B24 "shes Aces" Question

[Martin Edwards]

Another question recieved

dear sir/madam... i am trying to asertain the A72--- number of a B24 liberator that flew out of Cundinin with 23 sqn during WW2 ,,,there are only 2 remaining members of the crew left and they are air gunners Frank Bebbington, Victoria and Ray Pobar QLD ,, the aeroplane that they were in was named "SHES ACES" ,,,, if i can get the serial number then i can trace the history of this ship for these two friends of mine ,,,i do hope you can help me ,,,many thanks for reading this request ,,Graham .

[Silver Shield]

I know this is a really old post but you never know. Better late than never I guess!

I found this

https://library.avsim.net/search.php?Search...nMode=0&Page=27

It shows an image of the plane as well as the serial number being A72-152

This folder contains a repaint for the Consolidated B-24J by Flight Replicas, adapted for use in P3Dv5. It shows B-24L-5-CO (44-41518) A72-152 SJ-F "She's Aces" of No.25 (Perth) Squadron RAAF. The squadron was normally based in Caloundra, Western Australia, but usually operated from a secret base at Corunna Downs in the Pilbara, close to Marble Bar. Repaint by Jan Kees Blom, based on the paintkit by Flight Replicas.

[Shep]

Hi Silver Shield, welcome to the forum (often doubling as the Cone of Silence)!

Nice find and thanks for posting the link.

25SQN was based at Cunderdin (the sim webpage says Caloundra …).

A photo showing crew-members standing beside the left-hand side of the nose appears in Bob Livingstone, Strike Back! (2005) 59. It shows the nose art differing from the sim-rendering in some subtle ways: The writing was larger and positioned a little differently, the cards smaller.

A bit of operational history: A72-152 was a standby for CUN4 on 28MAR45, flew on CUN5 of 26APR as duty 5 (target: Malang Aerodrome), was supposed to have been duty2 on CUN7 of 29APR but was replaced by A72-154/SJ-E, then flew on CUN14/5 of 29JUN (Malang A/D again), CUN15/3 of 01JUL (Tadjoeng Perak), CUN20/5 22JUL (Semarang), CUN21/3 03AUG (Banjoewangi) and CUN22/3 05AUG (Banjoewangi). Post war it performed a POW evacuation from Labuan as CUN26/1 on 29DEC45.

The three-letter mission prefix is the abbreviation for Cunderdin so, “CUN4”, for example, would be spoken as, “Cunderdin 4”. You are correct in saying the operations were flown from Corunna Downs (near Marble Bar), which was used at that time by 25SQN as a FOB (Forward Operating Base).

This is the computer-rendered image from sim-outhouse.com



Attached Image

[Shep]

Here's the image from Bob Livingstone, Strike Back! (2005) 59

Attached Image

[Silver Shield]

Thanks Shep

I have that book and didn't think of looking in that!

There's heaps of information available these days that most things can be found one way or another

Regards

[batman]

Shep and SS

This is indeed the area to sort these things out. The Facebook area is a waste of space.

Good to see.

This post has been edited by batman on Feb 11 2024, 06:44 AM

[Shep]

Thank you (and SS). I agree. There should be a lot more of it here.

This post has been edited by Shep on Feb 11 2024, 11:53 AM

[Brenden S]

That is a nice post and awesome to find this. A shame Martin isn't still here to see what research was done.