Research Help!

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Ok, Long story Long, I have a friend I work with who a few month’s ago told me about his Great Uncle who was a bombardier on a B-24 that was MIA after a mission. Turns out 63 years later('02) they find the wreckage and the remains of the crew. After doing DNA research and such, The crew is identified. The crew was burried with full honors at Arlington. He goes on to tell me that a year before the crash site was found his Grandmother, who’s brother was the afore mentioned died. He said his Grandmother always kept hope no matter how desperate sounding it may seem that her brother was alive somewhere or that she would eventually find out what happened. “She always wanted closure.” While he’s telling me this story we both have tears pouring down our faces. I really want to do a tribute to his Great Uncle to give to him. Here lies my problem.

The plane a B-24D Liberator (I’m 98% sure of that) The Bu. 42-72956. The Planes name was Here Tis but was formerly 4-F Charlie. That has me a little confused, why two names. I’m trying to find a pic of the plane to no avail. There is a pic of the crew in front of a B-24J but I was told that crew photo’s weren’t always in front of their own planes. I’m not sure if there was any nose art on the plane(which I’m sure no one makes anyway) but I want to try to make this thing as acurately as possible. From the outside anyway. I have two B-24’s in 1/48 by Revell one is a D and the other a J. Thanks to JEATON[bow][;)] I’ve been searching the net (when i get the chance) for anything on the subject but have come up with little. Can anyone help with this in any way? Like I said I want to be as close to the actual plane as possible. I don’t want to start on one and then find out it was the other varient. I’m kinda stuck.

Thanks in advance fella’s for your help. I’m sure with all the knowledge on this site someone could help. Sorry for being long winded[sigh]

Chris

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Do you have any idea what what squadron, wing, and group the aircraft was assigned to?

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Sorry Guess that would help a lot… It’s the 403rd Bomber Squadron, 43rd Bomber Group, Heavy. I found a web site for that but very little info on the plane there.

Chris

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The serial number, 42-72956 indicates that it was indeed a B-24D http://cgibin.rcn.com/jeremy.k/cgi-bin/gzUsafSearch.pl?target=42-72956&content=

The only other information I can find online so far is this: http://www.patriotguard.org/ALLForums/tabid/61/forumid/29/tpage/1/view/Topic/postid/482275/Default.aspx

5

I recall reading of this… perhaps in a magazine and on a few forums.

Here’s what I’ve got so far…

EDIT: Be sure to read the info at the bottom of this post after the red ‘EDIT’, as some of the info I initially posted here (between the dotted lines) may not be correct.

This ship was indeed a B-24D, (serial number 42- although it was modified in the field with a nose turret. A good number of B-24Ds were modified in this way, by taking tail turrets and mounting them in the nose. So if the crew photo you mentioned was taken in front of this ship, that may explain why it appears to be a B-24J.

I have no solid info concerning the two names, but some possible explanations would be that the ship was assigned to two different crews and therefore named differently by each crew, or that it carried two names… one on each side of the nose. There are several instances of the latter, one example being a 90th BG B-24 named ‘Booby Trap’ on the starboard side and ‘Miss Jolly Roger’ on the port.

There is a third name associated with this ship… 'Here ‘Tis’ and ‘4-F Charlie’ are from its time with the 403rd BS, 43rd BG. However, it was previously named ‘Betsy’ while serving with the 321st BS, 90th BG.

You can see a photo of it as ‘Betsy’, HERE.

You can see a photo of a B-24D named ‘4-F’ (Not ‘4-F Charlie’) HERE.

I don’t know if this ‘4-F’ is the ship in question or not, but it is a B-24D with the nose turret mod…

I’ll look into that some more.

There is also a discussion concerning this ship on the AAF forums, HERE.

EDIT: More info and photos HERE, including what I presume to be the crew photo you mentioned… which does look to be a B-24J and not a D.

However, the serial number here does not jive… it’s listed as 42-72946. This corresponds to the first serial number listed in AAF forum thread, (something I initially missed) as well as the info from the first link provided by Phil_H, above… which is a search engine for the Joe Baugher aircraft serial numbers database.

When I initially looked up the serial on that site, I noted the discrepancy… but after finding all the other sources stating that the serial was 42-72956, I figured that Joe’s info was incorrect, which is known to happen from time to time.

But now, I’m wondering whether or not the other sources are incorrect… and I think the possibility of ‘Betsy’ being a previous identity of the ship in question goes right out the window…

This warrants a closer examination.

I’ll see what else I can find in my archives…

Fade to Black…

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Thanks for the replies fellas. I’m going to hold out a little longer before I make a final decision on what to do.

Chris