Or how Nicaragua came into possession of two PB4Y-1 Bombers.
In July 1947 two PB4Y-1 bombers BuNo's 38881 and 90137 were purchased from the WAA at Bush Field, Augusta Ga, by Clarance Chamberland of Teterboro NJ. Both had previously served with VP6 ( CG) and had been Struck Off Charge 31 July 1946.
Chamberland sold them to O.E.Witbeck of Grand Prairey Texas, who further sold them onward to Edward Browder Jr of Florida. Browder who was investigated by the FBI for attempted Neutrality act violations for attempting to sell war surplus machine Guns to Venezualian rebels in 1947, would go on to be indicted for selling guns to Cuban rebels in the late 50s.
Broward was contacted by a Venezuelan man to purchase two bombers for a mission to bomb the palace of Venezuelan President. The plan was to fly to Nicaragua for refueling and to take on Bombs and bomb sights.
The planes were duly purchased as were the bomb sights and were duly flown to Nicaragua. In the interim the FBI had been tipped off and the bomb sights seized in Augusta Georgia. As a side note the FBI were somewhat chagrined to discover that the possession of those bomb sights were legal, as they had been declared obsolete in 1945. Those bomb sights were sold by the US Marshalls office in 1955 as unclaimed property.
The FBI and CIA sent an alert out and when it was discovered that the planes were in Nicaragua the US State Department asked the government of Nicaragua to sieze them. There was a long and involved court case which makes for interesting reading but has little use in this forum.
The upshot of it was that at the end, the Air force of Nicaragua ended up with two PB4Y-1 bombers. When the Bombers were siezed they were described as B-24s and there were more than a few communications back and forth ascertaining thier serial numbers and correct nomenclature. However, the rest of the aviation world for the last 70 years has repeated the erroneous information that Nicaragua had two B-24's, they did not. They had two PB4Y-1s!
I find two things interesting. The first is that the aircraft were flown without being registed with the CAA/FAA. No mention at all of this in the case files as being irregular. One gets the impression that this was a common practice. A practice also seen with the two B-17s privately owned outside of Richmond Va and reported on this forum.
The second is that this aircraft left US airspace in full Navy Markings and indentifications. Again an issue not worthy of mention in the case files.
I do wonder how the Nicaraguan AF kept them operating for at least 12 years?
For what it is worth there is a wartime photo of 90137 in "World War Two in Review #29". There was no page number on my edition of Google books.
Found it here: NARA 124-10217-10197 et sequia
Joe
Correcting History. Nicaraguan PB4Y-1s NOT B-24s
Re: Correcting History. Nicaraguan PB4Y-1s NOT B-24s
picture of 90137 in CG service:
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