Comments: Softcover, 240 pages, 587 black-and-white photos and illustrations
ISBN: 978-0-9968258-7-0
Price: $49.95
Publisher: Ginter Books/Specialty Press
From the publisher: The U.S. Navy’s acquisition of the B-24D as a long-range patrol bomber/subhunter (PB4Y-1) and photo recon platform (PB4Y-1P) marked a major shift in patrol doctrine and the eventual end to the flying boat as patrol plane. The Navy Liberators became a one-ship strike force as they roamed thousands of miles on sector searches and destroyed more than 1,000 ships and hundreds of aircraft. The original under-gunned early B-24Ds were up-gunned with bow turrets from Consolidated, ERCO, MPC, and Emerson, with Sperry ball turrets in their bellies when search radar was not fitted. The B-24Ds were replaced with B-24Js, B-24Ls, and B-24Ms, all designated PB4Y-1/1Ps. The PB4Y-1P photo planes were used to map and survey Japanese strongholds before invasions and discover new airfields and fleet movements.
No mission was too far or too dangerous. It was in a remote-control PB4Y-1 flying bomb that Joe Kennedy was killed over England.
After the war, photo squadrons continued to operate the photo version into the early 1050s. The book covers all engineering details and structures as well as PB4Y-1 squadron histories and most combat operations.
FSM says: Before the Privateers came these Liberators. Multiview drawings (including cutaways), factory and manual drawings and photos, and several photographic close-ups and walkarounds provide modelers with visual references right down to the minutiae, inside and out, including cockpit and turret interior details. You’ll even see the mechanism for the “rolltop” bomb bay doors and turret suspensions. Also included are squadron emblems and racy nose art, and a bonus for modelers — 13 pages of Liberator kit listings in various scales.