Special Operations Consolidated B-24 Liberators: The Unknown Secret and Specialized Duties Aircraft

By William Wolf

Despite being America’s most produced bomber, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator has forever flown in the shadow of its more famous and glamorous B-17 rival. The workmanlike B-24 performed multiple unheralded roles in all theatres beyond its also multiple offensive missions, making it the war’s most versatile heavy bomber. Besides its offensive bombing, anti-submarine, and mining missions, the Liberator performed many little known “inoffensive” duties.

Undoubtedly the most colorful of all Liberators were the so-called assembly ships of the Groups of the 2nd Air Division. Their unique paint schemes of stripes, polka dots, and checkerboard, were designed to make them ultra-conspicuous for their task of acting as leaders on which a Group formation could assemble their combat formations more quickly for a combat mission

The Consolidated F-7 was a photographic reconnaissance version of the B-24 Liberator. The F-7 saw service in most theatres of the war. The long range of the Liberator also made it well suited to mapping missions during the war and post-war.

Beginning in early 1944, to aid the Allied liberation of Europe, Carpetbagger B-24s were utilized to parachute spies, called “Joes” or “Janes”, or provide aerial supply of weapons and other matériel to resistance fighters in occupied Europe. Liberators also participated in the dropping of 2.75 billion propaganda leaflets using various techniques and delivery devices.

Electronic Warfare played an important part in Allied global pre-invasion plans to discover the location of enemy radars, and, if possible, destroy them. This interception and analysis of an enemy electronic radiation was the origin of present day ELINT (ELectonicINTelligence). Modified RAF B-24D Airborne Electronic Reconnaissance Liberators, codenamed Ferret, were Radio Counter Measures and Electronic Intelligence aircraft that played a major role in European air opera¬tions.

During 1942 the AAF became interested in aerial refueling as a means to bombing Japan. A shorter-range B-17E was selected as the receiver aircraft while the more spacious B-24D acted as the tanker. Although these tests were considered to be successful, the availability of longer-ranging B-29s and bases ever closer to Japan diminished the urgency of wartime aerial refueling.

During the war, eighty-three B-24s crashed or made forced landings in Switzerland, sixty in Sweden, and several in Russia, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey. Many of these Liberators landed undamaged or were repaired to be flown by these nations. Of particular interest are the six Liberators that were captured and flown by the Luftwaffe.

Packed with a unique collection of photographs. Special Operations Consolidated B-24 Liberators reveals the most unusual and little-known facets of the Second World War’s most versatile bomber.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Feb 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781399057783

William Wolf

Dr. Wolf retired from dentistry at the age of 45 to pursue his lifelong fascination with WWII aviation history and outdoor pastimes of hiking, mountain climbing, road and mountain biking, and sea kayaking. He has authored over twenty-three books on WWII, including nine on American bombers, two on U.S. fighters, five on U.S. flying units, and three volumes on U.S. aerial armament. His personal WWII library, collected over 40-years, now contains over 25,000 + books and magazines; 10,000 + photographs; along with 2,000 reels of rare microfilm from original WWII sources; 1,000 + CDs of scanned manuals and books; and over 800 DVDs.

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Chapter 1

B-24 Assembly Ships

As the Eighth Air Force became more of a presence over southern England in late 1943; the forming up of a huge bomber stream of hundreds of heavy bombers, carrying tons of bombs over a small area, could lead to disaster. Hundreds of aircraft from numerous groups took off from dozens of airfields in several adjacent counties, often flown by inexperienced crews newly arrived from stateside training who often faced poor weather and visibility, making it difficult for pilots to find their place in the formation.

The Assembly Ships

During February 1944, facing an ongoing formation assembly identification problem, the B-24-equipped 2nd Bomb Division developed an improved method of recognition of individual formations using ‘war-weary’ veteran Liberators withdrawn from operations. These aircraft were commonly (and unofficially) called assembly ships or more officially, formation ships or formation aircraft but were less commonly, known as beacon, circus, forming, leader, marshalling, monitor, or rendezvous ships/aircraft. Another name was Judas goat after a goatherd’s lead goat that was trained to lead the flock to their slaughter.

The aircraft used in the first assembly ship allocation were B-24Ds designated as CB-24s. At the time each B-24 group was permitted to have two second-line aircraft for use for tactical training and other non-combat duties. These bombers were mainly acquired from the 93rd Group and also from the 44th and 389th Groups which had arrived in the UK in the fall of 1942. These surviving B-24Ds were rather battered by the end of 1943, many with 500 or 600 hours’ flying time, often having served in the abrasive north African desert environment and many were Ploesti veterans.

The modifications to convert these war-weary Liberators into assembly ships was assumed by the base sub-depots, which carried out the third echelon of maintenance repairs that included ‘the field removal and replacement of major unit assemblies that could be completed within a limited time period to meet the individual requirements of the group without any official directives’. All armament and armor were removed but sometimes the tail turret remained. If B-24Hs were used, the Consolidated A-6 nose turret was removed and replaced by a glazed nose. Initially, assembly ships had provisions for signal lighting that varied from group to group but commonly consisted of individual white flashing lights on both sides of the fuselage arranged to form the group identification letter. However, others basically had a string of lights along the centerline of the rear fuselage sides or an arrangement in a faired-over tail position. The colors, size, and degree of the illumination varied considerably. Flare-firing ports were cut into the rear fuselage of most assembly aircraft and extra-large loads of pyrotechnics were stocked on board. A few of these aircraft were recorded to have been lost or damaged in pyrotechnic accidents following accidental discharge of flares and flare guns inside the rear fuselage.

Assembly ships were drawn from group war-weary B-24s. Shown is a B-24H-10-DT (41-28697) assembly ship of the 458th Bomb Group, which was variously named Spotted Ape,  Spotted Ass Ape, or  Wonder Bread (after a popular bread label of the time) during its career of flying a record sixty-seven assembly flights before crashing on landing and being written off. (AAF/NMUSAF)

While signal lighting mostly continued, the distinctive feature of the assembly ships was their group-specific high-contrast painted patterns of stripes, checkerboards, or polka dots to enable easy recognition by the forming bombers after take-off. These flamboyant, intense, and often garish individual color schemes did not appear on assembly ships at once but most of the operational Groups had their assembly ships flying in their distinctive scheme by March 1944. Because it was relatively easy to apply, stripes in assorted colors, widths, and forms they were the most prominent pattern. Two Groups used checkerboard patterns, four used polka dots or discs, and one used red zigzags.

The ‘WW’ Liberator shown here is the 466BG’s B-24D Silver Streak (‘109’). The red and white lightning flash-type diagonals were not masked before being painted crudely. (AAF/NMUSAF)

Signal lighting commonly consisted of individual white flashing lights on both sides of the fuselage arranged to form the group identification letter ‘P’ as shown here on the 467BG’s B-24D (Pete the POM Inspector). (AAF/NMUSAF)

Assembly ship tail sections were modified to incorporate a set of five bright lights. Shown are those installed on B-24H 42-7552 Lil’ Cookie of the 489BG. (AAF/ NMUSAF)

Other Assembly Ships

B-17 Assembly Ships

Of the two UK B-17 Fortress divisions only the 41st Combat Wing used them as assembly ships. During June 1944, the 303rd and 379th Group’s target-towing hack B-17Es were painted with red and white banding, while a war-weary 384th Group’s B-17F had blue polka dots on an overall white fuselage. On 19 July 1944, the 384th tested its B-17 assembly ship and concluded that it presented little advantage in assembly over flares discharged from the combat leader B-17s. Subsequently B-17 groups appear to have lost interest in assembly ships.

P-47 Formation Monitors

To assist in the assembly process, each group was allocated a war-weary fighter that was assigned to second-line duty and often had its armament removed. These aircraft usually were P-47 Thunderbolts, called ‘police aircraft’, or ‘formation monitors’, but were called ‘cops’ or ‘dogs’ (i.e., shepherd dogs) by the bomber pilots. Unlike the assembly ship bombers, they were not painted in the often bizarre paint schemes but retained their standard paint or natural metal finish (NMF) schemes and were identified by the unit place from codes on the tails. These fighters would fly about the assigned area and shepherd any lingering bombers to the rendezvous point using hand signals due to radio silence.

The six B-17 assembly ships were only flown by the 41st Combat Wing. Shown is the Spotted Cow of the 384BG, which was all white and decorated with blue polka dots on all surfaces except the under wing and empennage surfaces. (AAF/NMUSAF)

War-weary P-47s called ‘cops’ or ‘dogs’ were added in the assembly procedure to ‘shepherd’ straying bombers into the correct formation. Shown is P-47C 41-6630 of the 453BG, identified by its vertical fin ‘J’ group markings. (AAF/NMUSAF)

Assembly Procedure

Assembly aircraft were usually flown by crews not assigned to the combat mission that day, pilots and crew who had suffered combat fatigue, or pilots and crew in need of additional flying time or experience. The assembly ship was flown by a skeleton crew of two pilots, navigator, radio operator, and one or two flare discharge men in the rear. Sometimes, an observer-officer flew in the tail position to monitor the formation. Assembling a group formation was usually uneventful in good weather but often could be a stressful and hazardous undertaking in poor conditions, when the use of assembly ships was more essential.

Usually, daylight bombing missions were initiated at sunrise, especially during the short winter days when it was necessary for the bombers to return to base before the early sundown. These missions involved hundreds of B-24s, taking off at thirty-second intervals from over a dozen East Anglia bases with the pilot’s coaxing their B-24s, heavily overloaded with bombs and fuel, into the air and needing every foot of runway. If this ordeal was not enough; the next difficulty was to climb the bomber to the assembly area, often through several thousand feet of cloud or overcast. Visibility would typically be minimal, with the added hazards of invisible prop wash from other climbing and circling bombers and hopefully not in icing conditions, which were considered the worst situation. Within seconds, ice could opaque a windshield and alter the aerodynamic shape of the wings and tailplane, lock the control surfaces, and block air intakes.

To add to the visibility problems; when the temperature and dew point were equal, or nearly equal, the bombers climbing to formation altitude would begin producing vapor contrails from about 1,500 to 2,000ft long, which when caused by many hundreds of bombers taking off at about the same time could combine to create a solid overcast over East Anglia that could be 15,000 to 20,000ft thick. The bombers would usually break out above the cloud and vapor overcast at about 16,000 to 20,000ft.

Nevertheless, the pilots had to continually fly the most accurate compass course possible to their assigned assembly area, as a slight deviation could place their bomber into another group’s airspace and creating the distinct possibility of collision. Soon the limited air space would be crowded with circling heavy bombers, leading this take-off and assembly process to be considered by many crews as more hazardous than flying combat over Germany!

During 1944 the Buncher radio beacon was introduced at each base, which had its own specific broadcasting frequency. Combat formations were assembled by adjusting their position to an assigned radio signal. During a mission, the assembly ship was the first to take-off using the Buncher radio beacon located at its base. This beacon system developed by the RAF would transmit the (Morse) code of the day to aid the assembly ship (and later that day the group bombers) in their to climb to assume a racetrack flight pattern (the same one used later that day by the combat bombers) at the pre-arranged rendezvous altitude.

Originally, there were two procedures for forming heavy bomber formations, one for clear weather and one for poor, though eventually the poor weather method became standard, even in good weather. The formation and post-formation procedure depended on two basic radio beacon navigational aids, known as Bunchers and Splashers, whose location, type, strength, and frequency differed. Each base would have a Buncher beacon that could transmit the (Morse) code of the day on four or five different frequencies on a relatively low range and could be used by aircraft from another base. All UK beacons were numbered and later those established on mainland European airbases following D-Day were identified with a C (for Continental) prefix before their identifying number. Each bomb group was assigned a Buncher beacon that was to be the location for its fight pattern while organizing itself into an in-flight formation. After take-off all aircraft of the group would head toward it, and once there they would orbit at 3 miles until the entire group was formed up. This system was the precursor to today’s system in which airliners fly holding patterns, stacked vertically over the same holding point. To reach their assigned altitude and assembly area the group’s bombers climbed at about 350ft per minute to congregate at 7,500 to 9,500ft and then proceeded to the assembly area circling in a specified racetrack pattern. If visual flight rules could be maintained, the group could form relatively easily on the assembly ship, assume their positions in the formation and then head off toward the next beacon to get in the wing formation.

Meanwhile, the assembly ship would circle in its group assembly area and wait for the bombers to arrive. Assembly ships carried minimal fuel as they would not fly to the target and usually returned to base once the formation had been assembled. The conspicuously painted assembly ship was to draw the attention of climbing group bombers, as were its fuselage ID lights and its color-coded flare discharges. The assembly ship’s weight reduction caused some problems. Although this lighter weight made the aircraft’s controls (almost too) light and responsive, assembly pilots had to fly at reduced power to match the slower airspeed and rate of climb of the fully loaded combat bombers after rendezvous.

If visual flight rules could not be maintained after take-off, combat formations were assembled by adjusting their position to the assigned Buncher beacon radio signal until they climbed to a higher assigned altitude, or until reaching visual conditions to form on the assembly ship that had moved to that area. However, even if the clouds had been topped, the low morning sun caused excessive blinding glare, making assembly difficult. There were times in extremely poor weather that so many individual bombers were unable to locate their correct formation, completely disrupting rendezvous timing and causing the entire bomber force to become so disordered that the mission had to be scrubbed.

Once at the assigned altitude the bomber pilots, under enforced radio silence, had to distinguish their own bomb group participants from among the mass of other circling Liberators by searching for their unit’s distinctive assembly ship, which had previously arrived. The group assembly ship could achieve some communication by using Very pistols firing distinctive flares. After assembling the combat bombers, the mission leader would take the lead position and the assembly ship would tuck up under the tail of this lead bomber and fly in this position, depart the English coast and then fly on the assigned heading over the North Sea. Once there, the assembly ship would begin a shallow dive and add power to fly ahead of the formation and then pull up ahead of the formation (to be seen to be leaving) and make a sweeping turn back to base. Meanwhile, the assembled wing would follow a series of Splasher beacons, head directly over them as briefed and then finally take the final heading towards the target.

After breaking through the clouds and overcast over England, a 458BG formation assembly as seen from the Spotted Ass Ape. (AAF/NMUSAF)

Group Tail Identification to Aid Formation Assembly

The Eighth Air Force needed to solve the group identification problem and initially, during June 1943, the VIII Bomber Command introduced the use of a white, 80in (2m) diameter geometric symbol painted on the outboard side of a bomber’s vertical fins to denote a bombardment wing (later division) identification marking. A triangle denoted a B-17 of the 1st Bombardment Wing (later the 1st Air Division), a circle identified a B-24 of the 2nd Bombardment Wing (later the 2nd Air Division), and a square was the symbol of a B-17 of the 4th Bombardment Wing (later the 3rd Air Division). Individual groups were identified by a letter superimposed on the symbol, which at first were yellow but very soon after, in July 1943, the color was changed to insignia blue for easier reading.

Liberators of the 458BG forming on B-24H assembly ship Spotted Ass Ape. The red-white-red tail markings were instituted in May 1944 to aid in formation assembly. (AAF/NMUSAF)

However, as more groups became operational, this tail symbol ID method failed to solve the problem and in May 1944 they were replaced by distinctive-colored vertical tails with bisecting black or white bands, either vertical, diagonal or horizontal. During February 1944 the AAF decided to discontinue the camouflage painting of its aircraft for a NMF and the 2nd Bomb Division devised a system for its B-24s in which the exteriors of both tail fins were painted, with each of its five combat wings assigned a color and a black or white band placed across the fin either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to identify the group within that wing. The 93rd Combat Bomb Wing of the 3rd Air Division, which operated B-24s from May to September 1944, also adopted a color system in June. While this method improved the situation somewhat, these markings were most effective within a mile of the viewer and were difficult to distinguish in the early morning light. Then as the number of groups increased from 16 to 40, assembly difficulties increased even more.

The purpose of assembly ships was to prevent mid-air collisions, but another Liberator chewed chunks of the tails of assembly ship Wham Bam of the 453BG. (AAF/NMUSAF)

First B-24 Scheme

The more numerous B-24 groups used a standardized scheme for their four bomb wings. Two white circles were painted on the outer tail fins, above and below the aircraft serial. A geometric symbol was painted in the upper circle in black denoting the wing, with a triangle for the 47th Bomb Wing; a square for the 55th, a diamond for the 304th, and a circle for the 49th (because of the type of stencil used, that of the 49th resembled the concentric ring bullseye of a target). The lower circle contained one of the numerals 1 through 4, painted in black, denoting the group.

Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Group Numeral Identifiers

Group Numeral Identifiers Example:

Symbol with number inside:

98BG Triangle with a #1 inside

376BG Triangle with a #2 inside

47th Bomb Wing (triangle):

98BG – 1, 376BG – 2, 449BG – 3, 450BG – 4

49th Bomb Wing (circle/bullseye):

451BG – 1, 461BG (Second Wing assignment, 1944–45) – 2

55th Bomb Wing (square):

460BG – 1, 461BG (First Wing assignment, 1944) – 2

304th Bomb Wing (diamond):

454BG – 1, 455BG – 2, 456BG – 3, 459BG – 4

Second B-24 Scheme

In June 1944, the 15th Air Force adopted a color-symbol scheme to identify its groups and wings. The 5th Bomb Wing painted the elevators and rudders of its B-17s various colors but otherwise maintained its marking scheme. The B-24 wings adopted a method by which color and symbol placement would identify its groups:

47th Bomb Wing: Diagonally divided tail fins and painted the lower half in yellow and/ or black, with the 98BG using horizontal stripes, the 376BG in black only, the 449BG in half-yellow, half-black, and the 450BG in vertical stripes. The former triangle-circle symbol was retained in the upper half. Late in the war, the upper-rear stabilizer was painted black with a longitudinal yellow band in the center except for the elevators. 49th Bomb Wing: Upper half of the fin painted red, and a red symbol in the lower half; used the same scheme on the upper rear stabilizer with the red on the right side and the symbol on the left. 451BG: circle; 461BG: horizontal bar; 484BG: bowtie.

55th Bomb Wing: A large black square were used in the upper half of the fin, lower half painted black with a yellow symbol superimposed. 460BG: ring; 464BG: vertical bar; 465BG: horizontal stripe; 485BG: a saltire (St Andrew’s cross). The rear stabilizer generally displayed only the black square outlined in yellow until late in the war when the entire surface was painted yellow except for the elevators.

304th Bomb Wing: A large black diamond in the upper half; lower half painted to group color. The rear stabilizer was painted the group color on the left half and had a diamond on the right. 454BG: white; 455BG: yellow; 456BG: red; 459BG: black-and-yellow checkerboard.

The Use of Assembly Ships Declines

The first recorded use of assembly ships appears to have occurred on 30 November 1943 when B-24D 41-23667 Ball of Fire assembled 93BG Liberators over southern England (via Roger Freeman). By the summer of 1944 some of the early B-24D assembly ships were approaching 1,000 hours of flying time and their condition had deteriorated to the point where they had to be retired permanently. The second-generation assembly ship replacements that appeared in the 93rd, 389th, and 448th Groups with different markings were usually B-24H or J models that had undergone extensive repairs or had not performed well at combat altitudes etc.

Many group commanders believed that the assembly ship procedure had little advantage over group leading aircraft firing flares and wasted valuable fuel during assembly that could be better used on the way back to base during long missions. With improved techniques and experience in assembling formations around Buncher radio beacons, the need for these distinctive assembly ships was considered unwarranted by some groups and these distinctive Liberators became less apparent as the war came to an end. In addition to their assembly function, they served in a secondary role in many groups as communication, transport, and practice/training aircraft. When the weather was clear, and assembly ships were unneeded; they could be assigned to fly as part of the assembly process and maneuver around the formation to take evaluation photos.

2nd Air Division B-24 Assembly Ships

389th Bomb Group

Green Dragon