The International B-24 Liberator Club is dedicated to preserving the history of the B-24 Liberator bomber and its derivatives. San Diego-based Consolidated Aircraft Company designed the Liberator in 1939 in response to the Army Air Corps' request for a bomber with a longer range than the B-17. The company produced over 18,000 of the twin-tailed aircraft for use during WWII at plants throughout the country including San Diego, California; Willow Run, Michigan and Ft. Worth, Texas.

The club keeps alive the memories of the Liberator and the Privateer, and has done so since its creation in 1968. Started by the late Robert McGuire, a former USN PB4Y-1 combat photographer, the club has defended the Liberator's reputation for over 40 years. Not considered the most attractive of WWII's flying arsenal, the Liberator nonetheless provided an incomparable service during the Second World War and the Korean conflict that followed. Many pilots and crewmen were disappointed when first assigned to fly the enormous bomber. Nicknamed the "flying barn," the B-24 was much larger and less graceful than the B-17. But after a successful mission or two, Liberator crewmembers almost always sang her praises.

According to former San Diego Aerospace Museum director Owen Clark, the Liberator was "a whale of a great plane. The B-17 was an old man's plane, but the B-24 took more strength to fly and was heavier as well as faster."

Former Secretary of the Treasury, US senator and squadron commander Lloyd Bentsen flew 35 missions in Liberators in the European theater. Actors Jimmy Stewart and Walter Matthau, former senator George McGovern and Joseph Kennedy, Jr. served on B-24s. With so many of the craft in the air during WWII, it wasn't difficult to find someone who was a Lib crewmember.

As the years roll on and we commemorate the 60th, 75th and even 100th anniversary of the end of WWII, the Liberator pilots, tail gunners and crew chiefs will be gone. This is reason enough for the International B-24 Liberator Club to exist. By providing a forum for former crewmen to tell their stories, the club preserves an important part of US history and aviation history as well.

For 40 years, the club sent Briefing, the B-24 Liberator Clubs publication, to its members around the world. The Briefing contained news stories about renovation projects and research efforts, articles submitted by B-24 veterans about missions and events during WWII, a calendar of upcoming crew reunions, air show schedules and cartoons. In addition, over a third of the publication was dedicated to letters from members and their families; letters seeking former flight buddies, telling tales from the war, remembering fallen friends, failed flights and phenomenal victories.

By publishing the Briefing and by sponsoring aircraft exhibits, flying displays and speaking engagements, the club educated the public about a historic aircraft whose first mission took place long before many of today's citizens were born. The new eMagazine, Bomber Legends, is now carrying on that mission.

The B-24 Liberator Club will remain a part of the new Bomber Legends organization. It is an archive of B-24 material from around the world. The collection contains many thousands of first-hand accounts and photographs, many never before published. A collection of over 500 books on the B-24 and PB4Y, many being personal accounts and stories. It houses thousands of letters sent in by veterans, and their families, on their experiences with the Liberator and Navy Privateer, as well as numerous personal collections and scrapbooks from B-24 veterans. The collection also includes thousands of files dedicated to the history of the B-24 and PB4Y and the units who flew them, collected over the past 40 years from its members around the world and numerous service manuals.

Bomber Legends is the caretaker of the B-24 Liberator Club, and uses the archives and material to help keep the memories and history of the B-24 and PB4Y alive. It is believed the club is the largest single archives dedicated to the B-24 and PB4Y in the world.

b24club@bomberlegends.com

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