Customer Reviews

Consolidated B-24 Liberator (Classic WWII Aviation)

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Though it never received the publicity of its better-known counterpart, the B-17, Consolidated's B-24 Liberator complied an enviable war record. More B-24s were built than Flying Fortresses, serving with a variety of Allied units around the world. The B-24's history is recounted in this book by author Edward Shacklady, volume 3 in the 'Classic WWII Aviation' series.

The Classic Aviation series aims at producing comprehensive histories of many of the well-known WWII aircraft, covering each aircraft's early development, production and operational use. Shacklady covers the B-24's service in broadbrush chapters, each chapter being illustrated with black and white photos. A center section contains 16 pages of color photos and artwork. Most of the artwork is 40 years old, being first seen in the Arco-Aircam series.

While Shacklady does recount the aircraft's history, the resulting book is a curiously bloodless volume with almost no mention of the actual people who designed, tested, maintained and flew the aircraft. The emphasis is entirely on the machine and not the men. If you're into nuts-and-bolts, this is a book for you; otherwise, this is an optional purchase.

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Books such as Martin Bowman's Crowood Press B-24 book and Frederick Johnsen's RUGGED BUT RIGHT book covered similar ground with much more interesting results. Also, check out Roger Freeman's B-24 LIBERATOR AT WAR for the human side of Lib operations.

I found this book to be very useful in its treatment of technical and performance aspects of the B-24; lots of photos and other good stuff.