Building The B-24 Bomber During WWII "Story of Willow Run"

[motto]

I have applied 24 Squadron RAAF markings to my 3/4 ton Dodge Command Car in memory of a long term friend who did a tour of duty as Flight Engineer on B24's mostly based at Fenton in the Northern Territory. (Australia).
On occasion he also flew with an American Bombardment Group. The Americans were short of some categories of air crew and he had a citation thanking him for his service with the USAAF.
For the significant part they played in service in the SW Pacific not much coverage is given the Liberators.
I remember him saying that at one point he was sent as part of a ferry crew to pick up a new B24 from Tocumwal. They were a little taken aback when they learned it was built by Ford. Not impressed by Ford products apparently and here they were expected to fly one into combat.
Lindsay was an interesting fellow to talk too as prior to retraining on B24's he had done a tour as F/E on Catalinas with No11 Squadron.

David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

As you can see I have merged all the threads on Ford's B24 bomber production posted over the years.

My contribution to this interesting topic is the picture below, showing that by size the B24 was the largest piece of war equipment manufactured by Ford. And Ford was the largest builder of B24's at 8,685 out of a total of approx. 18,500. Willow Run was the world's largest one-story war production plant, churning out an airplane every 63 minutes. Typical Ford manufacturing superlatives.

More superlatives: Ford used a special Twin V8 Tractor to haul 60-foot-long supertrailers, chock full of parts for the B-24 bomber.


Source: Ford Model Designations