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published: Friday, February 05, 2010
Going back to WWII
Foundation brings famous bombers to airport
C.J. Risak
Staff writer
For some, the sight brought back memories. For others, it created them.
On a rainy, altogether dreary afternoon, a group of more than 50 people gathered at Leesburg International Airport, eyes straining at overcast skies, searching for a silhouette of something from the past.
And then they appeared, just above the southern horizon, first the B-24 Liberator known as "Witchcraft", circling to the western end of the field before setting down and taxiing to within a hundred feet of the crowd.
A B-17 called "Nine-O-Nine" followed a few minutes later, parking near its American counterpart. Thus the history lesson began.
The two planes are part of the "Wings of Freedom Tour", conducted by the Collings Foundation. The Tour makes 110 stops a year nationwide, 11 of them in Florida, its aim to teach the public what it was like to serve in such aircraft.
But for some in the crowd Monday, it was reliving history. J. Howard Collins, who moved from Fort Lauderdale to Leesburg a year ago, has worked with the Collings Foundation for 21 years. When he moved to Leesburg, he contacted the Foundation and got them to include his new home on the tour.
Now 84, Collins said he was a co-pilot aboard a B-24 during World War II, flying submarine patrol missions in the Pacific campaign that required the plane to be piloted a few hundred feet above sea level. He also flew one bombing mission over Tokyo.
"They used to call them 'Boxcars'," Collins said, pointing at the nearby Liberator. "But it was a good airplane because it brought me home."
Collins ended his first tour of duty in 1946, but was called back into action in 1958 and served for four more years, taking part in the airlift of supplies to West Berlin.
While others may have dark memories of their time spent aboard the planes, Collins does not. "It doesn't bother me anymore," he said of his three years, two months and two days of duty during and after World War II, a span stretching from 1943-47.
Certainly these aircraft were meant for battle. Both are completely restored, the B-17 carrying 13 .50-caliber machine guns and the B-24 having 10. The bomb bays were even loaded with dummy bombs.
Neither was restructured to add comfort. There are very few areas, particularly in the B-17, that one wasn't crouching down, even crawling.
"They're not as big as they are in the movies," noted Scott Amey of Tavares as he crawled through the B-24 with his five-year-old son, William.
Amey has an interest in history, both in general and family. As for the latter, he said his grandmother had worked in the Willow Run plant in Michigan that built many of the B-24s.
"This is pretty cool," he said once inside the interior, adding, "but I always liked the B-17 better."
The planes will be on display at Leesburg until noon Wednesday. Hopefully, they'll make a return trip soon -- or so Collins said. If he can arrange it, they'll return again next year.
