The B-24D, Strawberry Bitch, 42-72843, was assembled at the Consolidated plant in San Diego and ferried to Europe, eventually, to join the 9th Air Force in Cairo, Egypt. Daniel Rice was the pilot whose crew accepted delivery of the new B-24, ferried her to the U.K., and delivered her to the 8th Air Force, the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group, and the 512th Bomb Squadron, and, finally, was flown to North Africa to be temporarily detached (TDY) to the 9th Air Force at Benghazi, Libya.



The Strawberry Bitch, flew over 50 combat missions based in North Africa during September of 1943 thru June of 1944 with the 512th Bomb Squadron of the 376th Bomb Group. It took part in and survived the Ploesti oil refinery bombing mission of 1 August, 1943.



Each aircraft of the 376th was assigned a Recall Code (RCL), painted on its nose and vertical tail. The, Strawberry Bitch, was assigned RCL #24.



The plane was selected for preservation after World War II, and stored, beginning in 1946, at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base boneyard in Tucson, Arizona. It was flown from Tucson to the Air Force Museum for restoration and display in Dayton, Ohio, in May of 1959. It is painted in the pink desert camouflage as it was during its World War II campaigns in North Africa.



Major Max J. Hadley, along with Colonel Shower, was the last person to fly, Strawberry Bitch. He was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force base from 1955 to 1963. The plane arrived at Wright-Patterson AFB on Armed Forces Day, May 16th, 1959. It was escorted into Dayton by supersonic F-104 jet fighters.