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"A thing of beauty and a joy to fly, forever and forever, Amen."
Shakespeare, had he been among us at the time, would surely have
been motivated to pen such a thought - had he flown an Invader.
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Those words, that prayer, that feeling, permeated to the marrow,
every combat crew member of our squadron in that long ago forgotten
war - Korea. The aircraft was the fast, sleek, and beautiful Douglas
B-26 Invader, built during WW II in Douglas' plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma
and Long Beach, California. Some 1,200 aircraft were delivered
from each facility during the years 1941 - 1945.
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"Old Able" |
"Charlie" |
The B-26 came on line during the summer of 1944 and performed
well but in a somewhat limited capacity. Its complete baptism
of fire was to come in Korea. It was there she solidified her
place in aviation history and earned the lasting respect and admiration
of all who knew her.
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Formerly known as the A-26 ("A" for attack), it was redesignated
"B-26" in 1948 after the Air Force dropped the original Martin
B-26 Marauder from its inventory.
The culmination of a dream of aeronautical engineer and designer,
Ed Heinemann of Douglas Aircraft, the B-26 incorporated most of
the then "state of the art" technological advances, primarily
the new laminar flow wing. Other innovations regarding power plants
and armament caused it to be labeled by some as "the fastest and
most potent and heavily armed aircraft to emerge from WW II".
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"13th Flight Line"
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With the exception of the long range B-29 "Super Fortress", which
maxed out at more than 70 tons, the Invader could deliver a greater
bomb load and carry more guns than any other American aircraft.
For example: The B-17 carried 6,000 lb. of bombs and twelve 50
caliber machine guns.
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| With eight 50 caliber machine guns mounted in two vertical rows
of four each, three in each wing outside of the engines, and two
more in a rear top turret that could be remoted to his control,
the pilot had available at his fingertip trigger some sixteen
guns firing at the same instant. The rear gunner usually had two
each in his two remote turrets. |
"Brown Nose" |
"Firepower" |
To couch that lethal potential in very simple terms: You could
put sixteen forward firing 50 caliber guns, with some five to
six thousand rounds of armor piercing ammunition into a single
target in about sixty seconds. It was the personification of "firepower." |
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