vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
The Reluctant Raiders – The Story of United States Navy Bombing Squadron VB/VPB-109 in World War II
By Alan C. Carey
Schiffer Military History – 1999
ISBN 978-0764307577
Another one of the war's unknown Squadron who's achievements have not gotten the credit they deserve, this is the story about the USN's VB-109 (flying the PB4Y-1 Liberator: Navy B-24) later renamed VPB-109 (flying PB4Y-2 Privateers). The unit was commission in August 1943 and served until August 24th, 1945 in Okinawa.
The book is 237 pages long, divided into 15 Chapters, 13 Appendix's including the list of names of those who were killed in action, listing of kills – both air and sea, and even the list of Ground Personnel and 30+ pictures.
They were one of the first users to launch the "Bat" (an American Air-to-Ground Missile) during the war, though not with a lot of success. One really interesting thing I did not know was the tear drop waist guns on the Privateer were actually ball turrets with bullet proof glass and armor. I always thought they were just waist mounted twin machine guns.
In the 61 days of operations towards the end of the war, VB-109 destroyed 6 enemy aircraft in the air (1 on the ground), destroyed 118 ships while damaging another 86. They also flew 46 strikes against land installations. A number of missions were flown at 50ft. Not too bad for only 15 aircraft!
I give it a solid 9 x 1,000 pounders.
By Alan C. Carey
Schiffer Military History – 1999
ISBN 978-0764307577
Another one of the war's unknown Squadron who's achievements have not gotten the credit they deserve, this is the story about the USN's VB-109 (flying the PB4Y-1 Liberator: Navy B-24) later renamed VPB-109 (flying PB4Y-2 Privateers). The unit was commission in August 1943 and served until August 24th, 1945 in Okinawa.
The book is 237 pages long, divided into 15 Chapters, 13 Appendix's including the list of names of those who were killed in action, listing of kills – both air and sea, and even the list of Ground Personnel and 30+ pictures.
They were one of the first users to launch the "Bat" (an American Air-to-Ground Missile) during the war, though not with a lot of success. One really interesting thing I did not know was the tear drop waist guns on the Privateer were actually ball turrets with bullet proof glass and armor. I always thought they were just waist mounted twin machine guns.
In the 61 days of operations towards the end of the war, VB-109 destroyed 6 enemy aircraft in the air (1 on the ground), destroyed 118 ships while damaging another 86. They also flew 46 strikes against land installations. A number of missions were flown at 50ft. Not too bad for only 15 aircraft!
I give it a solid 9 x 1,000 pounders.
