Warbird Information Exchange

B-26C "Hade's Lady" 456th BG 323rd BG Laon, France Nov. 1944

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Don't touch my junk!!

looks thoroughly weathered & rode hard!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

on the top fuselage just forward of the leading edge - what is that hole?
Pretty rough looking ships.

That should be where the astrodome is located. It must be able to be removed for ventilation or whatever.

Seems like the B-26 was the "red headed" stepchild..most of the pics you see of them depict overworked old birds that got little or no recogition. A lot of the pictures show missions boards covering the whole left side of the fuselage. Then most of them were un-ceremonially blown up in Germany and France at the end of the war and not allowed to return home..It would be nice to have a few around these days...

The B-26 had an astrodome that could be removed and installed as needed. I've never seen a photo showing it in place on an operational aircraft..it was almost always replaced by a simple hatch, which as Elwyn said, was probably removed for ventillation in this case.

SN

did the aircraft get that hot and stuffy on the ground that you would want ventalation/cooling in the snow?

I think a crewmember sat in the hatch to monitor wing-tip clearance, etc. during taxi like they did in the B-24.

The O.D. paint sure did seem to flake off of large areas on the B-26 moreso than other aircraft.

what do you make out that name to be on the cowling closest?

-Dennis S.
Greeley, CO

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"We must bond together and fight as brothers or we will all die as fools."

"Hoosier"

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Don't touch my junk!!

Looks like "Hoosier" to me too.

I've heard the reason Marauders tended to get so ratty looking is that Martin got permission to paint them without primer (the same reason many Japanese aircraft tended to peel so badly.) Also many B-26s that were delivered in bare metal finish were camouflaged in the field..with varying degrees of precision.

The Marauder has always been one of my all-time favorites..the NMUSAF has done a great job returning theirs to combat configuration over the past few years, and I would love to see "Flak Bait" reassembled and put on display (just as long as they DON'T repaint her!)


SN

Steve,

Amen to leaving Flak Bait original!! I agree that Martin must have prepped the metal differently or not at all prior to painting. I have been researching the Omaha plant for a little while but have not gotten into the actual production details as yet. It would seem that the field applied camo actually looks better than factory applied in this case!

Scott