B-24 Liberator. Consolidated

Dinky, 42-40325, a B-24D-50-CO from the 90th Bomb Group. (T/Sgt. M. H. Clay)

Three combat groups took the early B-24s to far-flung battlefields; the 90th Group went to the Southwest Pacific, the 93rd introduced the Liberator to the Eighth Air Force, and the 98th went to the Middle East. Sky Lady, a B-24D-15-CO, 41-24043, went to war with the 90th Group's 400th Squadron. (T/Sgt. M.H.Clay)

Lemon Drop, from the 44th Bomb Group, the Eight Balls. She survived all her missions and was "retired" to become the group's black and yellow striped assembly ship. (Ursell Harvell)

Lazy Lou, formating with the 93rd Group's 42-7655, was an original aircraft from the 446th Bomb Group. Her serial was 42-7609, and both were B-24H-1-FOs built at Willow Run. (USAF)

The 448th Bomb Group took their B-24s to England late in 1943. Lady From Bristol, a B-24H-5-FO serialled 42-52100, flew with the 714th Squadron. (Barry Gilkes)

On September 27, 1944 the 445th Bomb Group suffered the greatest loss of any Eighth Air Force unit in a single mission - twenty-five were shot out of the sky and five more crashed on landing. These two are from the 703rd Squadron, with B-24H-20-FO 42-94921 in the foreground. (Barry Gilkes)

Little Jo of the 713th Squadron, 448th Bomb Group. (USAF)

Sunshine was a B-24H with an offbeat story to tell. In April 1944 she landed at Venegono airport in Italy, and the Germans made a movie showing her "surrendering". The crewmen in American uniforms are Germans, but the undamaged aircraft made the whole stunt look convincing. Sunshine had belonged to the 716th Squadron of the 449th Bomb Group. (Bundesarchiv, Imperial War Museum)

The tiny Seventh Air Force's 11th Bomb Group gets ready to roll in May 1944. (Navy Department)

B-24J-175-CO 44-40723, flying with the 2nd Squadron of the 22nd Bomb Group, the Red Raiders. (Bill Miller)