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Info Eduard - May 2011
HISTORY
eduard
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Info Eduard - May 2011
originally built for Great Britain, where the RAF
planned to employ it as a high altitude bomber,
for which the Deep Sky Blue was considered well
suited. Ultimately, it didn’t get to Britain, and found
its way into the services of the United States instead.
The aircraft that went this route were dubbed the
‘Blue Bellies’. It is possible that this fact also had
a bearing on the name ‘The Blue Streak’.
B-24D-15-CO, s/n 41-24047, 5th AF, 90th BG,
320th BS, Southwest Pacic
This Liberator was delivered to the USAAF on
October 13th, 1942. By the 23rd of November,
it was involved in missions in the SWPTO. The air-
craft laboured for more than one hundred missions,
and was selected to participate in the War Bond
Tour, which it commenced in October, 1943. After
that, Moby Dick was then converted to a TB-24D
transport. This aircraft was often own with the 90th
BG by a crew led by Major Paul W. Gottke. Gottke
ew 57 missions, most in ‘Moby Dick’.
The skull and cross-bombs on the tail surface be-
came the unit marking for the 90th Bombardment
Group ‘Jolly Rogers’ from mid-1943. From Septem-
B-24D-20-CO, s/n 41-24198, commanded by
Capt. Wallace Taylor, 98th BG, 244th BS, Northern
Africa, summer, 1943.
One of the most famous raids conducted during
the Second World War were those aimed at the oil
reneries of Ploesti in Romania on August 1st, 1943.
This aerial operation codenamed ‘Tidal Wave’ was
intended to take out of commission the oil rene-
B-24D-15-CO, s/n 41-24047 „Moby Dick“
B-24D-20-CO, s/n 41-24198, „The Vulgar Virgin“
ber, 1943, to the middle of 1944, all aircraft had
them in black and white. After that, the base color
was changed to that of individual squadrons, and
the 320th BS had the white skull and bombs on red
background. It was interesting to note the origin
of this marking. It had to do with the name of the
CO of the 90th BG, Col. Arthur Rogers (CO from
July 11th, 1943). Keeping with the pirate the-
me was not much of a leap from that. The author
of the rendition was Sgt. Leonard H. Baer, and was
rst applied to the CO’s aircraft. The sharkmouth
was applied to several aircraft of the 520th BS.
The name ‘Moby Dick’ was not only carried by this
aircraft, but all of the 520th BS. The outline was
intended to be broken up by the application of me-
dium green elds on the wings and tail surfaces.
Liberators reached the 90th BG at the beginning
of its existence. The unit formed on January 28th,
1942 at Key Field in Mississippi, and after training
moved to Hickham Field on Oahu, in the Hawaii-
an Islands. The unit command at this time was not
pleased with the Liberators, and there was a plan
to even t the Convair A-6 turrets. Besides that, re-
quests were made to equip with the B-17 instead.
The unit remained equipped with the B-24, with
which the 90th BG came to the Southwest Pacic
through Australia, Papua New Guinea and into the
Philippines.
ry that at the time accounted for about 35% of all
output. Photographs of Liberators over the burning
renery circulated around the globe, and the four-
-engined, twin tailed bomber became the symbol of
the hell descending down on the Romanian facility.
One aircraft that did not make it back from the
raid was ‘The Vulgar Virgin’.The aircraft was brou-
ght down by a direct hit from AAA re, and the only
survivor was the Captain, Wallace Taylor. The B-24
was a member of an eight ship section. Three were
turned back by various technical problems, and the
ve remaining planes approached the target using
the local rail line for guidance. This was anticipa-
ted by the Germans, and they were able to display
their lethality by destroying all ve aircraft of th
e
incoming ight.