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I was going thru a list of B-24's lost during the Pacific war and came up with a B-24A serial number 40-2371 lost at Hickam field on dec7th 1941. They had B-24's at Pearl on dec 7th?

An A model, probably some kind of evaluation aircraft.

Thanks, I was also going thru the USAAF chronology for jan 42' http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/us ... an.42.html [the report lists 43' in places but is a typo] and amazed at how accurate the game is.

I was also wondering about this listing for dec 6th 1941, http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/us ... ec.41.html

What is a C-39?

62d Transport Gp, McClellan Fld, Calif
4th Transport Sqd (C-39)
7th Transport Sqd (C-39)
8th Transport Sqd, Hill Fld, Utah (C-39)

ORIGINAL: Termite2

I was also wondering about this listing for dec 6th 1941, http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/us ... ec.41.html

What is a C-39?

62d Transport Gp, McClellan Fld, Calif
4th Transport Sqd (C-39)
7th Transport Sqd (C-39)
8th Transport Sqd, Hill Fld, Utah (C-39)

It seems to be variant of DC-2, Wiki says:

C-39
A composite of DC-2 & DC-3 components. Powered by two Wright R-1820-55 radial piston engines, of 975 hp (727 kW) each, 35 built.

There were a handful of LB-30's in USAAFFE service in dec41 which, IIRC were equiv to B-24A

I had a picture of one of them at Pearl after the atack, but it was lost with my old HD.

It was a B-24A that was on transit to Clark AFB. It was going to be a recon variant used by the bombardment group over there on a series of recon efforts up to Taiwain, over to Yap, and around the Indo-French, and around some of the other Japanese Mandate Islands. They had stopped over at Oahu for gas and food after leaving California. In the end the aircraft was attacked and lost on 7th of December.

B24a wreckage at Pearl


http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/7Dec41/index.html

The Liberator was already in service with the RAF in late 41.  The USAAF was just beginning to get a few.  As others have said, they were limited to specialty missions like recon.  The cargo variant came later.  I believe inspired by attempts to come up with some kind of cargo plane that would be better flying over The Hump than C-47s which were pushed to the limit on that mission.  The C-46 ended up being the primary workhorse of that route once there were enough of them.

Bill

Joe's site is also useful, especially when you have a serial number.

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/usafserials.html

ORIGINAL: Bearcat2

I was going thru a list of B-24's lost during the Pacific war and came up with a B-24A serial number 40-2371 lost at Hickam field on dec7th 1941. They had B-24's at Pearl on dec 7th?

I understand this was part of a four plane unit. A second aircraft was accompanying this one but turned back to California due to an engine problem. IIRC, other aircraft were still in Florida or Texas. I can't find my original source, that had the unit designation.

The plane destroyed was being used as a long range transport. Most of the B-24As were converted to C-87s. One still exists and has been kept in flying condition by the CAF.

Bill

From Joe Baugher's great website that Bill posted.

The USAAF took delivery of its first B-24As in June of 1941. Only nine of these B-24As were actually delivered to the USAAF, all between June 16 and July 10, 1941. Their serials were 40-2369/2377. The remainder of the B-24As on the original order were either diverted to Britain or were converted on the assembly line to later variants such as the B-24C and B-24D.

The B-24A was generally similar to the RAF's Liberator I, except for its armament of four 0.5-inch machine guns plus twin 0.3-inch guns in the tail.

These aircraft were used by the USAAC in much the same role as the RAF used the LB-30A--primarily as long-range transports. The Ferry Command B-24s were painted in the early RAF-style camouflage of dark earth and dark green over black undersides. However, during this immediate pre-war era, these planes carried large American flags painted on the sides of their forward fuselages and on the top of the fuselage, hopefully indicative of neutrality should they enter a combat zone.

Two B-24As (40-2373 and 40-2374) were used to transport the Harriman Mission to Moscow in September of 1941 via the United Kingdom. The last leg of the flight to Moscow involved a nonstop distance of 3150 miles, and from Moscow one of the USAAC B-24As continued on around the globe via the Middle East, India, Singapore, Darwin, Port Moresby, Wake Island, Hawaii, and back to Washington. The other B-24A returned to the USA via Cairo, Africa, the South Atlantic, and Brazil.

Two other USAAF B-24As were earmarked for a secret spy flight over Japanese bases on Jaluit and Truk in the South Pacific. If detected by the Japanese, the cover story for this mission would have been that the planes got "lost" while enroute to the Philippines and had accidentally strayed over the Japanese-held islands by mistake. It took a while to get these planes ready, since they had been used by the Ferrying Command and all of their combat equipment had been removed. Before the flight could be carried out, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place. One of the B-24As earmarked for this flight (40-2371) was, in fact, destroyed on the ground at Hickam field during the attack and some of the crewmembers were killed.