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John Bybee B-24 Liberator Research Home Page. |
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| Research on the B-24 Liberator Bomber form World War 2 by John Bybee. |
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Click Here's the Lib that started it all with me and military aviation history
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John Bybee B-24 Liberator Research Home Page |
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Jeff, Click Here's the Lib that started it all with me and military aviation history. I would guess around 1954/1955 the old man stopped for a beer at some bar in Canton, IL. I locked onto the completed model of "Buffalo Bill" atop a TV and I was hooked. Ciao. John |
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Saluting a Job Well Done,
Douglas employees bid farewell the the "Tulasamerican."
the last B-24 to roll off the Tulsa Assemble Line, August 1944
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Prop
blade and wheel off the
461st B-24J "Tulsamerican"
lost off Hvar on 17 Dec 1944.
| Hi Jeff, Left you a Phone message. I am thrilled and stunned that you are so close and have such an interest in military aviation. Yes, I will call Ben Kidder. The "Tulsamerican" was a Ford KD kit and the last B-24 built at Douglas Tulsa. Kevin Gray a Tulsa lawyer is one of the brass hats at the Tulsa Air & Space Museum and they would love to bring back all or part of that aircraft to Tulsa. The pilot, FE and nav all died in the crash. The TA was 765 lead and was hit by FW-190A-8s of the II JG300 just before the IP in CZ. They made Split, Yugo on 2 engines and tried for Vis. Last 2 engines ran out of gas and the Lib rolled over into the Adriatic from a 100 feet. A-4, Falklands--tell me more when you get a chance! I worked with the IWM on a B-47E story. I've attached a draft. Capt. Galvan was 767 deputy lead on 17 Dec 44 mission. Shot up and made a forced landing, POW and KIA 26 June 1956 in B-47E at Smoky Hill AFB, KS. Nobuko worked at a department store in Koza, Okinawa, while I was stationed at Henko, Okinawa 1968-1970, of course I didn't know her then. Gerry Landry who retired from the Cal Tech subsonic wind tunnel, his cousin Russel Landry was the nav. Ciao. 12-9-2008
Hi Jeff,
Currently, Gary Hyatt of the Davis-Monthan
website has asked if I would be a guest editor and do the
Fokker page for the
website and Dave Powers
of the PanAm LOGBOOK magazine desires
that I do a piece on TWA.Do you
follow the history of
Camp Ellis? YES, I would love to have your
insights and help for online publishing if I ever get the Odertal book done.
I belong to the informal SPG (Same Page Gang) and we think we have found a
prop blade and wheel off the 461st B-24J "Tulsamerican" lost off Hvar on 17
Dec 1944. Have attached a photo. Looking forward to your
response. |
| 8-7-2008 Greetings Jesse, I am doing ongoing research on the Sunday 17 December
1944 mission to Odertal (Kozle,
Poland) and Hughes G. gave me your new email address. I read very great
interest you article about your book ONE MORE MISSION and the Goia Sgt/Painter
that was selling
Shady Lady nose art off a stencil. Is it possible that you flew #13,
42-51336 to Italy, this
aircraft lost 24 Aug 1944 at Pesaro with Lt. John R. Wren hr.'s crew?
Shady Lady #52,B-24G-16-NT, 42-78436 shows going to 451st on 24 November 1944
and went MIA on 18 Dec 1944 with 451/727,
2Lt. John D. Holland Jr. commanding. #52 went MIA in the center of the
Nagykanizsa (Hungary) Oil Triangle. This was the same area that the 485th
claimed they had six B-24s damaged by Nazi SAMs on 17 Dec 1944. Let me dig out
my notes on Holland etc. Sincerely, Jess Something's amiss big time since you flew 42-78436 over to Italy. You recall any extra electronic equipment like in RCM / ECM / ELINT mode? John
John, I was a pilot concerned with getting that big box-car fully
loaded off the ground, saying the correct prayers while under fire from the
Germans, and controlling a crash - called a landing. We had bales of chaff
to be thrown out the waist openings. We had no other electronic equipment
on the Shady Lady or on any other aircraft I flew. I think I would remember
any electronic intelligence devices.
Your research has been a revelation for me, although I have not spent
a lot of time worrying about what happened to the
Shady Lady. I was informed, probably by rumor, that she had been
shot down and I accepted the information because about 50% were lost. Many
years later I found on our website the same serial number for an airplane
that a Lt. Wren piloted over Persaro and was MIA. Much later I stumbled
across a photo of someone stenciling a Shady Lady in the 451st. I naturally
assumed that someone was stenciling many aircraft with the same stencil,
which I though was humorous. Now you uncover, with convincing evidence,
that the aircraft was transferred from the 461 to the 451 in November and
was later MIA. Since I was not consulted or asked for my permission to
transfer the Shady Lady by the top command, I will accept your account of
"The rest of the Story" of the Shady Lady.
Jess
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| Click Here to see the Script's Press Release for "Willow Run The Eighth Air Force WW2 Movie" |
| Click Here for the Willow Run Exhibit, Production of the B-24 Liberator, by Warren B. Kidder |
| Click Here for B-24 Liberator Exhibits. One More Mission by Jessie Petty |
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B-24
Liberator Movies
B-24
Liberator Aviation Art
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Click Here's another Book
Review about a B-24 Pilot in WW2, Jessie Pettey,
One More Mission, A Journey from Childhood to War.
Click Here to go to the
YellowAirplane Online Museum
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