A-26's ...

[CoastieJohn]

A-26 Shown after making a crash landing on the field at Great Dunmow Essex on Augus t26 1944

Looks like the crash happened before the landing! The bottom of the aircraft appears unscathed. I'd like to see the report on that one.

I was wondering the same thing. From that angle, the props look to be in pretty good shape. Flak damage maybe???? A bit of damage on the leading edge of the left wing...maybe some type of explosion in front of the aircraft in flight??? ....or severe weather damage???

[A26 Special K]

Thanks Mark for the great pics of the A-26's. Like to weigh in about the issue of B-26K, A-26A, A-26K designations. There a lot of confusion about the Douglas A-26 because of the Martin B-26 which preceded it. To recap, after WWII ended and the Martin's were retired, the AF decided to redesignate the Douglas to B-26 and that is how they were named all thru Korea and the first iteration of Viet Nam. In WWII, there was an A-26A followed shortly by the B hard nose and C glass nose. Not very many A models were produced. When the OnMark rebuilds.. the B-26K's were being geared up for operations out of Thailand, the story has been often repeated about how the Thai govt. insisted that no bombers be operated from its bases and thus, the name was changed back to A-26. Did I lose anybody here yet? According to Joe M, one of our Nimrod pilots who participated in the delivery flight of the first batch of A-26A's to NKP, the story is not quite true. Joe says the AF asked the group for suggestions on the name and A-26A was the best liked... (Could it be because many of them wanted to be fighter pilots instead of bomber pilots??.Ed) They were going to ATTACK and not bomb from high level like the BUFF's. Whether the Thai govt had anything to do with it is now in question. The whole Special Ops thing at NKP was top secret from the beginning so it is a wonder that any photos were taken much less finally published. Special Kay, the last flying K model, was originally an A-26B, then B-26K and then back to A-26A. So where did the A-26K come from? To try and differentiate the WWII A-26A from Special Kay's A-26A, we used A-26K for a short while for marketing purposes, but it caused even more confusion. So we went back to A-26A or B-26K and will continue to tell this story as part of the history. Will let the A-26 fans know when K is flying again from Meacham Field in Ft Worth. JR

[Chris Brame]

Looks like the crash happened before the landing! The bottom of the aircraft appears unscathed. I'd like to see the report on that one.



I was wondering the same thing. From that angle, the props look to be in pretty good shape. Flak damage maybe???? A bit of damage on the leading edge of the left wing...maybe some type of explosion in front of the aircraft in flight??? ....or severe weather damage???

More likely flew through some trees or power lines (or trees and power lines ) or a midair collision.

[T J Johansen]

The last photo of the K models, shows 64-17645 which was also one of the first to draw blood. It was one of a group that was field tested in the Congo by the CIA during Anstalt Wigmo. Later sent to SE Asia, it was eventually given to the SVAF as a training aid.

T J