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Beaulieu May 26, 1943

A decision of the Coastal Command´s HQ to equip the Czechoslovak No 311 Sqn with four engined Liberators was at the time of their short supply a gesture of assessment of this unit´s achievements. From the beginning of the 1943 year not only British, New Zealand, Canadian, but also Czechoslovak Air Force personnel were undergoing their three month training in the Bahamas on the island of New Providence. First on twin-engine B-25 Mitchell light bombers with Nos 1-2 Sqns of No 111 OTU to get accustomed to its tricycle undercarriage at the Oakes Field air base within a month´s period. Then they flew Liberators nicknamed ´widow maker´ due to forgiving no pilots´mistake at the Windsor Field air base with No 3 Sqn for nearly two months. Having arrived at Beaulieu,the airmen of No 311 Sqn had to crew up first. In comparison with six crewmen of Wellington, these comprised two pilots, a navigator, three WOPs taking turns in manning a radar and two air gunners.

On June 2, 1943 the first B-24 of the BZ743 Serial No. was delivered to No 311 Sqn. On the following day the WOP Miroslav Vild was flown by F/Lt Whightman and P/O Václav Ryba at the controls. Fourteen more Libs GR V equipped with an centimetric ASV radar were ferried to No 311 Sqn in the July 13 – 31 time frame.  Two more -BZ 793 and 794 - had been allotted to 311 Sqn, but went to No 53 Sqn instead on July 20 and 24 respectively. The crews were trained thoroughly and eg. F/Lt Emil Palichleb´s one made thirteen training flights until they went on operations.

Following the fall of France in June 1940, the French contract for 20 Liberators Is, 139 IIs and 6 LB-30As was taken over by Great Britain. Despite long range aircraft had been badly needed since WWII´s outbreak, early 1941 the use of LB-30As  and later LB 30Bs in Trans-Atlantic Return Service proved to be of the utmost importance, taking the ferry pilots who had flown the America-built aircraft for the RAF on a Montreal – Prestwick route back to Canada. Their return was speeded up in this way. The first LB-30A arrived at Prestwick, Scotland on March 14, 1941 and on the same day a Liberator took from Prestwick to the New World.. By Dec 1941 six YB-24s an twenty VLR B-24As were delivered by the Americans to RAF. The first of them were ferried to the No 120 Sqn´s air base of Nutts Corner in Northern Ireland on March 29, 1941. On June 8, 1941 Liberator I of a Serial No. AM910 with four early ASV radar masts - Stickleback - served with this unit. Only five of them were  VLR Liberator Is with a range of 2,400 miles, one of Libs IIs and IIIs was of 1800 miles.  An improved version of a SCR-517 radar onboard Liberator II DUMBO arrived in UK in March 1942. A total of 366 B-24Ds – designated Mk IIIs and GR V were delivered to RAF.

The aircraft delivered to No 311 Sqn in the summer 1943 were of a later B-24D series, designated  Liberator Mk V., equipped with additional fuel tanks in wing bays and an ASV radar either in a chin or in a retractable radome aft of the bomb-bays. Although the first B-24Ds were turned out in the Consolidated-Vultee plant in San Diego on Jan 23, 1942, demand outstripped supply. In the same year production of B 24s was commenced in a new Consolidated-Vultee factory at Forh Worth, Texas and No 3 production line of the Douglas Co was opened in Tulsa,Oklahoma. Late 1942 the forth and last Liberator production plant with seventy assembly lines was completed at Willow Run, Michigan, but  Henry Ford  Co´s initial output was poor here. So in 1942 AVM John Slessor went to Washington so that deliveries of badly needed Liberators could be speeded up. A brunt of long range A/S patrols was born by No 120 Sqn for more a year. Not before in Oct 1942 Nos 59 and 224 completed their converting from Hudsons to Libs and were operational. By July 1943 six Sqns of the Coastal Command flew Liberators operationally – Nos 120, 59, 224, 86, 200 and 53 ones. Cz No 311 Sqn went of operations on August 21, 1943.   

 

Bibliography

www.fcafa.wordpress.com – John Rennison – ´Liberator aircraft of 311 Sqn´

Sgt. Bohumil Ryšánek´s Flying Book

Miroslav Vild - Osud byl mým přítelem – Naše vojsko 1985

Jiří Osolsobě – Zbylo nás devět – Naše vojsko 1989 

Martin W. Bowman  - B-24 Liberator 1939-45  - Patrick Stephens Ltd 1989

Martin owman Consolidated B-24 Liberator –  Crowood Press Ltd  - paperback - 2004