What went wrong with this B24?

Liberators, especially when heavily laden with fuel and bombs, had a tendancy for the fuselage to fracture at a point just in front of the mainplane, at the upper turret aperture, usually triggered by nose undercarriage problems or running into soft ground. It often only resulted in a fractured fuselage but sometimes depending on speed, weight and nature of the surface the whole front fuselage could be crushed, as in the picture.
I have seen photo,s of trials by Consolidated to come up with a fix which meant simulating the failure by pulling on the fuselage with cables but I think nothing was done to resolve it.
This was one major benefit the B17, with its low wing and exposed main whhels, had over the B24, which was also very bad in a belly landing when the fuselage again would collapse under the weight of the wing. And to top it all it didnt behave well in a ditching, depite its flying boat hull appearance.
I have always loved the Liberator in preference to the B17 but its easy to have that view now, I bet the people who flew them in anger had other thoughts. Very brave men.

This was a takeoff crash in Italy, involving a 15th AF B-24M; six crew were killed. I remember the pic in a magazine feature years ago with part of the caption reading “…the stance of the bomb-laden aircraft is truly remarkable”. Not only was the accident on takeoff…the ill-fated Lib was loaded with ordnance. Six crew killed, yet the Lib did not explode; presumably the tail gunner survived, bit of a miracle. A vivid example of how ironic war can get…

S.

Look at the flaps, they appear to be lowered, (partially of fully?) supporting either a takeoff or landing crash rather than a mid-flight crash. Alos as Docstirling says the men have no legs, the ground is lower where they stand than the a/c came to rest, its hit an incline, dyke or ditch of some form!

There seems to be a prop blade on the nearest engine to the photographer.

I would imagine that if it had nose dived in from the air the wings would have been torned off ( and the engines almost for sure), on the other hand, if it didn’t, why is the nose then so damaged. Can’t see the props very clearly, are the bent? Never seen anything like this. Salu2 Art

The picture apears in”Bent and Battered wings”Vol 2 By L Davis.The description under the photo states”This 455TH b/g b-24m went striaght in,killing all on board.The mission
was to Ploesti oil complex in Romania , H

Aha thought i read somewhere it ‘went in’. But did it, or did it nose over ? :confused:

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I would have thought a nose leg failure on either landing or take off (could be on returning from the oil field mission), it appears to be in a ditch, or else one side of a bank; I cannot imagine it would be in that condition if it fell out of the sky.

Perhaps someonme could ID the unit

15th AF, 304th Bomb Wing?

Moggy

The picture apears in”Bent and Battered wings”Vol 2 By L Davis.The description under the photo states”This 455TH b/g b-24m went striaght in,killing all on board.The mission
was to Ploesti oil complex in Romania , H

The men off to the left of the picture appear to be resting on something – the others appear leg-less! I think the plane hit a ditch or dyke and flipped onto its nose.

DS

Perhaps someonme could ID the unit (and then a googling we will go). The multi-coloured tailplane and diamond on the tail and so on should give more than hint to someone in the know?

I remember reading about this picture, or one very similar, that the pilot touched the brakes accidentally approaching take off speed. There were no front end survivors.

Steve

Looks like a spectacular nose-over, wheels most likely struck a ditch or sank into soft ground and the momentum at the time sent the rear fuselage soaring until it reached the vertical and…. nothing.

I seem to recall it crashed in that attitude with no survivors. Frankly i’m amazed whenever i see it as most aircraft either explode and/or leave a big hole & fragments

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