This was the second Liberator in the squadron to carry this title, the first being a camouflaged olive drab aircraft which sported one of Chestnut?s earlier figures ? a rarity since it was fully clothed. After this earlier one was withdrawn from combat in October with serious flak damage its replacement was a silver B24L which was assigned in December 44 and it was also given the Chestnut treatment using a slight variation to the original design. Both carried the thumb-hitching girl and Tokyo-USA road sign but the later version was another classic nude, or rather half-nude since the lady was wearing a flimsy skirt. As with all of the group?s B24s, it carried the Red Raiders emblem on the left side.

Almost at the end of hostilities, Round Trip Ticket #538 blew a tyre while landing at Motobu airfield, Okinawa, on 26 August 1945 while carrying 20 passengers and their baggage on a ferry trip. Pilot William Coleman lost control, the aircraft ground looped, skidded off the runway and cracked up injuring several passengers on board, killing one. It was a sad end for combat veteran of least 47 missions.

Known Mission List

Date	Pilot	Target	Notes
2 Jan 1945		Malabacat Strip	Cchf: MSgt W L Maurer
7 Jan 1945	Stinson	Clark Field
9 Jan 1945	Marcotte	Malabacat Strip
15 Jan 1945	Rock	Fort Stotsenberg
16 Jan 1945	Heaton	San Jose
17 Jan 1945	Johnson	Legaspi
20 Jan 1945	Marcotte	Bamban
22 Jan 1945	Johnson	Heito AD
23 Jan 1945	Marcotte	Baguio
24 Jan 1945	Hug	Grande Island
26 Jan 1945	Wheeler	Corregidor
26 Jan 1945	Heaton
2 Feb 1945	Cooke	Corregidor
4 Feb 1945	Patrick	Caballo Island
5 Feb 1945	Marcotte	Corregidor
6 Feb 1945	Hug	Corregidor
7 Feb 1945	Hodous	Bogo
10 Feb 1945	Cooke	Corregidor
11 Feb 1945	Paris	Luzon grd support
13 Feb 1945	Rock	South China Sea shipping
14 Feb 1945	Hodous	Cabcaben AD
24 Feb 1945	White	Takeo
25 Feb 1945	Conley	Grd support NW Manila	R/E (NS) - abort
3 Mar 1945	Focht	Tainan
28 Apr 1945	Hardesty	Toshien
1 May 1945	Shillington	Tainan
2 May 1945	Foley	Ipo
8 May 1945	Coleman	Tugueraro AD
10 May 1945	Wheeler	Canton
12 May 1945	Hanich		(NS) -weather abort
14 May 1945	Hardesty		(NS) - weather abort
16 May 1945	Brown	Taichu
19 May 1945	Cochran	Kiirun & Karenko
22 May 1945	Coleman	Okayama AD
27 May 1945	Howard	Fusina & Paracat
31 May 1945	Howard	Taihoku
2 Jun 1945	Hughes	Kiirun
5 Jun 1945	Einsmann	Kontei
12 Jun 1945	Shillington	Hong Kong
15 Jun 1945	Hughes	Canton
17 Jun 1945	Giannarelli	Kiirun
29 Jun 1945	Einsmann	Trombol & Sebu
9 Jul 1945	Howard	Okaseki
10 Jul 1945	Gottschalk	Tainan
11 Jul 1945	Einsmann	Shinchiku
13 Jul 1945	Giannarelli	Taito
16 Jul 1945	White	Canton Recco
18 Jul 1945	Shillington	Matsuyama
24 Jul 1945	Hughes	Kiangwan AD
26 Aug 1945	Wm E Coleman	-- Ferry trip from Clark Field	(NS) - Burst tyre on landing at Motobu Strip, Okinawa, and destroyed

 

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© Ray Bowden 2 December 2023