B-24 LIBERATOR - REVELL 1/72 scale

The B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California was used extensively in World War II. It served in every branch of the American armed forces, as well as several Allied air forces and navies, and saw use in every theatre of operations. Along with the B-17, the B-24 was the mainstay of the US strategic bombing campaign in the Western European theatre. Due to its range, it proved useful in bombing operations in the Pacific, including the bombing of Japan. Long range anti-submarine Liberators played an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic Gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. 

The B-24 was a modern design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing. The wing gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. However, the type was difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance. It also had a lower ceiling and was less robust than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.  At nearly 19,000 units, with over 8,000 manufactured by Ford Motor Company, it holds records as the world's most produced: bomber; heavy bomber; multi-engine aircraft; and American military aircraft in history.

The Liberator carried a crew of up to 10. The pilot and co-pilot sat alongside each other in a well glazed cockpit. The navigator and bombardier, who could also double as a nose or wiggly ear gunner (guns mounted in the sides of the aircraft nose), sat in the nose, fronted on the pre-B-24H models with a well-framed "greenhouse" nose with some two dozen glazed panels in total, with two flexible ball-mounts built into it for forward defensive firepower using .30 caliber Browning M1919 machine guns. Later versions were fitted with a powered twin .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun nose turret The radio/radar operator sat behind the pilots, facing sideways and sometimes doubled as a waist gunner. The upper gun turret, when fitted, was located just behind the cockpit, in front of the wing, and was operated by the flight engineer, who sat adjacent to the radio operator behind the pilots. In the tail, up to four crew could be located in the waist, operating waist guns, a retractable lower ball turret and a tail gun turret matching the nose turret. The waist gun hatches were provided with doors, with the ball turret required to be retractable for ground clearance when preparing to land, as well as for greater aerodynamic efficiency. The tail gunner's powered twin-gun turret was located at the end of the tail, behind the tailplane.

The B-24 featured a tricycle undercarriage, the first American bomber to do so, with the main gear extending out of the wing on long, single-oleo strut legs. It used differential braking and differential thrust for ground steering, which made taxiing difficult. Early model Liberators were fitted with a top mounted turret, a tail turret and single machine guns located in the waist and in the glazed nose. The B-24D initially featured upper, belly and tail turrets, plus swivelling single guns in the waist and on either side of the nose. 

Long range naval patrol versions often carried a light defensive armament. Being on long distance patrols, they generally flew outside the range of enemy fighters. Also, the necessity of range increased the importance of weight and aerodynamic efficiency. Thus naval patrol often omitted top, belly and nose turrets. Some were fitted with belly pack containing fixed, forward facing cannon.

The first Liberators entered RAF service in late 1941 and featured self-sealing fuel tanks, a 2 ft 7 in plug in the forward fuselage to create more space for crew members and more vitally, ever more equipment such as ASV MkII radar. The Mark II was the first Liberator to be equipped with powered turrets, one plane having them installed before leaving San Diego, the remainder having them installed in the field: four Browning Boulton Paul A-type Mk IV with 600 rounds of .303 in the dorsal position; and a Boulton Paul E-type Mk II with 2200 rounds in the tail, supplemented by pairs of guns at the waist position, a single gun in the nose and another in the belly, for a total of fourteen guns. The offensive armament was slightly raised to 64,250 pounds, the maximum altitude lifted from 21,200 to 24,000 feet but the maximum speed was reduced to 263 mph, largely as a result of increased drag.

Two RAF bomber squadrons with Liberators were deployed to the Middle East in early 1942. While RAF Bomber Command did not use B-24s as strategic bombers over mainland North West Europe, No. 223 Squadron RAF, one of Bomber Command's 100 (Bomber Support) Group squadrons, used 20 Liberator VIs to carry electronic jamming equipment to counter German radar.

Liberators were also used as anti-submarine patrol aircraft by RAF Coastal Command. RAF Liberators were also operated as bombers from India by SEAC and would have been a part of Tiger Force if the war had continued. Many of the surviving Liberators originated in this Command.

The Liberators made a significant contribution to Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlantic against German U-boats. Aircraft had the ability to undertake surprise air attacks against surfaced submarines. Liberators assigned to the RAF's Coastal Command in 1941, offensively to patrol against submarines in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, produced immediate results. The introduction of Very Long Range (VLR) Liberators vastly increased the reach of Britain's maritime reconnaissance force, closing the Mid Atlantic Gap where a lack of air cover had allowed U-boats to operate without risk of aerial attack.

For 12 months, No. 120 Squadron RAF of Coastal Command with its handful of worn and modified early model Liberators supplied the only air cover for convoys in the Atlantic Gap, the Liberator being the only aeroplane with sufficient range. The VLR Liberators sacrificed some armour and often gun turrets to save weight, while carrying extra aviation gasoline in their bomb-bay tanks. Liberators were equipped with ASV (Air to Surface Vessel) Mark II radar, which together with the Leigh light, gave them the ability to hunt U-boats by day and by night.

These Liberators operated from both sides of the Atlantic with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command and later, the US Navy conducting patrols along all three American coasts and the Canal Zone. The RAF and later American patrols ranged from the east, based in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and beginning in mid-1943 from the Azores. This role was dangerous, especially after many U-boats were armed with extra anti-aircraft guns, some adopting the policy of staying on the surface to fight, rather than submerging and risking being sunk by aerial weapons such as rockets, gunfire, torpedoes and depth charges from the bombers. 

The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) took delivery of its first B-24As in mid-1941. Over the next three years, B-24 squadrons deployed to all theatres of the war: African, European, China-Burma-India, the Anti-submarine Campaign, the Southwest Pacific Theatre and the Pacific Theater. In the Pacific, to simplify logistics and to take advantage of its longer range, the B-24 was the chosen standard heavy bomber. By mid-1943, the shorter-range B-17 was phased out. The Liberators which had served early in the war in the Pacific continued the efforts from the Philippines, Australia, Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, Hawaii, and Midway Island.

For much of 1944, the B-24 was the predominant U.S. Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) formerly the Eighth Air Force in the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany, forming nearly half of its heavy bomber strength in the ETO prior to August and most of the Italian-based force. Thousands of B-24s flying from bases in Europe dropped hundreds of thousands of tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on German military and industrial targets.

The first B-24 loss over German territory occurred on 26 February 1943. Earlier in the war, both the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force had abandoned daylight bombing raids because neither could sustain the losses suffered. The Americans persisted, however, at great cost in men and aircraft. In the period between 7 November 1942 and 8 March 1943, the 44th Bomb Group lost 13 of its original 27 B-24s.

A total of 177 B-24s carried out the famous second attack on PloieÈ™ti (Operation Tidal Wave) on 1 August 1943. This was the B-24's most costly mission. In late June 1943, the three B-24 Liberator groups of the 8th Air Force were sent to North Africa on temporary duty with the 9th Air Force. The combined B-24 Liberator groups  were used in a low-level attack on the German-held Romanian oil complex at PloieÈ™ti. This daring assault by high altitude bombers at tree top level was a costly success. The attack became disorganised after a navigational error which alerted the defenders and protracted the bomb run from the initial point. The 44th destroyed both of its assigned targets, but lost 11 of its 37 bombers and their crews.

Australian aircrew seconded to the Royal Air Force flew Liberators in all theatres of the war, including with RAF Coastal Command, in the Middle East, and with South East Asia Command, while some flew in South African Air Force squadrons. Liberators were introduced into service in the (RAAF) in 1944, after the American commander of the Far East Air Forces , General George C. Kenney, suggested that seven heavy bomber squadrons be raised to supplement the efforts of American Liberator squadrons. The USAAF transferred some aircraft to the RAAF, while the remainder would be delivered from the USA under Lend-Lease. Some RAAF aircrew were given operational experience in Liberators while attached to USAAF squadrons. Seven flying squadrons, an operational training unit, and two special duties flights were equipped with the aircraft by the end of World War II in August 1945.

The RAAF Liberators saw service in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II. Flying mainly from bases in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia, aircraft conducted bombing raids against Japanese positions, ships and strategic targets in New Guinea, Borneo and the Netherlands East Indies. A total of 287 B-24D, B-24J, B-24L and B-24M aircraft were supplied to the RAAF, of which 33 were lost in action or accidents, with more than 200 Australians killed. Following the Japanese surrender the RAAF's Liberators participated in flying former prisoners of war and other personnel back to Australia. Liberators remained in service until 1948, when they were replaced by Avro Lincolns.

The B-24 was also one of the first Allied aircraft to be used by the German secret operations unit KG 200 when three B-24s were captured and then operated by the Germans, who also tested, evaluated and sometimes clandestinely operated captured enemy aircraft during World War II. One of these was captured at Venegono, Italy on March 29, 1944. It was used on penetration missions in RAF bomber streams at night in Luftwaffe markings. On a ferry flight from Hildesheim to Bavaria on April 6, 1945 it was shot down – by German anti-aircraft fire. Crashed B-24s were also the source of the landing gear units for the experimental Junkers Ju 287 V1 first prototype jet bomber airframe in 1945.

By the end of World War II, the technological breakthroughs of the Boeing B-29 Super-fortress and other modern types had surpassed the bombers that served from the start of the war. The B-24 was rapidly phased out of US service, although the PB4Y-2 Privateer derivative carried on in service with the US Navy in the Korean War.

_{* Images shown are a guide and references only to show how the kit can be assembled allowing for modellers to add extra detail as required}