soc.history.war.world-war-ii

On Mar 28, 9:10 pm, Rich Rostrom wrote:
> WaltBJ wrote:
> >And the B24D was coming off the line in
> >1941 and it had better range than the B17F.
>
> The B-24D appeared in early 1943. However,
> earlier models of B-24 were in service in
> 1942, and they too had plenty of range.
>
> SNIP:
The B24D was in production in 1941. In June 1942 twenty three B24Ds
were deployed to the Middle East as the Halverson Detachment.
originally intended for China to hit Japan, they were kept in the
Middle East. They made a high altitude raid on Ploesti on June 11/12
1942. My point here is that the B24Ds had to be accepted by the Air
Corps and the aircrews and mechs brought up to combat readiness before
deployment. That takes time. (BT, DT.) Thus they had to come off the
assembly line quite some time before June 42. My sources, William
Green's books, state that B24D production began in 1941. QED.
Walt BJ