Monday 11 September 2017

Martin B-26B Marauder, American users, part five

We start this week with more American users for the Martin B-26B Marauder.
The 444th Bombardment Squadron was formed in July 1942 in Florida and since the very beginning they were equipped with the B-26B Marauder. They started under the command of the Third Air Force in order to be trained, but soon after the formation and training was over, they were transferred to the VIIIth Air Command, in England. They flew some missions over continental Europe until fall 1942 when they redeployed to North Africa and transferred to the Twelfth Air Force in November 1942. They remained there until the end of the Tunisian campaign in May 1943 and took part in the Sicilian, Italian and Sardinian campaigns (where they were rebased in 1944). They were redeployed to France in late 1944 to take part in the bombardment campaigns against German soil, and became part of the occupation forces when the war ended. They remained in Germany until December 1945 when they were demobilized.
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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/444th_Air_Expeditionary_Squadron
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/34th_Bomb_Squadron
4. Signal Squadron - Aircraft in Action - Martin B-26B Marauder in action

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