Martin Baltimore, part six

The Martin Baltimore GR.VI was a purpose built maritime reconnaissance version intended to serve with the Royal Air Force's Coastal Command that never went beyond the prototype stage. It had a slightly lengthned fuselage in order to fit extra fuel tanks, a torpedo and a radome for a radar in the nose. The program was cancelled in April 1944 with an order of 900 airplanes being cancelled as the Lockheed Ventura was already fullfiling that role.
The United States Navy employed a modified Baltimore (serial number 09804) in 1946. It was called A-30 Baltimore and was fitted with many instruments and control surface tests to break the sound barrier. Thanks to its powerful engines and light, yet robust construction of the fuselage, the airplane managed to achieve mach 0.74 during a dive.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore
2. http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?42970-Last-Martin-Baltimore

Martin Baltimore, part five

The Martin Baltimore Mk.V was the most employed variant of the Baltimore which was, just like the precedent variants, ordered by the United States Army Air Force to be lend-leased to the Royal Air Force. It was powered by an improved version of the 1700hp Wright R-2600-29 piston radial engine and the 0.30 M1919 Browining machine guns in the wings were replaced by 0.50 in.
Australia, together with South Africa, were the only commonwealth users of the Mk.V variant it served with the No.454 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force and the No.15 Squadron South African Air Force, serving all of them in the Mediterranean theatre of operations. As more than 600 of them were produced, most of them served in the Royal Air Force, and in the Mediterranean theatre of operations. In the post-war, some of them were kept in service in Malta and Kenya where they were used for aerial mapping and locust control until 1948.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=264
3. http://www.454-459squadrons.org.au/martin.html

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

Martin Baltimore, part three

The Martin Baltimore undertook various roles not only in the Mediterranean and North African campaigns, but also in the European one. It performed reconnaissance, target-towing, maritime patrol, night intruder and fast transports. When serving with the Fleet Air Arm, with airplanes transferred from the Royal Air Force, in the Mediterranean, it achieved a moderate success against submarines, achieving eight sunk u-boats operating from Malta. They served until 1947.
The Mk.IV was a version ordered by the United States Army Air Force to be lend-leased to the Royal Air Force. It featured four additional Browning machine guns in the wings and it served with the Royal Australian Air Force, the South African Air Force and the Royal Air Force.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore
2. http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/aircraft/baltimore.html

Martin Baltimore, part two

When the Baltimore was introduced in the Royal Air Force as a replacement of the Bristol Blenheim, many pilots were impressed for the step up that represented. The aircraft was highly praised for its heavy armament, structural strength, maneouvrability, bombing accuracy and high performance but there was, however one complain: the fuselage was narrow and the crews generally complained about the cramped conditions they had to flight in. Due to that narrowness, it was almost impossible to switch positions during-flight if wounded and, furthermore, due to internal structure, both pilot and observer were separated from the wireless operator and the rear gunner, something that was common for the light bombers of the era like the Douglas A-20 or the Handley Page Hampden.
It started its combat career in North Africa just in time to stop Rommel's advance, where it suffered heavy losses when it was used as a low level attack because it went unescorted due to the chaos of the desert war. On the contrary, when operating at medium altitude, with a fighter escort, it had a very low loss rate.
The Mk.III version was an improved Mk.II which had defensive armament increased to 14 machine guns and a dorsal turret designed by Boulton Paul with four 0.30in Browning machine guns. 250 of them were built. It served with the Royal Australian Air Force, briefly with the Royal Canadian Air Force, with the South African Air Force and the Royal Air Force, however we could only find pics for the RAF users.
The Mk.IIIa was a development of the Mk.III that was ordered by the United States Army Air Force to be lend leased to the Royal Air Force. It featured a newly built and designed electrically powered turret with two 0.50in machine guns. Two-hundred and eighty one of them were built and it only served with the RAF.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=264

Martin Baltimore, part one.

We go back to the World War II in order to cover this excellent light bomber.
The Martin Baltimore was a twin-engined light attack bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin company in the United States. It was originally ordered by France in May 1940 as the successor of the previous Martin Maryland. However, when France fell, all the production was diverted to the United Kingdom. The first versions, labelled Mk.I and Mk.II were delivered to the Royal Air Force in 1941 which, initially, used them to equip operational training units and used them only in the Mediterranean theatre of operations and in the North African one.
The Mk. I version was powered by two 1600hp Wright GR-2600-A5B radial piston engines and was armed with a total of ten 0.303in (7.7mm) machine guns, being eight of them fixed Brownings and two flexible Vickers K guns. Two of them in the leading edge of the wings, and four more, two on each side of the lower fuselage aft firing backwards plus the Vickers ones in dorsal an ventral positions. That configuration would be common for every variant of the airplane except for the late production Mk.V which had the backwards firing ones removed. It was used exclusively by the Royal Air Force.
The Mk.II version was just like the Mk.I but it had 12 machine guns instead of ten. Those additional two were placed in ventral and dorsal positions. It was employed by the Royal Hellenic Air Force, the South African Air Force, and the Royal Air Force, however we could only find pics for the late one.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Baltimore
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=264