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A Citizen Soldier in the Air.John HIleman - B-24 pilotChino reported:"Here's one anecdote I picked up from John Hileman, a pilot in the 321st 1943-45 (he got there with Chief Bearskin in May '43, right about when Charles H. Cook was leaving). John was flying a recce mission north of New Guinea, and there was heavy low cloud cover. They had to let down near Wewak (to take some pictures I guess), and the time was about right, so he checked with the navigator on their position. Nav said "OK to let down" but as they descended below clouds at 16,000 feet, the crew reported trees in the bomb bay!!! He decided quickly that they were a bit low, so full power, and climb!!!! John said there were some stops on the supercharger controls that everybody removed so you could just sweep them forward in an emergency like this. They made it, but it was pretty scary. They were apparently off course and/or had a bad altimeter setting, I suppose. He said that it was close calls like this (and like some that you had in weather) that explained some of the "lost with no explanation" incidents that took place -- he said that if they had crashed at that point, they might never have found their plane. |
 Someone there told me that more B-24's were lost in the 90th in accidents (takeoffs, landings, weather) than were lost to enemy fire. The B-24 was a handful to fly (as you know), and they were frequently overloaded, so even getting off the runway could be tough. John said the longest mission he ever flew was later in the war when they bombed Japanese oil refineries in Borneo (not from Moresby -- Biak maybe?). They managed to fly 22 hours with a partial bomb load and bomb bay tanks. By flying a very loose formation (to avoid frequent throttle changes) and letting their altitude vary AND by carefully leaning the mixture (fuel management), they were able to fly a total of 22 hours! Of course they had to be pried out of the cockpit they were so stiff after that flight. |
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The contents of this website are copyright © 1998 - 2007 by MiGMan |
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The contents of this website are copyright © 1998 - 2007 by MiGMan |
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