Martin B-26 Marauder

[Subdeacon Joe]

FB find

 

Although the Martin B-26 Marauder did not make its first flight until Nov. 25, 1940, its design showed such promise that the Air Corps ordered 1,131 B-26s in September 1940. The B-26 began flying combat missions in the Southwest Pacific in the spring of 1942, but most were subsequently assigned to Europe and the Mediterranean.

 

In 1945, when B-26 production was halted, 5,266 had been built. The Marauder on display was flown in combat by the Free French during the final months of WWII. It was obtained from the Air France airline's training school near Paris in June 1965. It is painted as a 9th Air Force B-26B assigned to the 387th Bomb Group in 1945.

 

TECHNICAL NOTES:

Armament: 11.50-cal. machine guns; 4,000 lbs. of bombs

Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney R-2800s of 2,000 hp each

Maximum speed: 285 mph

Cruising speed: 190 mph

Range: 1,100 miles

Ceiling: 19,800 ft.

Span: 71 ft.

Length: 58 ft. 6 in.

Height: 20 ft. 3 in.

Weight: 37,000 lbs. loaded

 

[DocWard]

The aircraft initially earned a bad reputation due to its necessarily high approach speeds, among other things. Interestingly, MOH recipient Jay Zeamer Jr. failed to check out as pilot in command of B-26s. He had no such problems with B-17s.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

LtCol Douglas Hamilton, 102 years old and change flew C-47 over Normandy the day BEFORE D Day, dropping pathfinder troops behind the lines to "raise scatter hell", the flew several more missions on D-Day.   I'm told he ended up flying B-25 bombers later on

 

I had a cousin, considerably older than I, who flew B-25 and B-26 bombers in the Pacific.  He bought a B-25 Mitchel and "Winnibago-ized" it into a corporate plane later on.

Edited April 19 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Imis Twohofon,SASS # 46646]

My father, Blue Boy sass46773 was a final inspector on the production line at Matin Co. in Baltimore during the war. He loved the B26.

 

Imis

[DocWard]

7 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

LtCol Douglas Hamilton, 102 years old and change flew C-47 over Normandy the day BEFORE D Day, dropping pathfinder troops behind the lines to "raise scatter hell", the flew several more missions on D-Day.   I'm told he ended up flying B-25 bombers later on

 

I had a cousin, considerably older than I, who flew B-25 and B-26 bombers in the Pacific.  He bought a B-26 and "Winnibago-ized" it into a corporate plane later on.

 

That might have been the A-26, later changed to B-26, Invader. Many were turned into corporate aircraft later.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

1 hour ago, DocWard said:

 

That might have been the A-26, later changed to B-26, Invader. Many were turned into corporate aircraft later.

Sorry, I meant a B-25 Mitchel.  Damn dumb dyslexic keyboard.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

12 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Armament: 11.50-cal. machine guns

 

Interesting.   I'd've thought they had M2 Brownings.  Musta been a French retrofit?  What was this gun?  

[Chantry]

12 hours ago, DocWard said:

The aircraft initially earned a bad reputation due to its necessarily high approach speeds, among other things. Interestingly, MOH recipient Jay Zeamer Jr. failed to check out as pilot in command of B-26s. He had no such problems with B-17s.

 

The B-17, like the DC-3/C-47 and PBY Catalina, were all known to be easy aircraft to fly.  

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

 

Interesting.   I'd've thought they had M2 Brownings.  Musta been a French retrofit?  What was this gun?  

 

 

11 each .50 calibre machine guns.

[DocWard]

1 hour ago, Chantry said:

 

The B-17, like the DC-3/C-47 and PBY Catalina, were all known to be easy aircraft to fly.  

Not so much when flying alone and attacked by a horde of zeros and afterward.

[Chantry]

1 hour ago, DocWard said:

Not so much when flying alone and attacked by a horde of zeros and afterward.

Japanese pilots did not like attacking American heavy bombers.  They considered them well armed and hard to shoot down

[DocWard]

5 minutes ago, Chantry said:

Japanese pilots did not like attacking American heavy bombers.  They considered them well armed and hard to shoot down

Since you seem to not know the story of “Old 666” and Zeamer’s Eager Beavers, let me tell you about them. Grab a beverage and enjoy:

 

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196216/zeamer-and-the-eager-beavers/
 

There are a couple of books on the subject as well.

[Trailrider #896]

Part of the problem with the Martin B-26 was the fact that it was initially placarded to land at too LOW a speed, which led to stalls and crashes! It had such a bad reputation that AAF Chief Hap Arnold asked Jackie Cochran to fly the plane, his thinking being that "if a woman could fly it" male pilots could. What Cochran found was that the approach and landing speeds needed to be higher.  In addition, Martin added length to the wings, which increased the surface area, and decreased the stall speed. After the modifications, and changes to flying speeds, the B-26 became an excellent medium bomber. 

 

The A-26, later redesignated the B-26 Invader was a much better attack bomber, and a number were used in Korea, with a bunch more .50 cal. MG's in the nose, and IIRC some 20mm as well. Yes, a number were converted to civilian business planes. (The plane in James Garner's movie, "Cash McCall" was just such a plushed-up B-26.

[Chantry]

2 hours ago, DocWard said:

Since you seem to not know the story of “Old 666” and Zeamer’s Eager Beavers, let me tell you about them. Grab a beverage and enjoy:

 

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196216/zeamer-and-the-eager-beavers/
 

There are a couple of books on the subject as well.

 

I read about that years ago    

 

The B-17 could take an enormous amount of punishment, unfortunately the same could not be said of the B-24

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/b-17/contents.htm

 

[DocWard]

1 hour ago, Trailrider #896 said:

Part of the problem with the Martin B-26 was the fact that it was initially placarded to land at too LOW a speed, which led to stalls and crashes! It had such a bad reputation that AAF Chief Hap Arnold asked Jackie Cochran to fly the plane, his thinking being that "if a woman could fly it" male pilots could. What Cochran found was that the approach and landing speeds needed to be higher.  In addition, Martin added length to the wings, which increased the surface area, and decreased the stall speed. After the modifications, and changes to flying speeds, the B-26 became an excellent medium bomber. 

 

The A-26, later redesignated the B-26 Invader was a much better attack bomber, and a number were used in Korea, with a bunch more .50 cal. MG's in the nose, and IIRC some 20mm as well. Yes, a number were converted to civilian business planes. (The plane in James Garner's movie, "Cash McCall" was just such a plushed-up B-26.

Don’t forget Invaders were also used in Vietnam.

 

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196070/douglas-b-26k-a-26-counter-invader/

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

4 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

11 each .50 calibre machine guns.

 

LOL!   Well, that's my bad.   For some reason, I misunderstood the line to mean 11.5mm.   Silly me. 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

24 minutes ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

 

LOL!   Well, that's my bad.   For some reason, I misunderstood the line to mean 11.5mm.   Silly me. 

 

 

For some reason the copy and paste took out the space between the 11 and the. 50 (just like it moved the space just now!)