https://www.flickr.com/photos/133697406@N05/19286898401/
This was the 5,000th Liberator built by Consolidated. It is shown getting a new engine on the Island of Vis where it made an emergency landing.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsheley/5770517218
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsheley/2858342331/
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=19569
This one is easy, it's the "V Grand", the 5000th B-24 built by the Consolidated plant in San Diego, the signatures are those of the workers who built it.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I just found that out too, and would have learned from you faster but I've been finding more photos of it
DeleteMy Dad was the co-pilot of this plane. It survived the Ploesti raid. My dad was the second to last to jump out of it, but I guess the pilot was able to land the plane.
ReplyDeletewow! You must have heard some incredible WW2 stories!
DeleteMy father was radio operator and waist gunner on that plane. It was the 5,000th one made and the first one that was left silver instead of painted. All of the crew who made it signed it. It was called the Five Grand but spelled V Grand.
ReplyDeleteI see the son of the co-pilot commented on it. Here's the story as my father told it:
The plane got hit and lost a lot of altitude before the pilot got it under control. I think they lost 2,000 feet. The pilot called for the navigator to get a fix but he'd bailed out so the pilot called for the co-pilot to get a fix. He'd bailed out, also. The pilot asked my father to get a radio fix. They used that to fly to an island crash field. They landed safely and were told to push the plane off the runway. Then they were given a new plane made from previously damaged planes.
The picture of the V Grand having an engine replaced must have been taken after the original crew was given a new plane.
The pilot had been a commercial pilot before the war and had a lot more experience than most bomber pilots. My father credited that with how he survived the war.
My father never heard from the co-pilot or navigator again and wasn't sure if they survived.
My father didn't talk about the war much and died in 1986. One story he told was about a hotshot pilot when they were in training in California. The pilot decided to prove how good he was by doing a loop in a B-24. He survived it but he bent a wing at a funny angle and they made him fly the plane like that to the scrap yard.
Thank you for the information! Great story and additional insight into a LOT about the plane!
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