Ford B-24M 44-50838 blown in half by an Me 262, 4 April 1945. (U.S. Air Force)
4 April 1945: 0928 at 51°31′ N., 10°18′ E, east of Hamburg, Germany, a Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1 Schwalbe twin-engine jet fighter shot down this B-24 with an R4M rocket.¹
The four-engine bomber was a Ford B-24M-10-FO Liberator, serial number 44-50838—a very long range heavy bomber assigned to the 714th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 448th Bombardment Group (Heavy), and based at RAF Seething (USAAF Station 146), Norwich, England.
No parachutes were seen.²
Germany surrendered 31 days after this photograph was taken.
Lieutenant Robert L. Mains’ crew during combat training. Standing, left to right: Corporal Charles H. Daman, Nose Gunner; Corporal Charles E. Cupp, Jr., Radio Operator; George S. Alexander, Top Turret Gunner; (unknown); Antonio Munoz, Jr., and (unknown). Kneeling, (Unknown); 1st Lieutenant Robert L. Mains, Aircraft Commander; 1st Lieutenant Allen L. Lake, Navigator; and (Unknown). Daman, Cupp, Alexander, Lake and Mains were aboard 44-50838 when it was shot down. (American Air Museum in Britain)1st Lieutenant Robert L. Mains, aircraft commander of B-24M 44-50838, was killed in action, 4 April 1945. His remains, identified by DNA and physical evidence, were returned to the United States in October 2017, and interred at Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, New York. (Department of Defense)Oberleutnant Rudolf Rademacher (1913–1953)
¹ Ford B-24M-10-FO Liberator 44-50838 was shot down with an R4M rocket fired from a Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1 twin-engine jet fighter, flown by Oberleutnant Rudolf Rademacher of Gruppe II, Jagdgeschwader 7 (11./JG 7), based at Parchim, Germany. Rudi Rademacher was a veteran of more than 500 combat missions, credited with at least 97 victories (and as many as 126), including 16 four-engine heavy bombers.
² TDiA has been informed by his grandaughter that Radio Operator, Technical Sergeant Charles E. Cupp, Jr., did survive. He was able to escape from the doomed bomber through its bomb bay. He was captured and held as a Prisoner of War.
Flight crew of “Lady Be Good,” from the left: 1st Lieutenant William Joseph Hatton, pilot; 2nd Lieutenant Robert F. Toner, copilot; 2nd Lieutenant Dp Hays, navigator; 2nd Lieutenant John S. Woravka, bombardier; Technical Sergeant Harold J. Ripslinger, engineer; Technical Sergeant Robert E. LaMotte, radio operator; Staff Sergeant Guy E. Shelly, gunner; Staff Sergeant Vernon L. Moore, gunner; and Staff Sergeant Samuel E. Adams, gunner. (U.S. Air Force)
4 April 1943: A brand-new crew with a brand-new airplane, assigned to the 514th Bombardment Squadron, 376th Bombardment Group, Ninth Air Force, departed Soluch Field (now, Benina International Airport) on their first combat mission, a night attack on Naples, Italy. First Lieutenant William J. Hatton, U.S. Army Air Corps, and his crew of eight men were flying Lady Be Good,¹ a Consolidated B-24D-25-CO Liberator long-range heavy bomber, serial number 41-24301. They would never be seen alive again.
High winds and poor visibility broke up the 25-plane formation, and eventually only two made it all the way to Naples, arriving over the city at about 7:50 p.m. Bad weather made bombing difficult, so the B-24s dropped their bombs into the Mediterranean Sea and started home. By this time, Lieutenant Hatton and his men were alone.
The flight crew became lost on the return flight and overflew their home base. They continued south into the darkness of the desert night. Eventually, the bomber began to run out of fuel. When two of the four engines stopped, the nine men bailed out into the darkness. The pilots had trimmed the bomber to fly with just two engines operating before abandoning their airplane. The B-24 continued south on its own.
The B-24 Liberator “Lady Be Good” was found near the southern edge of the crescent-shaped feature at the center of this satellite image, just west of the Libya/Egypt border. (Google Images)
Fifteen years later, an oil exploration team discovered the wreckage of 41-24301 in the Calanscio Sand Sea (سرير كلنسيو الرملي الكبير, Kalanshiyū ar Ramlī al Kabīr, Sarīr) of the Libyan Sahara Desert. The Lady Be Good had come to earth 440 miles (708 kilometers) south of its base at Soluch. (N. 26°42’45.7″, E. 24°01’27”)
Consolidated B-24D-25-CO Liberator 41-24301, in the Calanscio Sand Sea. (U.S. Air Force)The wreck of the Consolidated B-24D-CO Liberator 41-24301, “Lady Be Good,” 1958. (U.S. Air Force)Consolidated B-24D-CO Liberator 41-24301, “Lady Be Good.” (U.S. Air Force)
The wreckage of Lady Be Good is stored at Gamal Abdul El Nasser Air Base, Libya.
Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) 15566. (American Air Museum in Britain/National Archives and Records Administration)
The Consolidated B-24D Liberator was a four-engine long-range heavy bomber. It had a high “shoulder-mounted” wing, twin vertical fin/rudders, and retractable landing gear. The bomber was operated by a flight crew of two pilots, bombardier, navigator, radio operator, flight engineer and four gunners. It was 66 feet, 4 inches (20.218 meters) long, with a wingspan of 110 feet, 0 inches (33.528 meters), and overall height of 17 feet, 11 inches (5.461 meters). The airplane had an empty weight of 32,605 pounds (14,789 kilograms), and maximum takeoff weight of 64,000 pounds (29,030 kilograms).
This Consolidated B-24 Liberator, B-24D-5-CO 41-23819, is similar to the Lady Be Good. (U.S. Air Force)
The B-24D was powered by four air-cooled, turbosupercharged, 1,829.389-cubic-inch-displacement (29.978 liters) Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp TSC4-G (R-1830-43) two-row, fourteen-cylinder radial engines. The R-1830-43 had a compression ratio of 6.7:1 and required 100-octane aviation gasoline. The turbocharger was limited to 21,300 r.p.m. The engine’s Normal Power rating was 1,040 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m. at Sea Level, and 1,100 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m. from 6,200 to 25,000 feet (1,890 –7,620 meters). Takeoff Power was 1,200 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. This was also its Military Power rating, which it could maintain to 23,400 feet (7,132 meters). The R-1830-43 drove three-bladed Hamilton Standard constant-speed, full-feathering propellers through a 16:9 gear reduction. The engine was 3 feet, 10.56 inches (1.183 meters) in diameter, 5 feet, 2.59 inches (1.590 meters) long and weighed 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms).
The B-24D had a maximum true airspeed of 307 miles per hour (494 kilometers per hour) at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) with Military Power. The service ceiling was 34,000 feet (10,363 meters) when lightly loaded, and it could reach that altitude in 40 minutes, 6 seconds. Its maximum range was 2,380 miles (3,830 kilometers) at 210 miles per hour (338 kilometers per hour).
Various combinations of Browning AN-M2 .50-caliber machine guns were installed for defense. The standard arrangement was 1 in the nose, 2 in a power-operated dorsal turret, two at the waist, 1 in a ventral position and 2 in the tail turret. (In later models, a ball turret similar to that of the B-17, replaced the ventral gun.)
The B-24D could carry eight 1,100 pound (499 kilogram) bombs in the bomb bay, or one 4,000 pound (1,814 kilogram) bomb in an external rack under each wing.
The B-24 was the most produced bomber in history, with a total of 18,482 airplanes built by Consolidated at San Diego, California, and Fort Worth, Texas; North American at Dallas, Texas; Douglas at Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Ford at Willow Run, Michigan. 2,378 of these were B-24Ds. Ford built 6,972 B-24s, and produced kits for another 1,893 to be assembled by the other manufacturers.
This Consolidated B-24D-160-CO Liberator, 42-72843, “Strawberry Bitch,” at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, painted in desert camouflage, is very similar in appearance to the “Lady be Good.”
¹ “Lady Be Good” was a 1941 movie musical, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which starred Eleanor Powell. It featured a George and Ira Gershwin song from their 1924 Broadway musical, “Oh, Lady Be Good.”
4 April 1942: U.S. Navy non-rigid airship L-8 delivers spare parts for Doolittle’s B-25 bombers to USS Hornet (CV-8), Somewhere in the Pacific. L-8 was the former Goodyear commercial blimp, Ranger. The pilot was Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody, U.S.N. (U.S. Navy)
Chief Test Pilot H. Lloyd Child (left, wearing goggles and flight suit) and Herbert O. Fisher, Chief Production Test Pilot, look at a Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk. (Dmitri Kessel, LIFE Magazine)
4 April 1940: Curtiss-Wright’s Chief Test Pilot H. Lloyd Child took the first production P-40 Warhawk into the air for the first time at Buffalo, New York. The airplane carried the company serial number 13033, and had been assigned Air Corps serial number 39-156.
Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk 39-156. (U.S. Air Force)
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation Hawk 81 (P-40 Warhawk) was a single-seat, single-engine pursuit. It was a low-wing monoplane with an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear (including the tail wheel). The airplane was of all-metal construction and used flush riveting to reduce aerodynamic drag. Extensive wind tunnel testing at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory refined the airplane’s design, resulting in a significantly increased top speed.
Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk 39-156. (U.S. Air Force)
The new fighter was 31 feet, 8-9/16 inches (9.666 meters) long with a wingspan of 37 feet, 3½ inches (11.366 meters) and overall height of 9 feet, 7 inches (2.921 meters). The P-40’s empty weight was 5,376 pounds (2,438.5 kilograms) and gross weight was 6,787 pounds (3,078.5 kilograms).
Curtiss-Wright Model 81, P-40 Warhawk 39-156. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archive)
The P-40 was powered by a liquid-cooled, supercharged, 1,710.597-cubic-inch-displacement (28.032 liter) Allison Engineering Co. V-1710-C15 (V-1710-33), a single overhead cam (SOHC) 60° V-12 engine with a compression ratio of 6.65:1. The V-1710-33 had a continuous power rating of 930 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. at 12,800 feet (3,901 meters), and 1,040 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m. for takeoff, burning 100-octane gasoline. It turned a three-bladed Curtiss Electric constant-speed propeller through a 2:1 gear reduction. The V-1710-33 was 8 feet, 2.54 inches (2.503 meters) long, 3 feet, 5.88 inches (1.064 meters) high, and 2 feet, 5.29 inches (0.744 meters) wide. It weighed 1,340 pounds (607.8 kilograms).
Allison Engineering Co. V-1710-33 V-12 aircraft engine at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. (NASM)
The cruising speed of the P-40 was 272 miles per hour (438 kilometers per hour) and the maximum speed was 357 miles per hour (575 kilometers per hour) at 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). The Warhawk had a service ceiling of 30,600 feet (9,327 meters) and the absolute ceiling was 31,600 feet (9,632 meters). The range was 950 miles (1,529 kilometers) at 250 miles per hour (402 kilometers per hour).
Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk 39-156.
The fighter (at the time, the Air Corps designated this type as a “pursuit”) was armed with two air-cooled Browning AN-M2.50-caliber machine guns on the engine cowl, synchronized to fire through the propeller arc, with 380 rounds of ammunition per gun. Provisions were included for one Browning M2 .30-caliber aircraft machine gun in each wing, with 500 rounds per gun.
Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk #247. (Dmitri Kessel, LIFE Magazine)
On 26 April 1939, the U.S. Army Air Corps ordered 524 P-40 Warhawks, the largest single aircraft order up to that time. Only 200 of these aircraft were produced in the P-40 configuration. The Army deferred its order to allow Curtiss-Wright to produce Hawk 81A fighters for France, however that nation fell to enemy forces before any could be delivered. 140 of these French contract fighters were taken over by Britain’s Royal Air Force, which designated them as the Tomahawk Mk.I. Another 16 P-40s were delivered to the Soviet Air Force, having been purchased with gold.
Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk #247. (Dmitri Kessel, LIFE Magazine)
The 8th Pursuit Group at Langley Field, Virginia, was the first Army Air Corps unit to be equipped with the P-40.
Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawks of the 8th Pursuit Group at Langley Field, Virginia, 1940.
On 30 May 1942, P-40 39-156 was being flown by 2nd Lieutenant Leon Marcel Zele, 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, based at Morris Field, North Carolina. At approximately 11:00 a.m., the P-40 crashed near Iron Station, North Carolina. Lieutenant Zele was killed when the airplane exploded.
Chief Test Pilot H. Lloyd Child in the cockpit of a Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk, circa 1940. (Rudy Arnold Collection/NASM)
Henry Lloyd Child was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 25 May 1904, the second of two children of Edward Taggart Child, a consulting engineer in shipbuilding, and Lillian Rushmore Cornell Child. He was baptised at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, Pennsylvania, 22 December 1913. Child graduated from Flushing High School in Flushing, New York, then attended the Haverford School in Philadelphia.
Henry Lloyd Child, 1926. (The Class Record)
“Skipper” Child majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Hexagon Senior Engineering Society and the Phi Sigma Kappa (ΦΣΚ) and Sigma Tau (ΣΤ) fraternities. He was a member of the varsity and all-state soccer team (left halfback), and also played football and tennis. Child graduated with a bachelor of science degree, 15 June 1926.
After graduation from college, Child went to work for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation as a engineer.
Child joined the United States Navy, 23 November 1927. He was trained as a pilot at Naval Air Station Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia, and was commissioned as an Ensign. He was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade), 7 November 1932, and to lieutenant, 11 November 1935.
While maintaining his commission in the Navy, Child returned to Curtiss-Wright as a test pilot. He made the first flight of the P-36 Hawk.
Mr. And Mrs. Henry Lloyd Child (née Allene Anne Gausby), 28 October 1939.
Henry Lloyd Child married Miss Allene Ann Gausby of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 28 October 1939. They had met in July 1938, while playing in a tennis tournament at Muskoka, Northern Ontario. They would have a daughter, Beverley L. Child.
Miss Allene Ann Gausby
Child became famous as the “World’s Fastest Human” when he put a Hawk 75A demonstrator into a vertical dive from 22,000 feet (6,706 meters) over Buffalo Airport, 24 January 1939. It was believed at the time that he had reached a speed in excess of 575 miles per hour (925 kilometers per hour). A contemporary news report said that the needle of the recording instrument had gone off the edge of the graph paper, and that the actual speed may have been faster than 600 miles per hour (966 kilometers per hour).
H. Lloyd Child’s high speed dive was the subject of an 8-page article in True Comics #6, November 1941. (Parents’ Magazine Press)
H. Lloyd Child worked for Lockheed from 1958 to 1968, when he retired. He died at Palmdale, California, 5 August 1970 at the age of 66 years.
H. Lloyd Child, Curtiss-Wright Corporation chief test pilot. (Test and Research Pilots, Flight Test Engineers)
WASHINGTON, April 4. (AP)—Mrs Franklin D. Roosevelt presented to Jacqueline Cochran of New York today the Harmon trophy for the outstanding American aviatrix of 1937.
The trophy is awarded by the Ligue Internationale Des Aviateurs.
Miss Cochran broke the national women’s record for 1000 kilometers and on three occasions established new national records for the 100-kilometer distance in 1937. She also set a world’s record for women over a three-kilometer course.
—Los Angeles Times, Vol. LVII, Tuesday, 5 April 1938, Part I, Page 5, Columns 3–5
On 26 July 1937, Jackie Cochran set a United States Women’s National Speed Record ¹ of 203.895 miles per hour (328.137 kilometers per hour) over a 1,000 kilometer (621.4 mile) course between the Union Air Terminal at Burbank, California, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and return, flying a Beechcraft D17W “Staggerwing,” NX17081, serial number 136.
Beechcraft D17W Staggerwing, NC17081, c/n 136, National Speed Record holder, 203.895 mph (328.137 kph). This airplane is painted “Merrimac Diana Cream” with “Stearman Vermillion” striping outlined in black. (Beech Aircraft Corporation)
On 21 September 1937, Jackie Cochran flew the Seversky Aircraft Corporation SEV-S1, civil registration NR18Y, over a 3 kilometer course at Detroit Wayne County Airport, Romulus, Michigan, averaging 470.40 kilometers per hour (292.29 miles per hour). This was a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world speed record.²
Jackie Cochran in the cockpit of the Sikorsky Executive, NX18Y. Note the passenger windows below and behind the cockpit. (Unattributed)
This was the first of five Harmon Trophies which were awarded to Jackie Cochran.
¹ A check with the National Aeronautics Association on 25 February 2016 was unable to verify this record. —TDiA
