B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force

Osprey Combat Aircraft #21

by Robert F. Dorr

The B-24 was heavily utilised in the North African and Mediterranean theatres by the USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force, with operations over the Ploesti oilfields in Rumania being some of the most famous missions undertaken by the big American 'heavy' in World War II (1939-1945). The stirling work of the Fifteenth Air Force is often overshadowed by the glamorous 'Mighty Eighth', yet the men flying the B-24 fought ceaselessly right through to VE Day. This is the third of five titles planned to chart the operational history of the Consolidated heavy bomber, and is the first single volume to exclusively cover the Fifteenth Air Force's B-24 units.

Genres: Aviation

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2000

About the author

Author of "HITLER'S TIME MACHINE."

Author (1955- ); Air Force veteran (1957-60); retired Foreign Service officer (1964-89).

Author of about 75 books on the Air Force and on military history and operations.

Author of the weekly "Back Talk" column in Air Force Times newspaper, the monthly "Washington Watch" column in Aerospace America magazine; the monthly "Front Line" column in Combat Aircraft magazine; the monthly "Washington News" column in Air International magazine; the "The Way It Was" photo feature in Warbirds magazine; the "History Mystery" feature in Air Power History magazine, and other stuff.

I live in Virginia with spouse and Labrador retriever, have grown sons, new iMac. "HITLER'S TIME MACHINE" was published in December 2014

Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rare 5 Star for me from Osprey. This book had more first hand accounts in it than any Osprey title I've read thus far. Hence the rating.

[carl theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to the B-24 Liberator and also the
US Fifteenth Air Force, which was based in the Mediterranean
theater. Author Robert Dorr is well known for his books
on World War II aircraft.

As expected with Osprey publications, this edition has
plenty of photographs. The captions are detailed to the
extent of serial numbers of the planes pictured and offer
almost as much info as the text of the book.

Plenty of personal stories add drama to the photos. At
times some of the technical details are repeated, I imagine
they are "cut and pasted" from Dorr's vast stash of information
on the aircraft.

There are 25 or so color plates showing the paint schemes
of various B-24s and once again, plenty of detail on unit
numbers, bomb groups and wings.

There is also a look at the single tail B-24, which
never reached production levels.

An appendix provides the location and situation of each bomb
group of the Fifteenth.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be quite a good overview of the underappreciated B-24s operating in the unsung Fifteenth Air Force. My grandfather was a bombardier on one of these (and I believe, in fact, the very one illustrated in the second color plate), and reading about the austere conditions in which these men flew - and where they operated from - was eye-opening. What a different era.