesti raid. He survived, but many of his friends did not.

@hawkeye4162

7 жыл бұрын

I have a cobra mustang owned by captain who flew B24 over Ploiesti and made 37 missions over Germany, survived all lived to 92, drove mustang I have for number of years, so happy have his car! what a honor, got his picture, and record of his achivements which where many given to him from British, French and America air force

My dad still has my grandfather's parachute that he used for jumping out of that bomber.

MY uncle flew a 24 with the 15th 51 missions. The trouble with the 24's is that they caught fire easily. Longer range, heavier bomb load and faster but it didn't take a lot to bring one down. The only advantage the 17 had was it's ability to take much more damage

@austinjeffris38

3 жыл бұрын

You’re not giving the lib enough credit. I’ve seen photos of 24’s coming home with more holes that a sponge. Liberator pilots were some of the finest in the USAAC and the Lib is just as good, if not better, than the B-17. Also, I could get into the details as to why the B-24 would explode mid-air without even being shot, but that sounds like a waste of time and I’m too lazy. Cheers.

@davegeisler7802

2 жыл бұрын

Yes , exactly they were prone to catch fire 🔥

My father Sgt Billy R. Smith was a waist gunner on a B24 flying out of England

That Davis wing turned a shipping crate into a beautiful bird.

@wotevrpnt

7 жыл бұрын

The shipping crate design was highly influenced by previous flying boat designs, like the PBY. The original design called for a rounder shape with a round all glass (plexiglass) greenhouse like the B-29, but the final design was easier to produce.

@davegeisler7802

2 жыл бұрын

The Davis wing provided tremendous lift and range , downside to the Lib somewhat more fragile than the Fort and was prone to catch fire easily 🔥

My dad at age 20 was co pilot on the B24 in Europe. Was there until almost the end of the war. He trained in B17s also flew B25 for awhile in Europe after the Castlebury (sp) mission. Almost all 24s were lost and only a few came back. So they had to fly the B25, he hated that plane. He stayed in the Air Force became first test pilot and instructor for B47s. Unfortunately the plane, one day blew up and he was able to land it in a field in Wichita,Kansas 1956 March 28th. William(Bill) Craggs, During the war he was in the 445th eighth A.F. I wish I could have known him,I was a baby. God Bless those men,then and now✝️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

My father was a gunner and radio operator on the salty dog a B-24 bomber. He flew over 50 Missions over Europe

@Baylor Jewell-my Grandaddy almost passed Flight School at Maxwell Air base in Alabama in 1942, but he got sick with pneumonia just before getting his wings.

my Granpa was with the Rackheath Aggies , never new or met him but proud none the less

my uncle was killed in a B-24 Liberator in October 1944 in Europe

@mikenewman263

6 жыл бұрын

My deep respect and condolences for your uncle. I've been researching the special ops squadrons, mostly SAAF but also Polish RAF, flying out of Italy in '44. They were very brave men attempting the improbable and impossible with surprising results. Can I draw your attention to this excellent video interview with an SAAF crewman at that time. kzread.info/dash/bejne/X2uqyM99qbHadbg.html Regards

My Uncle flew B24's in Europe during WWII. Somehow he survived and made it home. He was shot up once by flak and a Me109 but was rescued by Spitfires. He said that the only man he lost was a photographer that they had riding with them during a raid on Berlin. During the bomb run the photographer was leaning out over the bomb bay to try to get pictures of bombs dropping on Berlin when a flak shell exploded near the airplane and jolted the plane so hard that it threw the photographer out.

@mikenewman263

6 жыл бұрын

dude! brings a new meaning to "bloody press".

My Uncle George was an armourer and left waist gunner on a B-24 with the 8th Air Force, 491st Bomb Group "Ringmasters." He and his crew flew 30 missions over Europe. He didn't say a lot about it, but told a couple of hair raising stories, and he came home with a rip in his pants leg from a flak fragment, but he wouldn't let my grandmother sew it up. I guess that he figured that was the one with his name on it.

My grandfather was a top turret gunner and flight engineer on a B-24 during ww2 with the 464th bg 779th bs out of Italy with the 15th af

Of 178 bombers and 1,726 men on the mission, 54 aircraft and nearly 500 men failed to return (310 killed and 186 captured). Five Airmen received the Medal of Honor for their heroism during the raid-Lt Col Addison Baker (posthumous), Maj John Jerstad (posthumous), Lt Lloyd Hughes (posthumous), Col Leon Johnson, and Col John “Killer” Kane.

@hasanguner9412

6 ай бұрын

Libya romanya petrol tesislerini bombalamaya giden 176 uçaktan 1 tanesi ikinci bombalamaya giden ekip 😢

On April 4, 1943, a B-24D Liberator nicknamed Lady Be Good took off from Soluch, an airstrip located near Bengazi, Libya, for what would be her first and final mission. During that fateful trip, Lady Be Good carried nine members of the 514th Squadron, 376th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force. Lady, which had been one of the last planes to depart for the mission, never caught up with the formation. She eventually turned around just prior to reaching the target in Naples. It was on the solo trip back to Soluch that things went awry. The last contact with Lady Be Good came from Lt. Hatton, who had radioed Soluch airfield for assistance. He stated that the aircraft’s automatic direction finder was no longer operating correctly and they needed guidance. The crew never received the help that they requested and consequently, Lady overshot Soluch. A search and rescue team was deployed but the ill-fated crew could not be located. At the end of the search, it was reported that Lady Be Good and her crew had been lost over the Mediterranean Sea. In November 1958, British geologists working for D’Arcy Oil Company (later merged with British Petroleum) were flying over the Libyan Desert when they spotted a crashed plane. They noted the location and contacted Wheelus Air Force Base. At the time, Wheelus did not have any record of an American plane having been lost in the area, therefore, they did not react immediately to the call. The team of geologists sighted the downed aircraft during subsequent surveys and in March 1959, D’Arcy Oil Company dispatched a ground team to investigate. The initial inspection of the site was conducted by a D’Arcy surveyor, Gordon Bowerman, who happened to be a friend of Lieutenant Colonel Walter B. Kolbus, commander of Wheelus Air Base. According to the Army Quartermaster Foundation, after visiting the site, Bowerman wrote a letter to Lt. Col. Kolbus. The letter contained information from the plane’s maintenance inspection records, as well as crew names found on clothing and other equipment. This information prompted officials from Wheelus Air Force Base and the Army Quartermaster Mortuary in Frankfurt, Germany to investigate the crash site. Finally, after sixteen years, the story of Lady Be Good would be told. For the rest of this story go here: www.ladybegood.net/

@hasanguner9412

6 ай бұрын

1 tane de akdeniz düşüyor türkiye de 50 yil denizde kaldiktan sonra çikariliyor şimdi istanbul , rahmi koç ,müzesinde sergileniyor 😢 libyadan romanya petrol tesisi bombalanmaya giden 176 uçaktan biridir

My father Henry G. Mallard was with the 489 BG, 845 BS.

My brother Howard BELL enlisted in the Navy at age 18 they sent him to aviation school he served on many B 24 Liberators as a tail and a waist gunner. One day while stationed at DUNKSWELL secret air base in England my brother and his crew while cleaning their machine guns after a mission,, they clean the guns in a small shack next to the airfield a Lancaster crashed when landinv and slid across the airfield striking the shack that was filled with gasoline for cleaning the guns. My brother and his crew members were in the shack at the time. my brother became in gulped with flames and the entire Shack was burning fiercely. People rush over and put my brothers clothing fire out, all his hair waz burned off and he tried to reenter the shack but they held him back. His log book describes this. There were three or four at least of his crew members that died that day. That broke up his crew and these were his close friends, After that happened he was assigned to many different crews and B-24 planes and machine numbers. The airplanes that crashed was called a LANCASTER....Lancaster. Written by Howard BELL's brother Les BELL.

Its nice for the Lib to get some props for a change, instead of the Fort.

Hell of a strong plane it's a shame most B24s are overshadowed by the B17 and B29 even though the B24 could fly faster,fly farther and hold more bombs than a 17 it seems to pure beauty of the B17 was able to beat the legacy of the tank bulky 24

@grendelsm21

8 жыл бұрын

+Cody Maranto Confirmed. My father was a bombardier on Dumbo, the Pistol Packin' Pachyderm.

@lukasgaming1945

6 жыл бұрын

Anon Cody the b24 ended up failing because it was just not a strong plane. Many of them crashed/blew up over the pacific islands

@6h471

6 жыл бұрын

grendelsm21 Catchy name. I like it! My brother in law's dad flew two different B24's, the Sweet Sioux and the No Name Jive. 448th bomb group out of Seething, Norfolk England. 35 combat missions.

My dad was a flight engineer on both the B17 and I think he said on the B24. He did not like either plane. Too slow. He liked the twin engine bombers of the day and the P51.

My grandad was a crewmember (radioman and wastegunner) back in WWII in the South Pacific Islands.

@robroy497

8 жыл бұрын

and my grandmother probably helped build that B-24 at the Willow Run plant.

@funkyalien946

8 жыл бұрын

+LuckyLucy my grandfather was the captain of one of those :)

@funkyalien946

8 жыл бұрын

+LuckyLucy except he flew over germany

@Big_J-pj8oj

6 жыл бұрын

My grandfather was a radio man also on that B-24. Morse code.

My grandfather flew in the B-24 in WWII he did Morse code radio man

About 15 minutes in to this video ,there begins the story of a the 392nd air drop of supplies on March 24th, East of the Rhine at Wessel, At 18 minutes the 392nd clears there is mention of another massive flight. That was the 453rd Bomb group lead by Pilot Lester Reese and Lead Navigator Moe Schwartz. approaching from the north, with 500 planes. Actually the 453rd had to divert to avoid the 392nd. and went south of the IP at Wessel. From 400 ft. you can't see anything. They and the 500 following, were lost for several minutes. Schwartz saw a small section of the Rhine that ran due North-South. He made some calculations, ordered "90 LEFT". and prayed. He describes it as the longest two minutes of his life. The calculation said two minutes. with another turn planned. At two minutes he gave his last command of the war. "45 RIGHT" and in another eternal minute. There were the drop zone markers. Moe will be 100 this November.

Howard Bell also served in North Africa before going to Dunkswiel, England

@jontilson6090

9 жыл бұрын

That will be Dunkeswell in Devon UK. Its one of increasingly few still active WW2 airfields now used for pleasure flying. It has an "industrial" estate on its borders and many of the buildings there clearly have a WW2 origin. There are several local memorials to Canadian servicemen in particular in the area.

@jerseyjim307

9 жыл бұрын

I heard that they are going to make it a WW2- MUSEUM explaining how it was used during WW2---I may send them some of my brothers (Howard Bell) WW2 items?--Did u see the new listing I wrote about my brothers losing 4 of his B-24 crew members when a Lancaster bomber skidding off the runway into the gun cleaning shack in Dunkswell, UK??

MAGNIFICENT.

my uncle was the pilot of KH154 W SAAF dropping supplies to italian partisans

There were FIVE (5) Medals of Honor awarded for the Ploesti Raid; not four. Only two of the five recipients were alive to receive their Medal. Every man on that mission was a hero.

@austinjeffris38

3 жыл бұрын

I believe one was awarded much later after the mission. So I think at this time, when the video was made, only four medals were awarded and then a fifth later on.

@davegeisler7802

2 жыл бұрын

Yes , Ploesti like so many others also . Let's not forget the sacrifices made over Stuttgart , Bremen , Regensburg , Schweinfurt , Berlin and many other Raids.

@wolfganggugelweith8760

Жыл бұрын

They were terrorists who killed a lot of civilians!!!!!

10:44 is a B-17 cockpit and throttle quadrant. 10:48 is a B-17 tail gunner position and sight.

My Dad was one of the Torretta Fliers in Italy, the 484th. He was a radio operator and gunner on the Ol' 45 from about April to June in 1944 and did 37 missions. Some of the missions counted as two because of their danger so he was credited with 50 missions.. He came home and his sole job for a year in the Army was giving out weekend passes in Madison, Wisconsin. When the war ended he went back to the factory, two days after coming home at Stanley Judd in Wallingford, CT. His pilot was Watts, and there are two photos of the crew if googled. The Ol' 45 was shot down a few months after he went back home. When he died in 2008 he was 92 and perhaps the last man left although maybe the oldest when he flew when he was 28.

@randymitchell8802

4 жыл бұрын

My dad was stationed at torretta too..I've got lots of photos

Howard BELL was 18 when he enlisted IN THE NAVY as a tail and waste gunner on B24 LIBERATORs. IT WAS 1942.

@jerseyjim307

9 жыл бұрын

I read the book "INIGMA". Some fiction--but good info. Turing was as very sensitive guy who was very upset each time a ship was sunk by the NAZI WOLF PACK SUBS. He felt he was responsible because he didn't break the code soon enough. He would go into deep depression when lives were lost and he was so close to cracking the code. My brother "Howard Bell" was on the first B-24 Liberators that the NAVY ordered. It was the first heavy bomber that the NAVY ever had. It was painted all WHITE and designed to locate , track, and destroy Nazi subs that were untouchable before this LONG RANGE BOMBER was deployed. It was the only plane at the time that could fly R/T to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to locate and destroy them where the Nazi subs would gathered (undetectable at the time) to attack American supply fleets, at will, containing HUNDREDS of supply ships going to England. The Nazi subs would sink 50 or more of these ships cutting off the supply line to our Allies in Europe. It has been said that if the B-24 had not stopped these Nazi Wolf packs the war may not have been won. So Turing "cracking" the ENIGMA code and my brother and B-24's did a fantastic job. Both of them need to be given credit for this and talked about more in history classes! Their story's need to be told--over and over.--What Say You??

The Hawker Hurricane, DeHaviland Mosquito, Republic P-47 & Boeing B-24 were the trench fighters in the European Theatre of WW2 - respect to all involved!

@todd3285

Жыл бұрын

You seem to have forgotten the B-26 . They flew in the trenches !! My dad was credited with 78 combat missions and three of them were on D- Day in a 4 plane group at about 1000 feet bombing bridges . That's flying in trenches .

Churchills' B24 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commando_(aircraft)

"Bomerang" (bomber-rang), not " Boomerang"! Sheesh!

The reason the B17's got more publicity was because when flying from England the B17 bases were nearer London and the journalists based there didn't want to travel very far to get their stories.

My dad was in the 466th bomb grp 786th squadron H group.

I noticed that the feb, '44 raids into Germany were correlated to the D-Day invasion in June in which the Luftwaffe did not make an appearance. I wonder if the calculation was, the high rate of loss in crews attacking the german homeland at least served to concentrate the enemy fighters away from the beaches. And attrition works for us.

75.000 Liberators? Not that many were made

@Joop.23-2-63

Жыл бұрын

18.000+

How come Terry Bulloch-squadron leader 120 squadron on greenland clearly states in interviews that the VLR liberator had 4 20 mm cannon in the nose in stead of a turret and yet all the brief descriptions of the liberator i can find do not include this?

Anyone know my grandfather? JAMES A WILLIAMSON

This wear the Lancaster bomber evolved from XD

Big lump of a plane love them tho

As far as I know, these type of planes bombed down most of my hometown back in 1944 😢 (Hungary).

I knew a Texan had something to do with it! Haazah!

Black Screen thanks dish

41-24301

The B-24 had a lower loss rate in the Eighth Air Force than the B-17. warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-boeing-b-17-flying-fortress-vs-the-consolidated-b-24-liberator/

@davegeisler7802

2 жыл бұрын

It was not as glamourous as the Fort , but the Lib was a hell of a heavy bomber 🇺🇸

I watched this, and all I saw were bandits doing sneak attacks and dropping bombs killing people and destroying peoples hard work below.

We had a funny guy, tail gunner, got his brains blown out over the south pacffic, nothing funny about that.

It's somewhat unsettling to hear the narrator describe the great B-24 Liberators as 'Libs'.

The B-24 was sloppy handling at high altitude. They couldn't fly in tight formation. Luftwaffe pilots went for the Libs first.

@johncole5052

7 жыл бұрын

There is a concept in the world that has to do with progress. It goes like; Hey guys, look at me, I'm flying my tractor through the sky. Next is, "Hey Wilbur, why not lose the tractor tires and don't see if that domt fly better." Get the picture?

@wotevrpnt

7 жыл бұрын

That is a myth. Do a little research, and you will find it is not true: Which was the better airplane? In reality, it is probably accurate to say that for the kind of war fought by the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces in Europe, there was really very little difference. Advocates of the superiority of the B-17 are surprised to learn that their per-sortie overall loss rate was nearly half a percent higher among Eighth Air Force groups than that of their peers who flew B-24s. When comparing the number of sorties flown and losses sustained by the two types, the difference is even greater. Groups flying B-17s flew 60.38 percent of sorties flown by the Eighth Air Force and sustained 69.75 percent of the losses, while B-24 groups flew 29.77 percent of the sorties yet sustained only 26.1 percent of the heavy bombers lost. Groups that operated both types flew 9.85 percent of the sorties and took 4.14 percent of the losses. warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-boeing-b-17-flying-fortress-vs-the-consolidated-b-24-liberator/

@ohwell2790

6 жыл бұрын

So, you flew B24's you are my hero man. Thank God for brave men like you. I'm a veteran of Vietnam and Korea. If it wasn't for your personal bravery during WW2 we would be speaking German now. God bless your service!

@davegeisler7802

2 жыл бұрын

@@ohwell2790 you dam right ! Balls of steels each and everyone. Some just Boys, 18 and 19 years old foced to grow up extremely quickly 😢

@timedwards4455

Жыл бұрын

One of those boy pilots B24 and B17 trained was in the 445th eighth A.F. God Bless those men. They weren’t boys long. Not like today for sure.