Serial Number of B-24D, "WESTWARD-HO! JALDIJAO!" 7 BG

[kaki3152]

This is a long shot, but does anyone know the serial number of this particular B-24D, 7 BG in India?
There was a book, "Westward-Ho-Jaldijao: India to Junk" written about this B-24D's voyage by the Radio operator of this plane on its flight back from the Middle East to the USA. This voyage was also well described in the book "One Damn Thing After Another" by Tom Treanor, correspondent for the LA Times. HIs description of the airplane is noteworthy:

"She was the sorriest old ship in which I ever rode. ...[b]ut this old witch was so decrepit she belonged nowhere but the glue factory. She had been given to the Col to ride home . He'd (Gen Stratemeyer) given Col Necrason, the oldest Liberator in the theater, a poor old tired-out cranky thing which had worn out four sets of engines, had had two crackups and was...stalled twelve days in Algiers."

In the book, by the radio operator, Roy A. Whistle, he mentioned that the B-24 sat without flying for 8 months and the self sealing tanks were disintegrating before the trip back to US was started.

[kaki3152]

I found a possible candidate. B-24D, s/n 41-11631. 7 BG. According to Joe Baugher's list "W/O 16 July 1944 Homestead AAF. Surveyed Homestead ATC August 3,1944"

In Roy Whistle's book, she was surveyed after landing in Miami, Florida.

[Edward]

"Oklahoman Recalls Military Action"
The Oklahoman - Sunday, September 12, 2004
by Reba Neighbors Collins

"Roy Whistle of Oklahoma City covers many adventures in the 57 pages of "Westward-Ho Jaldijao: India to Junk (Redbird Press, $14.95).

As a flying radio operator/gunner and instructor, Whistle flew 46 missions in Consolidated B-24 bombers over Burma, China and Indochina during World War II. He became a radio operator in a Boeing B-17, then moved to the B-24. After the war, he went to Officers Candidate School, was commissioned an officer in 1948, spent two years in Japan during the Korean War, and the story goes on.

Urged to write about his military experience, Whistle decided to limit his story to World War II. He wrote it as he relived the 466 bombing missions in his mind on a 17,000-mile flight from India to the United States as a radio operator/gunner on a B-24. He divided his dangerous but exciting experiences into chapters as he recalled them on each leg of the trip home. The reader thus gets two adventures in one the trip home plus the scary missions in combat and the humor that keeps the men sane.

Along with the first-person narrative, the writer includes photos and maps of the areas. Full names, ranks and hometowns of his fellow servicemen are given as well as dates and details of military action.

Conversations between the author and the planes' pilots and crews give the book a "you are-there feeling as the bullets fly and planes go down. It's a valuable piece of history."
_____________________

"Bomber group recounts WWII sagas"
Veterans gather in Salt Lake for their national reunion
Deseret News - June 18, 2004
by Larry Weist

"Roy A. Whistle, 83, recently completed a book about his experiences with the 7th, "Westward-Ho-Jaldijao: India to Junk." The book recounts his crew taking a recovered B-24 and flying it from Pandaveswar, India, to Utah's Hill Fieldfor scrapping. The plane had been abandoned for nearly eight months and was in far worse shape than the crew realized until their 17,000-mile flight that took nearly four weeks to complete because of breakdowns. "Jaldijao" is a Hindu word meaning "hurry," Whistle said. "And we were in a hurry to get home." Whistle, of Midwest City, Okla., flew 46 combat missions in the CBI Theater."

[kaki3152]

I obtained this book through Interlibrary loan and read it. Good reading.

[Leendert]

Kaki,
What time period was this flight home?

B-24D 41-11631 was DBR after a landing accident at Homestead AAF on 16 Jul 1944. Was assigned to 564 BU.

Regards,
Leendert

[Leendert]

In Tom Treanor's story he says the B-24 was also known as 'SievCy' and/or "The Sniffer", with a dog sniffing at a firpelug.
Other crew included pilot Col Nick Necrason, co-pilot Dalene Bailey,
Sgt R. W. Baird, Captain James R. Barton, Lt. Herman Glick and Ser-
geants W. R. Ober and R. A, Whistle. Plus dachshund Roger.

Flight evidently before 18 Aug 1944, when Treanor was killed in France when his jeep was run over by a Sherman tank.

Regards,
Leendert

[RSwank]

Reading Treanor's book: https://archive.org/details/OneDamnT...ter&q=westward

I would guess the return was March or April or May, 1944. Certainly before the Normandy invasion.

[kaki3152]

There is a small amount of conjecture in the ID of 41-11631 as a possible serial number for the above mentioned Liberator. In the description of the B-24, it is mentioned that she was the oldest B-24 in the 7th BG. It also mentions that she had two accidents. I dug through the USAAF Overseas Accident Reports (https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/db.asp) and made a list of 7th BG B-24Ds that suffered accidents. Some of the ones mentioned were destroyed overseas. This particular serial number seemed appropriate since (1) It was an early model B-24D, with a FY41 serial number (2) It had served with the 7BG and suffered an accident in 1943 and (3) It survived long enough to be written off on July 18,1944 in Florida. I'm not completely sure this is correct but it is definitively possible.

[Leendert]

ID of s/n sounds plausible.
Return flight most likely during Feb. 1944. In an online publication "Military Orders of World Wars" it says that Felix R. Bailey of 9th BS, 7th BG, returned to the US in Feb. 1943 to become a B-24 instructor. However, he still flew bomber missions in October 1943 in the CBI (see online Voices of my Comrades by Carole Adele Kelly), so Feb. 1943 in first reference must be a typo.

Regards,
Leendert

[RSwank]

I think the return was in March, 1944. I started to look up some of the names of crew mention in Tranor's book. Here is an article about Barton which appeared March 20, 1944.


https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8820...-sun-bulletin/

Several articles about Necrason discussing conditions in Burma (he may have been interviewed in Washington D.C.) appear at the same time.

This article about Whistle mentions he returned in March 1944 (see bottom of first column).

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6067...and-joy-visit/