Aerodata International No 1 "B-24 Liberator"

     Aerodata International's "Consolidated B-24 Liberator Early Models" (number 11). Published in 1979 and Witten by Philip J. R. Moyes. This book describes itself as a 20 page, self contained, monograph, A-4 sized booklet containing 1/72nd scale plans, colour artwork, sketches and large photographs with narrative and technical data. This is a reasonably accurate description. It is woefully thin at only 20 pages but the scale plans make up for it. The photo's are black and white and there aren't many of them for obvious reasons. These things pop up cheap on EBay every now and then so you should probably pick them up when you can as they are recommended for the plans. However they are dated and very thin. There are probably better value and more modern books out there so shop around first.

Ian Allan Publishing "The Soldier"

     Published by Ian Allan Publishing in 1994. Photographs by Dan Patterson, text by Paul Perkins and Michelle Crean. You get sixty-six pages in a very large format. This boasts many very large full luscious colour pictures of the sort you expect to see in wall calendars on the topic. This was Ian Allan's attempt at doing something a little different for the boring 'coffee-table format' by minimising the text and maximising the lovely colour photo's. They called it their "Living History Series" and they only did one other - "The Lady" devoted to the B-17 reviewed elsewhere in this section. This tries to be an evocative work with carefully staged scenes of actors dressed up as World War Two Pilots, Crew and Ground Crew. This is also useful for the model maker but you do wonder what the audience is for a work like this. It is all very 'pretty'. The internal colour photo's are glorious and useful but the books does kick-off with a brief history with a handful of black and white photo's. The books breaks down, from then on, by crew station. You have to remember that the aircraft shown is a restoration hence this work should be checked against other wartime sources & references. Apart from these criticisms I would recommend this for the model makers as you are unlikely to find better interior colour photo's of the Liberator.

Martin Bowman "B-24 Liberator 1939-45"

     Published by Patrick Stephens Limited in 1979 (this edition in 1989). Despite being republished in 1989 this has done nothing for this book as it remains firmly rooted in the 1970's. This is a 136 page work of stern research on the type giving you the wartime service history. As such this is not aimed at the model maker and is exceptionally dull unless you wish to research a particular campaign. The photo's are all black and white and quite large. However they are not printed on a glossy paper hence are not of the highest quality. There is no walkaround or scale plans. No colour artwork. Almost nothing to commend it to the model maker. However, there may be a handful of photo's of specific aircraft that may interest the occasional reader.

Edward Shacklady "Consolidated B-24 Liberator"

     Published by Cerberus Publishing in 2002. Edward is quite a prolific author on a variety of aviation subjects. This book offers 160 pages of mostly text and black and white photo's. There is a center section of colour pictures and side-view artworks covering 16 separately numbered pages. This appears to be added as an afterthought. However, if you pick this up cheaply off EBay for a fiver then these 16 pages are worth it as the rest is just padding for the modeller. Sure you get a complete cradle to grave type history with a few line drawings but there is little here not better covered elsewhere. A light-weight 'coffee table', stocking filler, but not really recommended.

Squadron/Signal "B-24 Liberator In Action"

     Published in 1975 for the sumly price of $4.95. Written by Steve Birdsall and illustrated by Don Greer. It consists of the type-typical 49 pages with colour covers and center section. Type development is tracked through various line drawings. There is very limited text so the black and white pictures tend to be extremely large - filling up entire pages. This is great but there are no detailed shots of the airframe inside or out. You always know what you are getting from the "In Action" series from the mid 1970's and this is it. Dull.

Warbirdtech "Consolidated B-24 Liberator"

     Published by Speciality Press Publishers and Wholesalers in 1996. Written by Frederick A. Johnsen. You get 100 pages to the "Warbirdtech" formula. So you only get a brief center section of just four pages of colour photo's and these aren't very useful. There are no scale plans or colour artworks. Instead you get non-glossy black and white photo's with a lot of cheap and cheerful line drawn diagrams. These diagrams turn the aircraft inside out so this is valuable for the super-detailer if you have no other source of information. However, all such sketches are secondary data sources in nature and you need better photo's than you get here. However, this is a slightly better effort than the Warbirdtech book on the B-1 also reviewed on this web site. Oddly enough the book devotes pages and pages just to every possible detail of the gun turrets with other airframe areas barely get a look in. Somewhat patchy but OK if used in conjunction with other photo resource.

Frederick A. Johnsen "Big Bombers of WWII" (B-24)

     Published by Lowe and B. Hould (I assume that is a joke) in 1998. Yes, I know that is not a picture of a B-24 on the cover. This is not a mistake. This looks like a book that brings together three separate books into one package. However I see no evidence that the three works were ever published separately. The three focus on the B-17, B-24 and B-29 although only the B-29 features on the front cover shown here. The author is described as a Liberator "buff" whatever that is. The B-24 section takes up the center third of the book. This is from page 147 to page 285 making this a 138 pages long. Like the other two sections this is liberally (forgive the pun) sprinkled with gorgeous colour photographs. Even the black and white photo's are crisply printed in glossy-style. It is quite heavy on text in sections and takes you from development and production through its service history, in various theatres, through to post war service and survivors today. You get practically no interior shots, no diagrams, no scale plans, no walkaround and no colour artwork. It isn't that sort of book. Get a copy if you can for the colour pictures. Lovely.