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Friday, October 22, 2010

1941: FORD MASS PRODUCES THE CONSOLIDATED B-24 LIBERATOR BOMBER

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/15654030/1604819366/name/bomber_plant.wmvhttp://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/15654030/1604819366/name/bomber_plant.wmv

Clicking on the link above will give an idea of just how efficient American industry was during WWII when we had to mobilize. The Ford Motor Company Willow Run assembly plant was turning out one of these huge bombers at the rate of one per minute! Thanks to my amateur radio buddy Bob Cherry (WB2F) who sent me this link,  I have saved this video and it will become an integral part of my "WWII" and "AIRCRAFT" folders. My brother Len flew 34 missions over Nazi Germany during WWII as a waist gunner/radio man in the U.S. Army 8th Air Force. He tells the story of the time they were on a bombing run over Dusseldorf and one of the bombs got hung up in the bomb bay door. He was ordered to dislodge it by holding on to the nearest rigid interior part of the aircraft while kicking on the bomb and trying to dislodge it. He did, and he still remembers looking way way down through the gaping bomb bay and thousands of feet of open air. A truly scary story.

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