A landed B-24 Liberator NH (A72-329) bomber with several service men and women standing around the front, also with a tank towing the plane. The serial number of A72-329 is confirmed after inspection of the original photograph.) Nose art on the plane is a white dolphin with "Pelorus Jack". Date c1944.
Further information received 3 October 2016: Albert Charles Ward was the nose gunner in the B24 Pelorus Jack under Wing-Commander Basil Brown, a co-founder of East-West Airlines. (Source: Mike Ward, son of Albert Charles Ward)
Ward also states that the serial number of the aircraft was A72-145, not A72-329 as given in the present record. A72-145 was with the RAAF 12 Squadron which saw action in Nadzab PNG with the US Army Air Corps. Ward also gives a link to an image of A72-145 at http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/Liberator-A72-145/Dads_Liberator_crew_1945.
Pelorus Jack was a dolphin that guided ships through the perilous Cook Strait waters into the port of Nelson on New Zealand's South Island between 1888 and 1912.,