5 Operational Training Unit

This is the first of three installments concerning 5 Operational Training Unit and will mainly deal with the Liberators. However, a few general notes are offered to begin. One source noted that 5 OTU seemed to be the largest OTU in the British Commonwealth Air Training plan. Just over 1900 airmen graduated from the OTU in 29 courses and formed 192 Liberator crews. Eighty-four RCAF and RAF personnel died during training, the majority in crashes. Two crash sites have yet to be located. The graduates were made up of roughly equal numbers of RAF and RCAF personnel. Airmen from the two air forces did not tend to be mixed together to form individual aircrews. It was reported that interactions between the personnel of the two air forces were not always on the friendliest of terms, a situation perhaps aggravated by the higher pay the RCAF airmen received. The Liberators at 5 OTU were RAF B 24 BVI’s, equivalent to the B 24J, in serial number blocks EW, KG, KH, and KK. All came from the Dallas/Fort Worth production line. The aircraft were B24J-15CF through B24 J-90CF models and showed the variations particular to the different batches. These would all have arrived in olive drab over neutral grey paint. Although from the same production line, the olive drab varied considerably and is said to have covered a range of colour from chocolate brown to a shade approaching sand. An example of the former would appear to be KH174 carrying code “BH”. This particular Liberator developed an unserviceable pitot tube shortly after delivery and spent a considerable part of its time with 5 OTU grounded while awaiting parts. This aircraft can be seen in a picture of a parade march past, being put to use as a backdrop for the photo although a later photo shows it flying in natural metal and carrying code “VP”. Camouflaged aircraft were given medium grey code letters, which were 36 by 24 inches with 6-inch arms. These were initially located on the rear fuselage aft of the waist guns. Serial numbers were 6 inches and were usually in black although at least one picture shows the serials in grey. The serial was located above and slightly overlapped the aircraft code. For example, on aircraft coded “AM”, the KG of serial KG923 is situated just above the aft arm of the “M”. Delivery numbers were present on the noses of a few aircraft, but were painted out on others. They were stenciled in 5-inch numbers, black on natural metal and yellow or white on olive drab.