My uncle who is now 85, flew several missions in this plane as part of the the 449th Bombardment Squadron, 322nd Bombardment Group (nicknamed the 'Annihilators').
Their photo isn't very good, but the story is great -- thanks for the post.
I seem to recall that the B-26 had a lower loss rate in combat.
IIRC, Jimmy Doolittle (General by then?) saved the plane. I saw a documentary
(History Channel?) and it has footage in which Doolittle did some sort of
training film, explaining the special attributes of the plane...and how
to change flying technique for best performance.
I guess that advice and some modifications really made flying the
B-26 a much more survivable experience.
The B-26 had better performance but I always thought the B-25 was prettier.
My neighbor flew these in the Med and in Italy throughout all of WW2, going to a B-26 squadron right out of flight school. He was acclimatized to the plane from the beginning. But pilots who had broken in on 4-engine ships, or B-25s or B-18s had a lot to adjust to. The Marauder was like a Camaro in a world of Ford Expeditions.
What is interesting was that the pilots actually preferred the B-25 Mitchell over the B-26 Maurader because the B-25 was aerodynamically a more forgiving plane to fly. That's why the B-25 proved popular everywhere it was involved in combat.
Not being a pilot I could not understand all of it, but the guts and adaptability of the pilots and crew cheifs made it work.
Martin B-26 Marauder
Nicknames: Widow-Maker; The Flying Coffin; B-Dash-Crash; The Flying Prostitute; The Baltimore Whore (The last two because it had no visible means of support; "Baltimore" because the Martin Company was located there.)
The above is from the web. I always liked the B-26.
They made B-26's at the old Ford Willow Springs plant during the War. B-25's and F-86's were made at the old GM Fairfax Plant in Kansas City.
I've always thought the Marauder as one of the best looking aircraft of all time.
My dad was an engineer-gunner on B-26s with the 319th BG in both europe and the pacific. He believed them to be the best aircraft of the war, light, fast and accurate because they could go in low level.
My Dad, an ATC pilot, regarded the Martin B26 as a good plane with a vicious stall. He flew them on occasion because they were very unpopular with pilots and he could frequently manage a ferry flight to achieve one of his major objectives during WWII -- getting to Florida to see his fiancee, my mom (grin).
He told a horrendous story of one flipping over with full fuel for a trans atlantic flight when it ran off the runway and into a ditch on a botched takeoff. The plane had a fuselage fuel tank. The gas filled the cockpit and before the rescue crew were able to smash the cockpit windows with an axe to drain it the pilots died of drowning/poisoning. No fire.