USAAF 40-1415 Martin B-26-MA Marauder

USAAF serial number S/N: 40-1415 Martin B-26-MA Marauder

1940001415, 40-1415 Martin B-26-MA Marauder Fate: Scrapped-Salvaged 22BG408BS Remarks: 22BG408BS Red Raiders Name:"Fury - Georgia Peach - Simba" Crash landed at Finchhafen, New Guinea, Jan 1944 Out target was near Madang. I had just opened the front bomb bay doors preparatory to starting the bomb run when our left engine was hit and caught fire. Moe chopped the trottle, pulled the fire extinguisher and feathered the props. The fire was out but we were trailing smoke from it! He eased 1415 out over the ocean. Our radio was out so I crawled out of nose and told him I was going to salvo my bombs into ocean armed, so they would give us a little more altitude when they detonated. He agreed, so I went back in nose, shoved the bomb bay handle down into salvo position. All three bomb indicator lights on left side of bomb bay went out, top and bottom on the right went out but the middle one remained on and then there was a hell of a jolt! I knew immediately what had occurred. The middle 500-pounder had hung up and the top one had fallen on top of it! So we had two live 500-pound bombs we couldn’t get rid of. I hurried out of the nose back to the bomb bay, went out on the cat-walk and tried to manually release the middle bomb from the shackles but the top one had wedged tightly between the fuselage and middle bomb. I tried to kick it out with my foot by hanging on to the racks and kicking it but to no avail! I replaced the nose and tail fin pins in both bombs and hurried back to the nose and closed the doors. I crawled back out and told Moe we had to sweat having two bombs aboard. There is a slight rise between the sea and the runway at Finchhafen and as we were coming up, Moe saw we weren’t going to make it over the` hill without starting the sick engine. So he unfeathered the props, hit the starter and ignition buttons and after a short period of windmilling started but immediately caught fire again. But we managed to gain enough to make the runway. This was fine, but there was a jug (P-47) taxiing towards us in the middle of the runway about _ way from the closest end. Our radio being out, we could only but hope he would see us. However, he didn’t so Moe had to fly over past him before he could bring it down. When the aircraft mains hit the steel matted runway, Moe slapped both mains hard! This brought the nose down hard and the shaking of the nose gear almost shook my hold loose from the overhead hand braces in the nose. Both mains blew, but believe it or not, the nose gear did not break or I wouldn’t be telling you about it, Ha! Scrapped at Brisbane.

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This webpage was updated 13th September 2023

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