Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

In any war or conflict there is always the last to die.
Hopefully this link will open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ADhpzue7c

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Black Cat was a Consolidated B-24J-1-FO Liberator[note 1] aircraft and the last American bomber to be shot down over Germany in World War II.[2] It was one of thousands of B-24s produced by the Ford Motor Company at its Willow Run production plant.
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Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

There were likely a some B-29 aircraft shot down after VE day but that was in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

My Pop was on some runs to Regensburg and they always came back with more holes in the airplanes than they left with. They had flak batteries all over the place as well as German fighter defenses. The Bf-109 was produced there but there were all sorts of other factories and an oil storage facility.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Me-109?

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Bayerische Flugzeugwerk (Bavarian Airplane Factory) became Messerschmitt AG soon after the war began. (Hitler seemed to like rewarding successful manufacturers).

Just like later versions of the "Long Nose" FW190 "D" series (Focke-Wulf) became the TA152, named for the designer, Kurt Tank.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

The Messerschmitt BF-109 ( BF is for Bayerische Flugzeugwerke) was the official designation for the 109. But ME for Messerschmitt was a common unofficial designation.
Willy Messerschmitt (ME), designed it. Bayerische Flugzeugwerke manufactured it.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

My Father had pictures of a German Airfield from the War. In one of the hangers was a German Jet ,the ME-262

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

My dad was a B-17 pilot in England at the end of the war and in his mission diary he mentions "saw a couple jets, but they didn't do any damage" over Germany. His last four missions were Chowhound, dropping food over Belgium to the civilians who were starving.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Pop was more worried about the FW-190s. They saw more of them than any other type but they had better top cover from the P-51s later in the war. The gunners in the crew had plenty of targets to shoot at. Pop's crew lost a tail gunner due to a 190 assault. They got paybacks on a run to Berlin. Their unit got a Presidential Unit Citation for that one.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

very interesting post about the war time events

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Yes, interesting post. I love WWII History.

One thing that always bothered me was, we never had a GOOD tank that could take on the superior German tanks until the very end of the war when they finally got the M26 Pershing Heavy tank overseas. The US just kept cranking out medium and light weight Sherman and Stuart tanks in volume. The idea was quantity not quality. The Sherman was nicknamed the 'Purple Heart Box' by tank crews. German 88's flew thru that tank like a hot knife cutting through butter.

Travel anywhere in the Ardennes today and most of the town squares have a shelled out Sherman on display in the town square, as a tribute to the American Army, but gheez:eek::eek:

On a different note, we had a cousin who was an Me109 pilot in a night fighter squadron that got the Iron Cross with Oak Leave cluster for downing 10 heavy British and American bombers. He flew the Me262 at the end of the war, was captured by the British, and remained in the German Luftwaffe after the War teaching Brits and Americans about the new jet fighter aircraft. Interesting fellow!

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

It was mostly about logistics. Big heavy stuff was a lot harder to field in quantity. The late M4A3E8 Sherman had the big Ford GAA V8 and the high velocity 76mm gun. The M26 had the big 90mm but it had the same Ford GAA V8 so it was slower and under powered. The big Tiger had the same problem.

Allied air capability like the B-24 was limiting how fast the big Tiger could be produced and if it got caught out in the open, the P-47s would dispatch it pretty quick. Tank warfare isn't always about tank on tank battle. It's more about support for ground troops. The big tanks are good to have but it adds logistical problems.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Every so often I try to read a book that ISN'T about WW2 and it just doesn't keep my interest. At least everyone in my family knows what to get me for birthdays or Christmas. It was just soooo GD important to win! And it was REAL.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

me too, ww2 nut

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Me three . . . seems about all I watch are some of the various documentaries about WWII. There are some really excellent and historically accurate (for the most part) movies being put out in the last 20 years.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

If one likes to read WW2 books there are many available on Amazon Kindle. Most of the ones I like were written in the 40's and 50's. Many on the Pacific and about all branches of the military.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Can't decide if I like WWII or not......

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Its a wonder I made it thru high school, had to watch "World At War" every night. I think it came on about 11 o'clock, PBS, all black and white old footage. The narrator was great, Lawrence Olivia ? I forget, but there are hundreds of episodes, I'm sure Ive seen them all many times, and could sit thru them all again

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

Me too, with all of you. I was already a lifetime addict, reading all the books I could find...And of those old black and white footage. My dad would always point out in the TV version of '12 O' clock high' when there was dubbed in actual film footage.....Years later when someone gave me Browkaw's 'Greatest Generation' and when he talked of those guys growing up in the Great Depression and then as if that wasn't tough enough, being called upon to throw themselves into Hell's fury to free the world from tyranny....Today when we fly in a gleaming modern jetliner we will worry and fret when we get some turbulence, or God save us, an engine malfunction and have to double back on three (that makes the world news). What if the entire time it was -40 degrees and the plane was a patched up wreck designed 35 years after the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk and a determined enemy was trying with all they had in them (a lot) to blow you outa the sky? Ok you guys got me going and it's bed time on the second highest mountain on Orcas Island. Sorry about the long rant.

Re: Ford built last bomber shot down in WWII
 

One of the last, if not the last B-29s, the "Tinny Anne", flying off of Tinian Island, was shot down on May 29th, 1945. I have a friend whose uncle, was on that plane. They were laying mines in one of the Japanese harbors. It was piloted by Stanley Black. His uncle was Charles Ebert Siddens, Central Firearms Controller. Three months later, August 6th, 1945, the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Japanese surrendered September 2nd, 1945.