Aircraft History
Built by Consolidated at San Diego. Delivered to the U.S. Army. Ferried overseas to Australia.

Wartime History
Assigned to the 5th Air Force (5th AF), 90th Bombardment Group (90th BG) "Jolly Rogers", Bombardment Squadron unknown. No nose art or nickname is known.

Shortly after midnight on November 16, 1942 at Iron Range Airfield while taking off, B-24D "Bombs To Nip On" 41-23942 collided with this bomber and ripped off its nose. Damaged were B-24D 41-23765 and B-24D "Big Emma" 41-23751 (all later repaired). Destroyed was B-17F 41-24522.

Steve Birdsall adds:
"There's a bit of confusion about the date - the 90th [BG] was taking off shortly before midnight on November 16, according to my sources. The accident cost "three B-24s and one B-17, one gas dump and 12 men" according to one eyewitness, but there are quite a few variations on this."

Afterwards, it was flown to a repair depot and the nose was repaired and continued to fly combat missions from Australia and New Guinea.

On January 3, 1944 this B-24 crashed at Doboudura and was written off.

References
Some sources list this plane as landing on Quintel Beach near Iron Range on Nov 15, 1942, but these were B-24D "The Condor" 41-23718 and B-24D "Aincha Sorry" 41-23824
Oz@War - 16 November 1942 crash of a B-24 Liberator at Iron Range 4 aircraft destroyed 11 men killed (does not list this B-24)
Thanks to Steve Birdsall and Michael Claringbould for additional information

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Last Updated
January 29, 2023