Under the terms of the Liberator Production Pool agreement, B-24G was the designation given to the version of the Liberator that was built by North American/Dallas as prime contractor.
The first B-24G rolled off the production line at Dallas in March of 1943. Initially, the B-24G was powered by R-1830-43 engines. The first 25 machines were designated B-24G-NT. They were quite similar to the Consolidated-built B-24D, but had no ventral armament.
In the meantime, the Ford-originated B-24H had been introduced on the production line at Willow Run, with components being delivered to Consolidated/Fort Worth and Douglas/Tulsa for final assembly. Based on information provided by Ford, the nose turret was also introduced on the North American/Dallas production line. However, this did not lead to a new series letter being introduced. Instead, a new production block (B-24G-1-NT) was started to designate the nose-turret-equipped North American-built Liberator. In addition, several other changes introduced by Ford on the B-24H were incorporated into the B-24G-1-DT.
The first B-24G-1-NT was delivered to the USAAF on November 3, 1943. With the nose turret installed, the B-24G was externally identical to the B-24H, and the two types could generally be distinguished only by examining their serial numbers. However, the B-24G-1-NT was initially somewhat heavier than the Ford-built B-24H and subsequently had a poorer performance, but this was soon corrected. Most B-24Gs were assigned to the Mediterranean Theatre with the 15th Air Force.
The B-24G with the nose turret had inward-opening nose landing gear doors only in the first two blocks (G-1 and G-5), and reverted to outward-opening gear doors for the remainder of the production run.
A ball ventral turret was introduced on the B-24G-10-NT production block. Also, R-1830-65 engines were introduced with this variant. The new engines increased the offensive load to 12,800 pounds of bombs.
A total of 430 B-24Gs were built. The last B-24G was delivered in June of 1944. After that, North American/Dallas switched over to the B-24J version, which was by that time the Liberator version being built by all the members of the production pool.
B-24G serial numbers:
42-78045/78069 North American B-24G-NT Liberator 42-78070/78074 North American B-24G-1-NT Liberator 42-78075/78145 North American B-24G-5-NT Liberator 42-78155/78314 North American B-24G-10-NT Liberator 42-78315/78352 North American B-24G-15-NT Liberator 42-78353/78474 North American B-24G-16-NT Liberator
Sources:
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Famous Bombers of the Second World War, William Green,
Doubleday, 1959.
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Liberator: America's Global Bomber, Alwyn T. Lloyd,
Pictorial Histories Publishing Co, Inc, 1993.
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B-24 Liberator in Action, Larry Davis, Squadron/Signal Publications
Inc, 1987.
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General Dynamics Aircraft and Their Predecesssors, John Wegg,
Naval Institute Press, 1990.
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Consolidated B-24D-M Liberator IN USAAF-RAF-RAAF-MLD-IAF-CzechAF
and CNAF Service, Ernest R. McDowell, Arco, 1970.
-
United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough
and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
-
American Combat Planes, 3rd Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner,
Doubleday, 1982.
- Jane's American Fighting Aircraft of the 20th Century, Michael J.H. Taylor, Mallard Press.
