THE B-24 LIBERATOR HEAVY BOMBER, THE SECOND WORLD WAR,
THE "ALL-AMERICAN," MY FATHER, AND
WHY YOU'RE READING THIS IN BLR

My father, the Good Major, was a B-24 tail gunner during World War II (European Theatre).  His skipper was Keith Schuyler, who later wrote a book about his missions titled Elusive Horizons (1967).

Schuyler's crew just prior to their fourth Berlin mission, outside a replacement B-24 called the "Banana Barge" (Front Row L-R): Dale Rauscher (navigator), John F. "Jack" Emerson (co-pilot), Schuyler (pilot), Jay "Larry" Davis (bombardier). (Back Row L-R): Walter Reichert (ball turret gunner), George Renfro (left waist gun), Bill Sanders (engineer/top turret guns), Leonard Rowland (radioman), Harry J. "Jim" Schow (tail gunner), George Cox (right waist gun).  2nd Photo:  Cox and Schow during a training mission in Casper, Wyoming.

Their tenth mission was the infamous Berlin bombing run, 29 April 1944, during which 63 out of 600 four-engine bombers were shot down or destroyed.  Schuyler had just lost a brand-new ship the previous day, in a runway crackup due to faulty landing gear.  His replacement ship, with my father in the tail turret, took heavy flak hits over Berlin and was finished off by Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf fighters in the skies near Brandenburg.  The crew bailed, then watched their ship blow all to hell while hanging in their chutes, dodging incoming fighters.  The airmen were captured by German farmers and billeted in Stalag 17-B in Krems, Austria for the remainder of the war.

See the actual mission papers!

Of nearly 20,000 Liberators built in America from June, 1943 to May, 1944, only one has been fully restored, at enormous expense, by the Collings Foundation, which regularly tours it in the company of a B-17 Flying Fort named the "909."  Originally dubbed the "All-American," in 1998 the Liberator was re-christened "The Dragon and His Tail," reconstructing the very racy nose and fuselage art from a like bomber of that name that went down in the war.

In 1992, DJS helped Keith Schuyler publish a new edition of Elusive Horizons with Avon Books.  It contained all the photographs of the original hardcover and paperback editions.

In 1997, DJS got to fly in the All-American, out of Burbank Airport.  A 45-minute tour at 1000 feet, banking over the Pacific Ocean at sunset, buzzing the runway at Burbank, and landing at night.  Not to sound too corny about it, but it really is exactly as the Foundation promises:  "the ride of a lifetime."

DJS wore his father's Caterpillar Club pin for the flight.  (The Caterpillar Club was an organization of Army Air Corps men who used parachutes.  The pin was a bronze "caterpillar" based on the silk winds of chute cord.  You got one with yellow eyes if you parachuted over friendly territory in peacetime, green for friendly territory in wartime, and red for jumping over hostile territory in wartime.)

DJS squeezes into the tail turret and stays there for most of the flight.

Liberators were the workhorse bombers that essentially won the war for the Allies.  Ungainly, yes they were, but their increased range and heavier bomb loads easily eclipsed the much sexier (and slower) B-17s.  The All-American/Dragon is probably one of the best-maintained aircraft in the world today, "updated" only with modern materials and navigational gear.  And the ride — it was like being in a flying Lincoln Continental, albeit a crowded one full of guns.

Fifty-calibers over Burbank:  Dave Johnson (who shot most of these images) mans the right waist gun.

You can see much better photos — tons of them — of the Collings Foundation aircraft collection and read details on bomber groups, missions, veterans, and personal reminiscences, all over the internet, until your eyes bleed.  If you're interested, you can start here, here, here, and here.

Why are you reading this in BLR?  Because going up in that Liberator is one of the coolest things ever, and if the Dragon and His Tail lands in your town, don't miss it.

— DJS