Strawberry Bitch

Strawberry Bitch, American B-24 Liberator bomber.
National Musuem of the USAF, Dayton, Ohio

While I was photographing this piece of WWII nose art one of the museum volunteers approached Jenne and I. He was a retired gentleman who spent a few days each week at the museum. He told us that he remembered the day that the Strawberry Bitch arrived at the museum and the young lady painted on the right side of the nose was naked. That's right, no clothes, only shoes and a smile. For public display clothes were painted on. I asked if he recalled if "cuffs and colar" matched (know what I mean? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge). He laughed and said yes. Now I have been doing some research into his story and looking for photos from WWII. I can find nothing to indicate that the young lady was ever naked. In fact the few WWII photos I found show her in the same outfit pictured above. It seems his story was apocryphal. However, it could be that after the war someone painted the clothes away and made her naked, and that the restoration returned her to her original dressed state.

One of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operation's (MTO) most famous B-24's was 'Strawberry Bitch'. She is on display at the NMUSAF in the camouflaged desert pink scheme applied to North Africa based Liberators in 1942-43. 'Strawberry Bitch' survived the legendary Ploesti Raid of August 1943. A combined Liberator force from the Ninth and Eighth Air Force left North Africa destined for the giant German refineries at Ploesti, dedicated to destroying as much of these as possible and handicapping the German ability to fuel its combat forces. Despite suffering heavy losses the mission was a massive success and inflicted vast amounts of damage on major portions of the oil fields. Of the one hundred and seventy nine Liberators that left forty three were lost and a further fourteen aborted. Five hundred and thirty two aviators lost their lives.

Here's the aircraft geek stuff from the National Musuem of the United States Airforce.

The B-24 was employed in operations in every combat theater during World War II. Because of its great range, it was particularly suited for such missions as the famous raid from North Africa against the oil industry at Ploesti, Rumania on August 1, 1943. This feature also made the airplane suitable for long over-water missions in the Pacific Theater. More than 18,000 Liberators were produced.

The B-24D on display flew combat missions from North Africa in 1943-44 with the 512th Bomb Squadron. It was flown to the U.S. Air Force Museum in May 1959. It is the same type airplane as the Lady Be Good, the world-famous B-24D which disappeared on a mission from North Africa in April 1943 and which was found in the Libyan Desert in May 1959.

SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 110 ft. 0 in.
Length: 66 ft. 4 in.
Height: 17 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 56,000 lbs. loaded
Armament: Eleven .50-cal. machine guns [nose, left & right cheek, top turret (2), ball turret (2), left and right waist and tail (2)] plus a normal maximum load of 8,000 lbs. of bombs
Engines: Four Pratt & Whitney R-1830s of 1,200 hp. ea.
Cost: $336,000
Serial Number: 42-72843

PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 303 mph.
Cruising speed: 175 mph.
Range: 2,850 miles
Service Ceiling: 28,000 ft.