Table Of Contents      Introduction      The 449th Bomb Group      The B-24 Liberator      The Planes of The 449th Bomb Group      Unnamed Aircraft      Acknowledgements      Glossary      Bibliography      Appendix A: The Named Planes of the 449th                           by Serial Number      Appendix A:  Some Explanatory Notes      Index

     The 449th Bomb Group completed training in the States, and -- with a total of sixty, new B-24H heavy bombers -- deployed in late 1943 to its wartime operating base in southern Italy. The Group went into action as part of the 15th Air Force on 8 January 1944. By the time the war in Europe ended in May of 1945, the 449th had flown 254 combat missions against Axis targets scattered all across central and eastern Europe.
     As planes were lost, they were replaced by new aircraft or by transfers from other bomb groups. The 449th lost 101 B-24s. Thus, over the course of 16 months of combat, more than 150 individual B-24s were assigned to the 449th.
     Forty years after the end of World War II, a small group of 449th veterans formed the 449th Bomb Group Association. One of the objectives of the Association was to provide a record of the experiences of the men who had been a part of the 449th during World War II. Over a period of years, the Association compiled an impressive array of nose art photographs and histories of the individual aircraft that had been assigned to the 449th over the course of the war.
     This complete collection, together with additional supplemental information, is presented in "Planes of the 449th." The planes are arranged alphabetically by the personalized name given the aircraft by the air and ground crews. The paragraph associated with each aircraft provides a brief history of that particular aircraft. This history includes the planes serial number, its combat (tail) number, date acquired into the 449th, and a description of the demise or final fate of the aircraft.Where photographs are available, they are also included.