Customer Reviews

Liberator Album: B-24s of the 2nd Air Division USAAF

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I was pleasantly surprised when I read B-24 Album for the first time. I own most of the books listed in the authors' bibliography, and yet I found B-24 Album new and refreshing. Unlike other books that attempt to cover the entire career of the B-24, this one sticks to the subject, and does it well. The text is readable, and there's good information for modelers like myself. One thing I was surprised to learn, and I've seen it nowhere else, is that the bomb bay doors were painted a deep yellow-orange at the bottom to alert others that the bomb bay was open. I plan to include this feature in my next model. The photographs are, for the most part, good quality, and a great deal of detail can be seen. Most of the photographs I have not seen before. Also, the photos are keyed to particular aircraft by AAF serial number and nickname, if known, together with notations as to whether the ship survived the war, or if not, where it went down, or if it was involved in a non-combat accident. The colored profiles at the back of the book are of good quality. I recommend it.

The pictures of the 392nd BG are a good supplement to those posted in the 392nd BG web site, at www.b24.net.
The paintings of the aircraft are excellent and true to real pictures we have. Our father 1Lt Gordon Lee Hammond, Jr. piloted El Lobo and Short Snorter in the 392nd BG, 579th Squadron. A picture of Bronco Nagurski, 579th Squadron, however, is missing. Great job!

Time and again, aviation books fail to deliver - poor text, poor photographs (often due to poor paper quality) or derivative material.

This book by Mike Bailey is a striking exception. For this reviewer, a lot of the photographs were 'new'. This is indeed an album, relying more on the visual than the textual. Nevertheless, it contains exceptionally detailed captions.

For B-24 addicts, this is the best book since Steve Birdsall's 1968 ouevre and comprehensively improves on that now dated work.

Several pages of fine, accurate coloured drawings, most in profile, complement the offering.

This book informs and engages the reader. Highly recommended.