Martin B-26 Marauder
The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company.
First used in the Pacific Theater of World War II in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in the European Theater from bases in England and, following D-Day, on the European continent providing tactical support to advancing Allied troops.
After entering service with the United States Army aviation units, the aircraft quickly received the reputation of a "widowmaker" due to the early models' high accident rate during takeoffs and landings. This was because the Marauder had to be flown at precise airspeeds, particularly on final runway approach or when one engine was out. The unusually high speed on short final runway approach was intimidating to many pilots who were used to much slower approach speeds, and when they slowed to speeds below those stipulated in the manual, the aircraft would often stall and crash.
The B-26 became a safer aircraft once crews were retrained, and after aerodynamics modifications. The Marauder ended World War II with the lowest loss rate of any U.S. Army Air Forces bomber.
In total, 5,288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. By the time the United States Air Force was created as an independent military service separate from the United States Army in 1947, all Martin B-26s had been retired from U.S. service. After the Marauder was retired, the unrelated ground attack aircraft Douglas A-26 Invader assumed the "B-26" designation, which led to confusion between the two aircraft.
Design and development
In March 1939, the United States Army Air Corps issued Circular Proposal 39-640, a specification for a twin-engined medium bomber with a maximum speed of, a range of, and a bomb load of. On 5 July 1939, the Glenn L. Martin Company submitted its design, produced by a team led by Peyton M. Magruder, to meet the requirement, the Martin Model 179. Martin's design was evaluated as superior to the other proposals and was awarded a contract for 201 aircraft, to be designated B-26. The B-26 went from paper concept to an operational bomber in roughly two years. Additional orders for a further 930 B-26s followed in September 1940, still prior to the first flight of the type.The B-26 was a shoulder-winged monoplane of all-metal construction, fitted with a tricycle landing gear. It had a streamlined, circular-section fuselage housing the crew, consisting of a bombardier in the nose, armed with a machine gun, a pilot and co-pilot sitting side by side, with positions for the radio operator and navigator behind the pilots. A gunner manned a dorsal turret armed with two machine guns, and an additional machine gun was fitted in the tail.
Two bomb bays were fitted midfuselage, capable of carrying of bombs, although in practice such a bomb load reduced range too much, and the aft bomb bay was usually fitted with additional fuel tanks instead of bombs. The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines in nacelles slung under the wing, driving four-bladed propellers. The engines were manufactured at the Ford Dearborn Engine plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The wings were of low aspect ratio and relatively small in area for an aircraft of its weight, giving the required high performance, but also resulting in a wing loading of for the initial versions, which at the time was the highest of any aircraft accepted for service by the USAAC, until the introduction of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, with the then-astonishing wing loading of .
The first B-26, with Martin test pilot William K. "Ken" Ebel at the controls, flew on 25 November 1940 and was effectively the prototype. Deliveries to the USAAC began in February 1941 with the second aircraft, 40-1362. In March 1941, the USAAC started accelerated service testing of the B-26 at Patterson Field, near Dayton, Ohio.
Accidents
The B-26's relatively small wing area and resulting high wing loading required a high landing speed of indicated airspeed depending on load. At least two of the earliest B-26s suffered hard landings and damage to the main landing gear, engine mounts, propellers, and fuselage. The type was grounded briefly in April 1941 to investigate the landing difficulties. Two causes were found: insufficient landing speed and improper weight distribution. The latter was due to the lack of a dorsal turret; the Martin power turret was not yet ready.Some of the very earliest B-26s suffered collapses of the nose landing gear, said to be caused by improper weight distribution, but that is not likely to have been the only reason. The incidents occurred during low-speed taxiing, takeoffs and landings, and occasionally the strut unlocked. Later, the Martin electric dorsal turret was retrofitted to some of the first B-26s. Martin also began testing a taller vertical stabilizer and revised tail gunner's position in 1941.
The Pratt & Whitney R-2800-5 engines were reliable, but the Curtiss electric pitch-change mechanism in the propellers required impeccable maintenance, not always attainable in the field. Human error and some failures of the mechanism occasionally placed the propeller blades in flat pitch, resulting in an overspeeding propeller, sometimes known as a "runaway prop". Due to its sound and the possibility that the propeller blades could disintegrate, this situation was particularly frightening for aircrews. More challenging was a loss of power in one engine during takeoff. These and other malfunctions, as well as human error, claimed a number of aircraft and the commanding officer of the 22nd Bombardment Group, Colonel Mark Lewis.
The Martin B-26 suffered only two fatal accidents during its first year of flight, from November 1940 to November 1941—a crash shortly after takeoff near Martin's Middle River plant in Maryland and the loss of a 38th Bombardment Group B-26 when its vertical stabilizer and rudder separated from the aircraft at altitude.
As pilots were trained quickly for the war, relatively inexperienced pilots entered the cockpit and the accident rate increased. This occurred at the same time as more experienced B-26 pilots of the 22nd, 38th, and 42nd Bombardment Groups were proving the merits of the bomber.
For a time in 1942, pilots in training believed that the B-26 could not be flown on one engine. This was disproved by several experienced pilots, including Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, who flew demonstration flights at MacDill Army Air Field, which featured takeoffs and landings with only one engine. Also, 17 Women Airforce Service Pilots were trained to demonstrate the B-26, in an attempt to "shame" male pilots into the air.
In 1942, aviation pioneer and company founder Glenn L. Martin was called before the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program,, which was investigating defense contracting abuses. Senator Harry S Truman of Missouri, the committee chairman, asked Martin why the B-26 had problems. Martin responded that the wings were too short. Senator Truman curtly asked why the wings had not been changed. When Martin replied that the plans were too close to completion, and his company already had the contract, Truman's testy response was quick and to the point: In that case, the contract would be canceled. Martin corrected the wings.
Indeed, the regularity of crashes by pilots training at MacDill Field—up to 15 in one 30-day period—led to the exaggerated catchphrase, "One a day in Tampa Bay". Apart from accidents occurring over land, 13 Marauders ditched in Tampa Bay in the 14 months between 5 August 1942 and 8 October 1943.
B-26 crews gave the aircraft the nickname "Widowmaker". Other colorful nicknames included "Martin Murderer", "Flying Coffin", "B-Dash-Crash", "Flying Prostitute" and "Baltimore Whore".
According to an article in the April 2009 edition of AOPA Pilot on Kermit Weeks' "Fantasy of Flight", the Marauder had a tendency to "hunt" in yaw. This instability is similar to "Dutch roll". This would make for a very uncomfortable ride, especially for the tail gunner.
The B-26 is stated by the 9th Air Force to have had the lowest combat loss rate of any US aircraft used during the war. Nevertheless, it remained a challenging aircraft to fly and continued to be disliked by some of its pilots throughout its military career. In 1944, in answer to many pilots complaining to the press and their relatives back home, the USAAF and Martin took the unusual step during war of commissioning large articles to be placed in various popular publications to educate the public and defend the flying/accident record of the B-26 against "slanders". One of the longest of these articles was in the May 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics.
Operational history
The B-26 Marauder was used mostly in Europe, but also saw action in the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In early combat, the aircraft took heavy losses, but was still one of the most successful medium-range bombers used by the USAAF. The B-26 was initially deployed on combat missions in the South West Pacific in early 1942, but most of the B-26s subsequently assigned to operational theaters were sent to England and the Mediterranean area.By the end of World War II, it had flown more than 110,000 sorties, dropped 150,000 tons of bombs, and had been used in combat by British, Free French, and South African forces in addition to US units. In 1945, when B-26 production was halted, 5,266 had been built.
Pacific Theater
The B-26 began to equip the 22nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia, in February 1941, replacing the Douglas B-18 Bolo, with a further two groups, the 38th and 28th, beginning to equip with the B-26 by December 1941. Immediately following the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, the 22nd BG was deployed to the South West Pacific, first by ship to Hawaii, then its air echelon flew the planes to Australia. The 22nd BG flew its first combat mission, an attack on Rabaul, which required an intermediate stop at Port Moresby, New Guinea, on 5 April 1942.A second group, the 38th, began receiving B-26s in November 1941 and began transitioning into them at Patterson Field, Ohio. There, the 38th continued the testing of the B-26, including its range and fuel efficiency. Immediately after the entry of the United States into World War II, plans were tentatively developed to send the 38th BG to the South West Pacific and to equip it with B-26Bs fitted with more auxiliary fuel tanks and provisions for carrying aerial torpedoes. Three 38th BG B-26Bs were detached to Midway Island in the buildup to the Battle of Midway, and two of them, along with two B-26s detached from the 22nd BG, carried out torpedo attacks against the Japanese Fleet on 4 June 1942. Two were shot down and the other two were so badly damaged that they were written off after the mission. Their torpedoes failed to hit any Japanese ships, although they did shoot down one Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter and killed two seamen aboard the aircraft carrier Akagi with machine-gun fire. The crew of one B-26, Susie Q, after dropping their torpedo, were pursued by fighters; seeking an escape route, they flew directly along the length of the Akagi, braving antiaircraft fire – to the point the pursuing Japanese fighters had to hold fire temporarily, to avoid hitting the flagship. Another B-26, seriously damaged by antiaircraft fire, did not pull out of its run, and instead flew directly at Akagis bridge. Either attempting a suicide ramming, or out of control, the plane narrowly missed striking the carrier's bridge, and crashed into the ocean.
From around June 1942, B-26 squadrons of the 38th BG were based in New Caledonia and Fiji. From New Caledonia, missions were flown against Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands. On one occasion, a B-26 was credited with shooting down a Kawanishi H6K flying boat. In 1943, the B-26 was decided to be phased out of operations in the South West Pacific Theater in favor of the North American B-25 Mitchell. Nevertheless, the 19th Bombardment Squadron of the 22nd BG continued to fly missions in the B-26. The B-26 flew its last combat mission in the theater on 9 January 1944.
Two more squadrons of torpedo-armed B-26s equipped the 28th Composite Group and were used for antishipping operations in the Aleutian Islands Campaign, but no records of any successful torpedo attack by a USAAF B-26 have been found.
Comedian George Gobel famously joked about being an instructor for this aircraft at Frederick Army Airfield during the Pacific battles, boasting, "not one Japanese aircraft got past Tulsa".