Friday, 19 May 2017

Martin Baltimore, part four

The Martin Baltimore Mk.V saw service with many foreign countries. That way, the Baltimore equipped a wing from the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force, the so-called Stormo Baltimore. They used them for around six-months and mainly operated over Greece and Yugoslavia during 1944-1945 provinding supplies for the partisans operating there.
It also served with the Free France's Air Force as, together with Douglas A-24 Dauntless, it equipped one of their squadrons, the GB I/17 "Picardie" which was based in Syria from 1943 to 1945.
It played a key role when serving with the Royal Hellenic Air Force when, from early 1943, the 13th Light Bomber Squadron received the Baltimore which employed them in various types of missions. In May 1944 they were rebased to southern Italy where, as part of the allied Balkan Air Force, they performed operations in the Balkans, in Yugoslavia and Albania mainly. In November 1944 the axis troops began to retreat from Greece and the squadron was transferred to Hassani Airfield, in Athens, where they took part in operations against the remaining axis forces mainly in Crete and the Aegean isles. Later they took part in the Greek Civil War for a brief period as they were retired in April 1946.
It saw also service with the Turkish Air Force as 72 of them were sold to the neutral Turkey in August 1944 in order to form and equip their first bomber regiment.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore
2. AJ Press - Mongrafie Lotnicze 97 - Martin Baltimore (translated)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Light_Bomber_Squadron
4. http://www.americancombatplanes.com/a23_1.html

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