"I fear some will say it didn't see action in WWII other than recon work in the Pacific...."
"Some" would be very wrong to say that.
PB4Ys launched BAT glider bomb attacks during WWII and 61 of them were lost to
action. The first in Jan of '45 and the last one being shot down on Aug 11th,1945.
Heck. A PB4Y-1 even shot down an RAAF Beaufort!
Some other examples:
May 17, 1945 off Nagasaki: two VPB-109 PB4Y-2 fought off attacks by 11 Kawanishi
N1K2 Shiden-Kai from the 343th Kokutai, JNAF, shooting down two (killing both pilots).
Both PB4Y-2 were damaged with 3 crewmen injured but returned to Okinawa safely.
May 31, 1945 southern coast of Korea north of Cheju-do: two VPB-123 PB4Y-2
combined to shoot down the Ki-84 Hayate killing the command officer of the 22nd
Sentai based in Suwon. Both PB4Y-2 returned safely to base.
June 17(USN record)1945 near Kunsan: two VPB-102 PB4Y-2 shared in the downing
of a Ki-44 "Shoki" from the 85th Sentai killing the pilot. Both PB4Y-2 returned safely
to base.
July 24, 1945 north of Cheju-do: two VPB-124 PB4Y-2 combined to shoot down a
Ki-84 Hayate of the 25th Sentai based at Kunsan. The JAAF pilot was killed and
both PB4Y-2 returned safely to base.
June 4th (US time) claim for a "Jack" (J2M) shared by two VPB-102 PB4Y-2
occurred off the east coast of Japan.
Aug 3 '45 two VBP-121 PB4Y-2's attacked and shot down a pair of F1M 'Pete'
floatplanes of the Tateyama Kokutai which were trying to bomb the sub USS
Aspro, which was trying to pick up a US pilot in Tokyo Bay.
Not a lot but not bad. Certainly not just recon.