First Lt. Hal Johnson stands in front of his P-47 “Thunderbolt” fighter after World War II when he was flying with the 81st Fighter Group, 91st Squadron, stationed at Wheeler Field in Hawaii. Photo provided
As a kid Hal Johnson wanted to be a fighter pilot. When he joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 they made him a B-24 “Liberator” bomber pilot. Read the rest of this entry »
Wes Belleson is pictured in England during World War II when he flew from Horsham Air Base near Norwich as the tail gunner on a B-24 “Liberator” bomber in the 8th Air Force . Photo provided
The American 8th Air Force saved the English from being invaded and defeated by Germany during World War II, according to Wes Belleson, who served as a tail gunner in a B-24 “Liberator” flying from a field near Norwich, England during the Second World War.
“Never Mrs.” was a shapely lass who adored the nose of Matt Williams’ “Liberator” four-engine bomber during the Second World War. Photo provided
1st Lt. Matt Williams of Englewood, Fla. flew his first combat mission piloting a B-24 “Liberator,” four-engine bomber over Nazi-occupied France during the D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944, along the beaches of Normandy in World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
2nd Lt. Rex Wilkinson had just received his wings when this picture was taken. He went on to fly 51 combat missions as the pilot of a B-24 “Liberator” bomber in World War II. Photo provided
1st Lt. Rex Wilkinson flew a shiny, silver B-24 “Liberator” bomber he named “Alberta K,” for his wife, from a base at Stornara, Italy on 51 combat missions in 1944 as part of the 745th Squadron, 456 Bomb Group, 15th Air Force.
Carl Driver of Alligator Mobile Home Park south of Punta Gorda, Fla. was a tailgunner on a B-24 “Liberator” in World War II, stands beside the nose art on his bomber “Passionate Witch.” He flew in the 13th Air Force in the Pacific. Photo provided
Carl Driver of Alligator Mobile Home Park on Taylor Road south of Punta Gorda, Fla. was the tail gunner in a B-24 “Liberator” four-engine, heavy bomber dubbed “Passionate Witch.” They were part of the 13 Air Force, 50th Bomb Group, 23 Bomb Squadron that flew from captured island air bases built by the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II.
This is the crew of “Silver Chief,” a B-24 in the 458th Bomb Group, 753rd Squadron, 8th Air Force during World War II. Port Charlotte, Fla. resident 1st Lt. Ed Sealy, the pilot, is second from the left in the back row. Photo provided
Their target: A road intersection near Schonberg, Germany, at the close of the Battle of the Bulge. It was Hitler’s last and largest offensive on the western front during World War II, aimed at blunting the allied advance into the “Fatherland.” Read the rest of this entry »
Lt. Tom Rebel is pictured at his parents’ Chicago home during World War II. Photo provided
Tom Rebel of Burnt Store Isles, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. said, “I wanted to be a bomber pilot. I wanted to fly the biggest thing they had.” He ended up piloting a four-engine B-29 “Superfortress,” the largest bomber mass-produced in the United States during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Almost 63 years after a bombing raid in a B-24 “Liberator” over German oil refineries in Romania, former Tech. Sgt. Jay T. Fish of Englewood, Fla. received the Distinguished Flying Cross in an elaborate award ceremony in Washington, D.C. on April 24, 2007 along with the other eight members of the bomber’s crew. Read the rest of this entry »
Vincent Durand of Port Charlotte, Fla. holds a copy of the local newspaper that says it all: “SURRENDER SIGNED!” This picture was taken at an air base near Madison, Wis., after he returned from his tour with the 8th Air Force in England during World War II. Photo provided
Buried in a box of old pictures and military records tucked away in a chest of drawers in Vincent Durand’s Port Charlotte, Fla. home is a medal from long ago.
The bronze medal with its four-bladed airplane propeller was attached to a red, white and blue ribbon — The Distinguished Flying Cross. Read the rest of this entry »
Lt. Adam Kubinciak is presented the Distinguished Flying Cross by Lt. Col. William D. Kyle during a ceremony late in the war. He received the commendation for saving his crew when his B-25 caught fire shortly after takeoff from England. Photo provided
First Lt. Adam Kubinciak was the pilot of a B-24 “Liberator” bomber named “Miss Liberty,” part of the 706th Bomb Squadron, 446 Bomb Group, 8th Air Force stationed at Bungay, in southwestern England, during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Bob Althoff of River Haven Mobile Home Park, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. holds on to “Duke V,” his 109-pound pet Doberman. The octogenarian piloted a B-29 “Superfortress” bomber on 35 missions over Japan during the closing months of World War II. Sun photo by Don Moore
Old “Iron Pants” decreed that the B-29 bombers would fly firebomb raids over Tokyo at 7,000 feet after taking command of the 20th Air Force. The “Superfortress” crews had been flying raids at 25,000 feet, Bob Althoff, pilot of one of the bombers, recalled decades later. Read the rest of this entry »
A B-17 like this one was similar to the one 2nd Lt. Leonard Pogue of Port Charlotte, Fla. was shot down in over Holland during World War II. Photo provided
This was like 2nd Lt. Carl Citron of North Port, Fla.’s B-24 bomber that attacked the German sub base along the coast of France. Photo provided
America’s airborne military might in Europe during World War II was hammered home by thousands of four-engine B-17 “Flying Fortress” and B-24, four-engine “Liberator” heavy bombers that dropped thousands of tons of bombs on Hitler’s “Fortress Europe” from 1943 until the end of the war two years later. By then, there was little left of most of Germany’s major cities except piles of bricks and rubble from bombing raids by Allied air forces. Read the rest of this entry »
Joe Hart flew a B-24 bomber for the “Flying Tigers” in China during World War II. Photo provided.
“Glamour Girl” is what Lt. Joe Hart and his B-24 “Liberator” crew were going to call their World War II bomber. But they never got a chance to paint it on the nose of their four-engine plane because they were shot down by Japanese fighters over China on their second combat mission during WWII. Read the rest of this entry »
Herb May of Port Charlotte, Fla. (squatting second from left). They were in the 466 Bomb Group, 786th Squadron, 8th Air Force during World War II. Photo provided
A tail gunner in a B-24 bomber dubbed “Wild Princess,” Staff Sgt. Herb May was on the first daylight mission flown by the U.S. Air Force over Berlin in February 1944. He had plenty of company — there were 800 heavy bombers in the armada that day attacking the German capital. Read the rest of this entry »
Arnold Heins of Port Charlotte, Fla. looks an an exact duplicate in miniature of the “Red Baron’s” Fokker DR-1 tri-plane he flew in World War I. It took Heins eight years to complete. Sun photo by Jeffery Langlois
Cpl. Arnold Heins escaped death when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 61 years ago today because he had just gotten off dining room duty at the mess hall at Hickam Field in Honolulu. Read the rest of this entry »
The crew of “Lucky Penny” a B-24 crew is being debriefed on the runway at their home base in England following their first bombing raid along the French coast on D-Day during the Second World War. Photo provided
Jimmy Stewart taught former 2nd Lt. Nick Radosevich of Englewood, Fla. how to fly a B-17 and B-24 bombers during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the crew of “This Above All”; a B-24 “Liberator” bomber Dave McKalip of Port Charlotte, Fla. flew on in World War II as part of the 8th Air Force in England. He made 30 combat missions. McKalip is standing in the back row at far right. Photo provided
David McKalip flew 30 combat missions as a radio operator on a B-24 “Liberator” bomber during World War II. The mission that made the biggest impression on him 65 years later was the flight that leveled Dresden, Germany. Read the rest of this entry »
Pvt. Otto Glass is pictured when he was drafted into the Army Air Corp in March 1941 when he was 23 and working in an Ohio factory. Photo provided
Otto Glass was the first young man in his hometown of St. Mary’s, Ohio drafted in World War II. He went in the Army Air Force almost a year before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Read the rest of this entry »
The crew of “Hubba-Hubba”, a B-24 bomber, is pictured on the snow-covered ground in Yugoslavia during World War II. The crew is surrounded by the family of the commander of the Yugoslavian partisans who rescued them. Photo provided
Staff Sgt. Raymond Hook , radio operator on a B-24 Liberator called the “Hubba-Hubba,” and the other eight members of his crew were shot down on their sixth combat mission to destroy a German oil refinery during the final months of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
This is Charlie Collins' boot camp graduation picture in 1943 when he was 17 years old. He flew as nose gunner on a B-24 bomber in the 15th Air Force in Italy during World War II. Photo provided
Former Staff Sgt. Charlie Collins of Brookside Bluff mobile home park north of Arcadia was a member of “The Cottontails.” He flew as nose gunner in a B-24 “Liberator” four-engine bomber during World War II. His bomb group had cotton bulbs painted on their tails, thus the “Cottontails” moniker.
In his 20′s, Carl Citron is pictured after he graduated from flight school in Texas during World War II. Photo provided
2nd Lt. Carl Citron hadn’t been in England but a few weeks when his unit,
the 466 Bomb Group, 786 Squadron, of the 8th Air Force, was assigned to a low-level bombing mission in their B-24 Liberators against the German submarine pens at Brest along the coast of Nazi-occupied France.
Taking the flight from the left: Col. Carl Citron, Bill Citron, son; Jason Owens, pilot; and Don Moore, Sun reporter, standing in front of “Witchcraft,” a B-24 bomber at the Venice Municipal Airport. Sun photo by Mary Auenson
Col. Carl Citron (Ret.) took a sentimental journey last Thursday morning at Venice , Fla. Municipal Airport on a B-24 “Liberator” bomber like the one he piloted a lifetime ago on 33 combat missions over Nazi occupied Europe in World War II. He was in ecstasy during the 30 minute flight down memory lane as the four-engine heavy bomber circled Venice a 1,000 feet below.
This is 2nd Lt. Victor Barber’s B-24 crew that first formed in Lincoln, N.B. where this picture was taken before flying to Europe and becoming part of a heavy bomber squadron in the 15th Air Force during World War II. Barber is standing in the rear at the far left. Photo provided.
Disaster struck on Friday 13, 1944 for 2nd Lt. Victor Barber a 21-year-old bombardier aboard a B-24 “Liberator” four-engine bomber flying from a base in Foggia, Italy. He was a member of the 251st Bomb Group, 724th Squadron, 15th Air Force.
These are the officers of the 703rd Squadron. Jimmy Stewart is fourth from the left in the back row. Jim Myers of Englewood, Fla., is second from the right in the front row. They are standing in front of a B-24 Liberator.
“Jimmy Stewart was just one of the guys after we got to know him,” Jim Myers said. The Englewood, Fla. aviator flew with the movie star in a B-24 Liberator bomber during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
