by William J. Fili

After experiencing the whole winepress of World War II through the nose turret of a B-24 Liberator I could be expected to say that I heard it all and nothing new could come over the horizon to surprise me. Not so, I am continually being amazed at the tales of unbelievable acts of heroism by so many 18 and 19 year old men, some who hadn't even learned to shave the fuzz off their faces without cutting themselves. I know as I have the scars to prove it.

Many hours were spent in those Liberators, thirty-four missions before being shot down over Ploiesti, a POW for a while and surviving those torpedoes from German U boats in the Atlantic Ocean on the way home. My "Why's" of the stupidity of war were never answered. And I never gave any thoughts to how the B-24-D developed into B-24 G, H and J models with the nose turret.

The story I am about to relate came to me through the gallant veterans of the Royal Australian Air Force who are presently restoring a B-24-M named "Panelope II" in an old RAAF hanger on the Werribee Water Farm near Melbourne. This Liberator is destined for static display at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra, Australia. Mr. Bob Thompson, one of the leaders of this RAAF Restoration Group and a former Liberator Engineer/gunner in the RAAF had researched the events leading to the use of the Emerson Nose Turret in the Liberator. (Permission to publish was granted - Bill Fili).

The history of the modification of a B-24-D Liberator to use a nose turret had its origin in the United States but, oddly enough, it had no relationship to the Bombers designers and builders or the United States Army Air Corps as a whole. In the fall of 1942 the 90th Bomb Group startes it orientation of the B-24-D at Barkesdale Field, California.

The 90th was destined for service in the southwest Pacific. Since the 90th was one of the first Liberator groups formed the urgency of their mission was quite evident. To facilitate their training the entire organization was moved to the Ford Willow Run plant at Ypsilanti, Michigan to work and learn alongside the men and women who were building the Liberators.

During the training flights at Barkesdale Field an idea was bron in the mind of a young pilot, a quiet-speaking Southerner, Major Rogers who conceived the idea that a greater field of fire power could be achieved from the nose of the Liberator is a powered turret were installed. By flying in and around the Liberator, Rogers reasoned that this bomber was adequately proportioned to carry a turret in the nose instead of a single hand held .50 caliber browning machine gun. Rogers had to put his idea on the back burner because the training program at Barkesdale had become so intense, being scheduled on a twenty-four hour basis. Rogers had a second chance upon arrival at Willow Run in meeting with Edsel Ford who visited the Airmen to be sure they were being adequately accomodated and working cohesively with the civilian work force.

Rogers grasped the opportunity to bring his idea to the attention of Mr. Ford. Ford's immediate recognition of the idea was quite evident when he arranged for Rogers to meet with production engineering. Rogers' proposal was evaluated and married up with known flight characterisitics of the Liberator with favorable results. All evaluation costs were borne by the Ford Motor Company.

Before Rogers' proposal could be taken a step further, the war in the Pacific becoming more urgent, the 90th BG had to leave Willow Run for active duty in the Pacific and was staged through Hawaii. Rogers' idea had a lot of support from his superiors. The group operations officers Lt. Col. Marion Unruh was whole heartedly in favor of the project. But before leaving Hawaii Unruh was transfered to the new 7th Air Force based in Hawaii. Despite his transfer Unruh's enthusiasm for the nose turret project had not lessened and he went on to produce the first nose turreted Liberator. But as fate would have it the bomber had crashed on it's initial test flight. It was assumed that the continuous pounding of the .50 caliber guns caused structural damage to the extent that it was blamed for the liberator's destruction and the loss of lives.

When the 90th BG eventually arrived in December 1942 at it's Australian base, Iron Range in Northern Queensland, the demands of war were so hectic that any consideration of side issues or experiments were totally out of the question. In the early part of 1943 as the Allies began to gain the upper hand -- things became a little less demanding and Rogers begand resurrecting his idea. The CO Colonel Koon gave Rogers permission to journey to the Air Service Command at Eagle Farm Field in Brisbane, Queensland to discuss the nose turret proposal in detail. On his arrival Rogers was surprised and overwhelmed to find an old friend in the person of Brigadier General Carl Connell who commanded this great 5th Air Force Service and Maintenance Organization. General Connell was equally enthusiastic about Rogers proposal and arranged a meeting with General Kenney, Commanding General Allied Air Forces including the Royal Australian Air Force. Kenney listened intently and agreed to allow the idea to proceed and be tested.

The work involved the removal of the plexiglas nose housing from Liberator #41-23765 and the removal of a used Consolidated tail turret from a war weary damaged Lib. No problem was encountered and work began on the fabrication without the benefit of engineering analysis or the use of skilled labor. All the necessary drafting was carried out by Rogers as was the cutting of the sheet alloy to house and support the new turret and a tubular assembly was welded and put in place as a base for the Consolidated Tail to Nose turret. It was indeed a rather crude piece of work considering the very high standards usually set up for airplane manufacturing. It proved capable of doing the job and to all who saw it for the first time remarked that it looked like it belonged there.

Rogers renamed his Liberator "CONNELL's SPECIAL" in recognition of his friend's co-operation and faith in the project and it flew in it's new form for the first time on March 3, 1943. The turret and the firing of the twin .50's performed beautifully with no adverse effects or structural stress and no change in the flying characteristics of the bomber In fact the turret turned out a surprising result in that the Liberator gained another 10 MPH in indicated air speed. This was the direct result of the additional turret weight in the nose lowering the Davis wing's angle of attack. In it's original configuration the B-24-D was notoriously tail heavy causing it to adopt a five degree nose up attitude in flight.

At this same time an additional modification was made involving the installation on twin hand held .50 Caliber Brownings. They were mounted on a circular ring in the bottom of the fuselage where later the Sperry Ball Turret would be located. It was accepted that the most vulnerable spots of the Liberators were the under belly and the nose, where most of the enemy fighters did attack.

After completing successful flight tests in Australia Rogers flew "CONNELL's SPECIAL" back to Port Moresby where it's new profile was the cause of much interest. All that was left was to test the new gun positions in combat to prove their ultimate worth.

For the purpose of this test a plan to send six liberators to attack the Japanese ultra strong air base at Wewak to deliberately invite Jap Zero attacks. This plan was quickly rejected --- the possibility of losing all the bombers and crews was too great. Rogers did not give up without a determined effort to test the new armament. His persistence was rewareded and, reluctantly, higher command gave permission for Rogers to fly his single bomber to Wewak and take his chances. The flight was airborne from Port Moresby on April 10, 1943. Going along for the ride as an observer was Colonel Koon.

Rogers had absolute faith and trust in his hand picked volunteer crew. Lt. Ben Bowden, co-pilot; Lt. Phil Conti, Navigaotr; Lt. George Dunmore, Bombardier; Sergeant Robert Soper, Engineer & Top Turret Gunner; Sergeant Stephens manned the Tail Turret. Sadly the name of the Gunner who manned the twin .50's in the belly was not recorded. Rogers ace in the nose was just that in Sergeant Harold Pierce, a veteran ace gunner with five Zero's to his credit.

The Jap Zero's, as expected, rose in force to meet them over Wewak attacking from the underside and the nose only to be sent down in a hail of fire. So surprised were the Jap pilots that they broke off the attack immediately before they were mauled or destroyed. (Four months later on August 17, 1943 General Kenney's B-25's destroyed more than two hundred and fifty Jap planes on the ground at Wewak).

Unknown by Major Rogers and his superiors a parallel program to increase the fire power of the B-17 and B-24 was being considered by the Air Material Command at Wright Patterson Air Base. A chin turret was high on the list of improvements but the bomber chin turret was still in it's development stage. The Liberator tail turrets both the Consolidated and Emerson types were proven and being produced in quantity.

As the result of several meetings at Wright Patterson that began on February 25, 1943 between representatives of the Armament Laboratory, Production Engineering, Aircraft Structures Laboratory, Eglin Field and the Directorate of Bombardment Brigadier General E.L. Eubank issued the following order on March 4,1943: "it was decided that the B-24 would receive priority for a nose turret and a chin turret would be more appropriate for the B-17. Since Consolidated could not supply two turrets for each Liberator it was further decided that Motor Products Company be converted to produce the Emerson Turret for nose installation and Consolidated continue producing the tail turret". Thirty six days later General Eubank was elated when informed about Major Rogers and his gallant volunteer crew's combat success with the nose turret operation.

A word of thanks has to be given to Major Rogers for it was his analytical thinking and determination the fire power of the Liberator caused the Japanese and the Luftwaffe pilots to rethink their tactics before attacking the Liberator. The initial testing of the nose and belly guns by Rogers and his volunteer crew greatly increased the chances of survival of many airmen in that two ocean war.

Aviation history cannot be changed for these facts are undeniable. B-24 Liberator's were flown by more men, carried more bombs faster and farther, destroyed more targets and fought more air battles than any other bomber in the history of aviation. Major Rogers' and his "CONNELL'S SPECIAL" is just another reason for returning the B-24 Liberator to it's rightful place in aviation history. Sadly, of the more than 18,000 Liberators that were built in the 1940's only three, 2 bombers and one LB-30 are known to be flying today.