Monday 4 September 2017

Martin B-26B Marauder, American Users

Now we start with this, rather long, series of entries about the native users of the B-26, the United States Army Air Force.
We're covering two squadrons in this post, the 439th Bombardment Squadron and 34th Bombardment Squadron.
In the case of the 439th BS, it was formed in mid-1942 in Louisiana and were equipped since the very beginning with the B-26. They were assigned to the European Theatre of Operations in September 1942 where they flew various missions over France and Belgium before being assigned to the Twelfth Air Force and sent to Algeria in order to serve in Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. During the advance in Algeria, they provided air support for the ground troops and, in March 1943 they were rebased to French Morocco in order to be re-equipped with a more modern version of the B-26 and later, in June 1943 they moved on to Tunisia in order to attack Italian islands like Sicily, Sardinia or Pantelleria, among others. In November they were rebased to Sardinia to bomb targets in Central and Northern Italy and during 1944 they remained there providing air support in, among others, the Battles of Anzio, Montecassino and Operation Dragoon. They returned to the United States in January 1945 where they were re-equipped with the Douglas A-26 Invader in order to serve in the Pacific.
The 34th BS, was already formed when the USA entered into the World War II, and they replaced their North American B-25 Mitchell by the B-26 in June 1942 in order to train before being deployed, in November 1942 to North Africa. They took part in the Tunisian campaign and remained there through all the allied invasion of Italy and the south of France during the summer of 1944. They were rebased to Lyon Bron airport, in order to provide support for the troops fighting in the western frontier of Germany and remained there until the war in Europe ended in May 1945. After the German capitulation, they were rebased to Linz, Austria where they remained until November 1945 when they were disbanded.










Sources:
1. https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=439th%20Bombardment%20Squadron&item_type=topic
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/34th_Bomb_Squadron
3. Signal Squadron - Aircraft in Action - Martin B-26 Marauder in Action

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