Warbird Information Exchange

My friends dad flew combat missions on B-24's during ww2 and he said he would love to have a small B-24 memento to add to the display he has made for his dad. I told him I would ask around. He flew with the 68th Bomb Squadron.

Thanks,
Nathan

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Would be honored to assist.

Please PM.

- Robert in PHX

Hello,

Guess what is says on the label and I will pop it in the post from the UK.

PeterA

Peter,

Could it be a bit of a D model Liberator, San Diego built, perhaps something like s/n 41-24301?

I suspect it is.

I'll put on a special thinking cap and postulate that the tag is printed on both sides.

One side is printed O.H.M.S. as an R.A.F. Form and R.A.F Equipment.

The article item will be assigned a number (and I am really curious about this one). The next line will identify name of a/c and it will be dated April 1968.

The printing office tag might be 935/4/W131882.

That's just a guess, mind you...

I'd say if so the giveaway would be the OHMS tag and the carpet remnant from something I've seen before and spent a good portion of my life chasing. I'll bet I could probably ID where it came from, but the query is... where'd YOU get it? And, of the collection, what is left?

Have a mate on the 1967-68 recovery team? If so, we need to PM. It'd be fun to compare notes. If I'm correct, that particular Lift-A-Dot wasn't far from a few other cockpit goodies I have over here. I suspect they were all acquired at same time frame. A good bunch of 'em were sent back to McDonnell Douglas Aircraft to a specific engineer and a special testing program in the late 1960s.

- Robert in PHX (Arizona) with apologies to Nathan for taking such liberties on his thread.

PS That sand on the upper portion of the tab seemed to collect everywhere, didn't it?

Pooner,

I have confused you. I wrote the label.

PeterA

I suspect you could be right Pooner, IIRC Peter has visited LBG in recent years, so a direct connection. A lovely offer you have made Peter.

Nathan
Was your Friends dad at RAF Shipdham Station 115 (68th Home) or in the Mediterranean on detachment ?

_________________
Martin
Wide open & turning left.

Unfortunately this rather larger piece would not fit in my 'carry on' bag.

PeterA

Well, Peter, the old saying of the old blind pig finding an acorn every once in awhile is partially true. I was on beam with regard to the a/c pedigree, but off-base re. the tags. I'd gotten so excited I thought perhaps you'd found the missing block of artifacts. Grunt, grunt or so this pig says.

I suppose a follow up with some pictures from a couple of goodies I have here are in order, but I am on the road right now for some training and won't be back home until the end of the week or maybe into the next. I'll see what I can do to share. That might make more sense.

I remembered seeing a couple of those "Lift-A-Dot" fasteners and the associated carpet in the late Jim Walker's collection many years ago. He was an engineer with McDonell-Douglas in St. Louis that had convinced some folks in RAF to pull some of the goodies for his materials exposure tests in 1967, and the rest, they say, is history. By April 1968, a team was there in the Libyan desert doing a grab and run.

I must say the corner of your tag is spot on for the cut and type of the RAF tags. All of the stuff that was sent back to America in summer 1968 for the evaluation program came with these paper tags, numbers and a brief description of the part in relation to where it was removed from Lady Be Good.

The MD engineers examined this stuff, some of which (primarily pumps and hydraulics) were taken apart, re-assembled and test papers written. Purpose of the exercise was to see how aerospace parts held up to extreme climate changes and long term exposure, as MD was at the time building space vehicles (and ICBM rockets in silos dotting our country). The firm wanted to know basically what the shelf life of an ICBM was sitting in a tube with a nuke on top of it. Let's call it for sake of simplicity this program was a small part of their government contract warranty plan.

Walker's team was fortunate enough to end up with goodies from all over the world - bomber and fighter parts from the jungles, ice caps, bogs, deserts and even from the ocean floor. The engineers had lots of parts to play with. Walker had an affinity for LBG, and at the end of testing and evaluation, much of the stuff was to be disposed of. One item that was not to be scrapped was the #2 engine as sent back to US by the RAF. It was destined for display at Wright-Patterson with some other "Lady" bits, and they had a heck of a time getting the engine from him as he took a liking to it and stored it in his garage. (There's an amusing sidebar story as to what Wright-Patterson actually ended up with in the end from Walker via M-D, but we'll save that for another time. And maybe another place, as I'm guessing the full disclosure might not set too well with museum staff.)

Much of the RAF marked Lady Be Good parts stayed in Jim's collection until he passed away more than a decade ago. He'd told me at one point that a "good lot" of RAF recovered parts had stayed in Great-Britain. There was reportedly was both an aerospace engineer and RAF officer over there that kept numerous items and were supposed to contribute to the MD research study. Both individuals had promised to send along some of this to US for review over here, but somehow those items never arrived. Poor old Jim was always frustrated that there were goodies he could never get his hands on for his "study."

With that, of course, made me hope you were part of that missing connection to a part of the mystery.

But fast forward to the present - I do wonder what condition of Lady's remains are like today. Last stories I'd had about the condition of the airplane were that it'd been moved yet again in country to another compound. I do wonder what has become of it in light of the political unrest and anti-western sentiment over there. I hope for the best.

Good score, buddy. Good score.

- Robert in PHX

Pooner/Robert,

By coincidence, my late uncle, Air Commodore 'Jack' Frost was the station commander at 'nearby' RAF El Adem from September 1964 until December 1966.

He was not involved with any recovery of major parts to my knowledge but did fly out to the site in an RAF Pembroke on 20 May 1965.

My own visit was in March 2007, operation 'Desert Derby', retracing the WWII battlefield sites and memorials across North Africa of my old regiment with 1950's/1960's fellow veterans.

PeterA

This is who we are honoring.



This is my friend Bill. He is looking for a piece of B-24 to display in his man cave. He has made a nice display area of things about his dad. Recently someone in Europe found his dads dog tags!

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I'll ask. The late Mr. Ennis passed away 11 years ago. He never really talked about the war much. Other then he said he wasn't in any serious trouble like some of the others crews got into. He had to bail out once in France. I don't know how not so serious that would be!

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Ok yes, Mr. Ennis was:

He was a member of the 68th Bomb Squadron of the 44th Bombardment Group, 2nd Air Division, 14th Wing, 8th Army Air Force. His crews flew out of the USAAF Station 115, Shipdham Air Base, England.

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21 January 1945
Pforzheim, Germany
Only eleven aircraft were dispatched on a limited operation to attack Heilbronn Marshalling
Yards. Equipment malfunctioned, so Pforzheim Marshalling Yards were hit visually, with
excellent results. Several aircraft left the formation, low on fuel, to land in France. One 68th
Squadron plane and crew failed to return.
68th SQUADRON:
#42-50725 68th Squadron Crew:
FRANKS, WALTER O. Pilot 1st Lt. ASN 0-818784 Returned to duty
BURLINGAME, WILLIAM A. Co-pilot 2nd Lt. ASN 0-1997881 Returned to duty
DELONG, FRANKLIN Navigator lst Lt. ASN 0-722285 Returned to duty
HUEY, WILLIAM E. Engineer T/Sgt. ASN 34601283 Returned to duty
WALKER, DONALD E. Radio Oper. T/Sgt. ASN 38468759 Returned to duty
POTTS, JAMES A. RW Gunner S/Sgt. ASN 14100400 Returned to duty
GLANZ, CLARENCE I. LW Gunner S/Sgt. ASN 37706564 Returned to duty
ENNIS, DONALD H. Nose Gun./Togglier S/Sgt. ASN 33355461 Returned to duty
STENSTROM, ROBERT W. Tail Turret S/Sgt. Huntington Beach, ASN 16129841 Hospitalized due to parachuting injuries Illinois

This aircraft was MIA on the 21st, but the crew returned on the 29th. The #4 engine had a
runaway prop and the pilot, Walter Franks, could not feather it. This caused high fuel
consumption and they ran low on gasoline, with both #1 and #2 engines running dry. The
electrical system was out, and the aircraft also iced up, so the pilot ordered his crew to bail out.
Only one crewman was injured, and he was hospitalized in Station Army Hospital #067.
S/Sgt. Robert W. Stenstrom told me that he was the injured crewman. He stated that he thought
the plane had been hit by flak, causing the difficulty. When ordered to bail out, he and all the
others got out fine and they all landed unhurt except Stenstrom, who landed in a tree and was
injured when one of the limbs punctured his cheek. He also broke three ribs. Military personnel
from the First Tactical A.F. Provincial #374 took him to the 51st Station hospital for treatment.
He was there for three days and then joined the others from his crew at Hotel Francois and on the
24th, were flown back to London. A train brought them back to Norwich and they were back on
their next mission on 6 February. The crew completed their tour of 35 on 6 April 1945.

_________________
Martin
Wide open & turning left.

_________________
Martin
Wide open & turning left.

That is amazing! Thank you so much!

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