William McCain and Blue Streak

Our crew put 32 missions on #71 - most missions on 71 by one crew.

We loved it because it was as fast on 3 engines as the others on four. It was lighter, I forgot by how many pounds. It had twin fixed 50 caliber guns in the nose with sight and trigger on the wheel for the Pilot. There were 3 ships like that but don't know the two other numbers. If you look carefully at photo with repairman on the wing you can see the fixed 50 calibers.

Thanks for your letter of 12/22/90. There were three B-24's with twin forward fixed 50's - #71 and two others, but don't remember the numbers. They were early D's modified for submarine searches. The twin 50's were to allow the pilot to dive and fire at a sub if surfaced while dropping depth bombs. They were lighter than standard D's so had a longer range. I do not know where they were used for subs or if they were used for subs. We also had an LB-30 used for freight. LB-30's were built for the French but never delivered so Great Britain took delivery instead. Don't know how the 514th ended up with the LB-30.  It had no turbo chargers but instead two speed impellers and had electric props instead of hydraulic.