Tuesday, May 7, 2024

English Consolidated Liberator on bombing run on Monfalcone, Italy, hit by dropped ordinance from above. March 16, 1945.

#1 - A stick of 1,000-lb bombs dropped by Liberator B Mark VI 'R-Roger' of No. 70 Squadron, about to hit another Liberator B Mark VI, KK320 'V-Victor' of No. 37 Squadron flying underneath, during a daylight raid on the shipbuilding yards at Monfalcone, Italy, 16 March 1945. KK320 lost the propeller from its port inner engine and suffered a large hole in the forward fuselage as a result of the strike.
#2 - Consolidated Liberator B Mark VI KK320 'V-Victor' of No. 37 Squadron turns for home after dropping its bombs on the shipbuilding yards at Monfalcone, Italy, during a daylight attack by aircraft of No. 205 Group, 16 March 1945. The aircraft lost the propeller from its port inner engine (seen here streaming oil) and suffered a large impact hole in the fuselage as a result of bombs from another Liberator - 'R-Roger' of No. 70 Squadron - striking it during the bombing run.
#3 - Its captain, Squadron Leader Lionel Saxby, managed to fly the aircraft safely back to its base at Tortorella Airfield, Italy.
Remarkably, there were no injuries to the crew.

(And because someone disputed me on another blog about the Liberator landing back at its base in Italy, which is the country they were bombing in, I include this information which can be found with just one search on Wikipedia. I would NOT recommend using the liberal search engine 'Wikipedia' for ANY political information. The political people who edit Wikipedia, who can be anydamnbody, tend to misinform, disinform, i.e. LIE.)

Tortorella Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield in Italy. It was located 9.4 kilometers east-northeast of Foggia, in the Province of Foggia. The airfield was abandoned and dismantled after the end of the war in 1945.
Tortorella Airfield was a temporary wartime facility built by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Construction was initiated shortly after Allied forces seized control of the Tavoliere plain around Foggia, Apulia, Italy.
The major tenant of the airfield was the 99th Bombardment Group, which arrived from Oudna Airfield, Tunisia on 11 December 1943. It was equipped with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. Tortorella was shared with 231 Wing (37 and 70 Squadrons) of No. 205 Group RAF. It was equipped with Vickers Wellington Mk.X, Consolidated Liberators, Short Stirlings and Avro Lancaster bombers. Tortorella was one of the few stations that the RAF was in a tenant status to the US Army Air Forces.

 

 

 

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