My 1:144 scale B-24 Liberator & Ju88 kits are built for another Dunkeswell diorama.
This one will be set on 4th September 1943 when six Ju-88 of 13/KG40 intercepted VB-103’s Lt James H Alexander’s B-24 ‘G’ B-7 “Impatient Virgin” off the Spanish coast.
B-24 Liberator v Ju-88 diorama at Dunkeswell
4th September 1943
VPB103: Lt. James H Alexander intercepted by 6 Ju-88s.
During an antisubmarine patrol from Dunkeswell, Lt James H Alexander and crew were intercepted by six Ju-88 C fighters over the Bay of Biscay. During the attack, Alexander’s gunners shot down one of the Ju-88s flown by Lt Gerhard Blankenberg and crippled three others. His B-24 Liberator, numbered B-17 “G” and named Impatient Virgin was, however, damaged and unable to return to Dunkeswell. With flying instruments rendered inoperative and her four engines badly damaged, despite a painful head wound, Alexander effected a safe landing at sea.
Successfully abandoning the aircraft, he and his crew rode out a severe storm in a rubber life raft for 36 hours before being rescued by a passing Spanish fishing vessel.
After a month recuperating, they were all repatriated back to England.
Lt James H Alexander was awarded the Navy Cross, his co-pilot and navigator the Distinguished Flying Cross and his crew the Air Medal.
Sadly, on 3rd December 1943, Alexander, like so many of his fellow airmen, was to die in a training accident, at the age of just 23 years old.
He has a cenotaph in Memorial Park Cemetery, Sioux City, USA
