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204 pages

English

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(From the intro) Eight B-26 Marauder bombardment groups flew and fought from British soil from the late 1943 through October 1944. They then moved on to France with the advancing Allies, and a few of these became part of the army of occupation in Germany at the end of the war. The B-26 Marauder Historical Society is composed of the men who built, maintained and flew this controversial aircraft. They were called "The Marauder Men" who it is said "succeeded against impossible odds."

Sujets

Histoire

Segunda Guerra Mundial

World War II

History

Martin B-26 Marauder

Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	20 juin 1993
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781681625447
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	5 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0550€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The B-26 Monument. Inset: The Carolyn .

Prince Andrew .
R ETURN O F T HE M ARAUDER M EN

Sponsored by The B-26 Marauder Historical Society
TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY
T HE F RONT L INE OF M ILITARY H ISTORY B OOKS
Copyright 1993 Turner Publishing Company
Publishing Consultant: David Hurst
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Publisher.
This book was compiled and produced using available information; the publisher regrets it cannot assume liability for errors or omissions.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 93-60442
ISBN: 978-1-56311-106-8
Additional books may be purchased directly from the publisher.

Decorations at the Essex County building May 1, 1992 .
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
The B-26 Marauder Historical Society
The B-26 Marauder
B-26 Historical Society
Return To England
On To France
Return Attendee List
319th Bombardment Group
322nd Bombardment Group
323rd Bombardment Group
344th Bombardment Group
386th Bombardment Group
387th Bombardment Group
391st Gombardment Group
394th Bombardment Group
397th Bombardment Group
Ardennes Cemetery
Brittany Cemetery
Cambridge Cemetery
Epinal Cemetery
Henri-Chapelle Cemetery
Lorraine Cemetery
Luxembourge Cemetery
Netherlands Cemetery
Normandy Cemetery
The Walls
Index
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
I am pleased to be Patron of the 1992 USAAF Reunion which will commemorate and reinforce fifty years of remarkable friendship between two nations. During my visits to the United States I have been thrilled and encouraged by the welcome and the great kindness that has been shown to me by the American people. I have become very conscious that there is a special relationship between the British and the Americans. The presence of more than half a million American servicemen here in the 1940s helped to strengthen that relationship.
I hope that many veterans of the United States Army Forces will return to England in 1992 together with their families. A warm welcome awaits them and I hope that I may have the opportunity of meeting some of them myself.
T HE B-26 M ARAUDER H ISTORICAL S OCIETY
Eight B-26 Marauder bombardment groups flew and fought from British soil from late 1943 through October 1944. They then moved on to France with the advancing Allies, and a few of these became part of the army of occupation in Germany at the end of the war.
The B-26 Marauder Historical Society is composed of the men who built, maintained and flew this controversial aircraft. They were called The Marauder Men who it is said succeeded against impossible odds.
The society was formed in 1988 in Dayton, Ohio, and now has over 2500 members. Their goal is to ensure that this aircraft receives its rightful place in Air Force history.
In its relatively short lifespan, the B-26 Marauder Historical Society has accomplished a number of significant goals, one of which is the main topic of this book, The Return of the Marauder Men to England and France in 1992-the 50th anniversary of the first American warplanes arriving on British soil to help in the war against Germany. Among those first groups was the 319th Bombardment Group, and although they pre-dated by about a year the eight groups that eventually served as the bombing arm of the 9th Air Force, a small contingent from the 319th accompanied those groups back to England at the end of April 1992.
Aside from the Return of the Marauder Men, the B-26 MHS was instrumental in 1991, after a two-year search, in the selection of a central repository for B-26 archives and memorabilia. The society chose the Bierce Library of the University of Akron, Ohio.
An agreement with the university was initialed by B-26 Marauder Historical Society President Frank G. Brewer Jr. and by Dr. Roger W. Durbin, Associate Dean, University Libraries, who represented the university.
The ink had barely dried on the agreement when Major General John Moench, who serves as the B-26 Marauder Historical Society senior historian, transferred four cartons of processed B-26 records to the archives, thus initiating a record that will continue to grow as collections already in hand are moved to the university and as Marauder persons and unit associations transfer their important accumulations of data to the archives.
The B-26 Marauder Historical Society was also instrumental in sponsoring what was the largest gathering of Marauder Men under one roof since 1945. The gathering, sponsored by the B-26 Marauder Historical Society and Martin Marietta, was held in Baltimore with more than 1,300 people attending.
The Baltimore gathering was held to honor and remember the first B-26 Marauders to roll off the assembly line in 1941.
The English 39th RAF Association (The Balkan Air Force) was present in Baltimore, led by Group Captain Frank Doran. The French were also there in force, over 40 of them, from the Les Anciens Marauders B-26 Association. They were led by Robert Camby, who spoke to the assemblage.
When the Marauder Men returned to England and France in 1992, the arrangements and hospitality shown by the English and the French were overwhelming, as readers will see in the following passages of this book.
Anyone interested in the B-26 Marauder Historical Society may write: The B-26 Marauder Historical Society, 4613 B Pinehurst Dr. So., Austin, Texas 78747, or call (512) 282-4597. The society welcomes anyone who is interested in the program.
T HE B-26 M ARAUDER
The B-26 Marauder was much maligned when it made its debut in 1941 because the design was so advanced that none but the more experienced pilots or ground crews could handle the plane.
It was called the Widow Maker the Baltimore Whore (it had no visible means of support). It soon substantiated that claim in training in the United States where accident losses were high. So high that a Truman Committee investigating these losses recommended that the Air Force discontinue production of the plane.
The B-26 was sent into combat in early 1942 with very little testing because of the urgency of the war in the Pacific. It was sent to Alaska where the Japanese were making inroads and was sent to the Pacific where it participated in the Battle of Midway dropping torpedoes on the Japanese fleet and remained in the Pacific well into 1943.
The Marauder came into its own during the North African campaign; the 319th Bomb Group landed planes there during the initial phase of that conflict. This group that was stationed in England a short while in early 1942, was joined later by the 320th Bomb Group and the 17th Bomb Group in North Africa to operate the B-26 Marauder in a hostile environment in a very successful manner.
Accidents continued, however, in the United States at training bases in Louisiana, and Tampa, Florida, where another phrase erupted, One-a-day-in-Tampa-Bay. It was not quite that bad, but the problems were again associated with inexperienced pilots and maintenance crews. The Air Force was rapidly developing B-26 pilot training schools at Del Rio, Texas and Dodge City, Kansas. It established ground crew training bases throughout the country. The training took valuable time and the United States didn t have too much of that in those days. They were involved in two wars against some implacable enemies.
Martin Company stepped up the production if the B-26 Marauders during 1943 and by the end of the year a torrent of these aircraft were being sent to the European Theater of Operations where eight more fully manned groups began to combat the German forces in France in early 1944. They sustained a mighty effort for almost a year and a half, putting up more than 500 aircraft a day bombing the Fortress Europe into shambles.
They eliminated their bridges, marshalling yards, V-bomb sites (estimated 25 of them), gun emplacements and airfields. They were so effective that they drove the Germans from the coast of France enough to permit the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944 by isolating the battlefield and denying the enemy the ability to replenish his forces in Normandy.
The aircraft then established the lowest combat loss record of any American bomber during the conflict. It had proven what the initial designer, Martin s Mr. Magruder, had envisioned. It was a super safe airplane to fly and maintain when qualified persons were associated with it.
But the stigma remained. Despite its combat record, the press continued to regard the plane as unsafe, as did the Truman Committee.
Thus almost 50 years later, many of the remaining Marauder Men gathered in East Anglia to collectively remember the B-26 Marauder that served them so well and received so little recognition. They are determined that this plane receive its rightful place in history.
They were joined by their international brothers from England and France who had the same experience with the Marauder, bringing them home so shot up with flak that the skin was barely hanging on the surfaces, yet fly them home it did and successfully. Representatives from every B-26 Marauder group that flew and fought out of East Anglia-the 322nd, 323rd, 344th, 386th, 387th, 391st, 394th and the 397th were honored by the British public throughout their visit near the villages from which they flew so long ago. This is the largest such contingent to visit England in years. There were visits to Madingley, the American Cemetery near Cambridge on Sunday, May 3, 1992.

B-26 Monument
There were also special gatherings near each of the villages on May 1, 2, and 3, 1992. This Return of the Marauder Men , has been called the Event of the Century and will be long remembered by the unit people who are aging now. It will be lasting memory for many of them.
The timing of this celebration was particularly apropos since some of the forces involved in the recent Gulf War were English, French, and American joined for the first time since World War II to fight a common enemy.
B-26 M ARAUDER H ISTORICAL S OCIETY
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