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- This is a list of United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator combat units during World War II including variants and other historical information. Heavy bomber training organizations primarily under II Bomber Command in the United States and non-combat units are not included. The USAAF took delivery of its first B-24As in June 1941, although the B-24D was the first production model delivered in quantity in July 1942. B-24s were assigned to every combat Air Force; at peak inventory, the USAAF had 6,043 B-24 Liberators operating worldwide in September 1944. Following the end of World War II, the Liberator was rapidly withdrawn from USAAF service, being replaced by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Literally thousands of Liberators were flown to various disposal units where they were cut up for scrap. Some brand-new late-production B-24Ms from Convair/San Diego and Ford/Willow Run were flown directly from the factory to various reclamation sites such as the scrapyard at RFC Kingman, Arizona in 1945, as the war in Europe had ended and B-29s were doing most of the long-range bombing work in the Pacific. Only a few Liberators were still around when the United States Air Force was formed in 1947, most of them being used for various research purposes. The last USAF Liberator, a Ford EZB-24M-20-FO serial number 44-51228 used by the Aeronautical Icing Research Laboratory for ice research, was struck off the rolls in 1953. For a time, it was on display at Lackland AFB, Texas, with the armament and gunner positions restored. It is currently at the American Museum at Duxford Aerodrome, England painted as 44-50492, a B-24M that was assigned to the 392d Bombardment Group, 578th Bombardment Squadron. (en)
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