batman56201 Marauder's crew fought for freedom. We will not forget. Thanks to usa for coming to save us. Long live to usa WWII's mind.!

He must have been a very gifted pilot. Not to mention incredibly lucky. Early B-26s killed more men than cancer....

You had to be a very cool-headed person, and, a very gifted pilot to fly the Widowmaker without crashing it.

How many people did he kill? is himself still alive?

@batman56201 my grandfather flew the B-26 marauder as well from 42' until the end of the war. Brave and strong men these soldiers were. My grandpa was and always will be my hero 🙂 Miss him dearly.

And we have fuel. No one is shooting at us and nothing is on fire

Spencer Hoppock My dad flew the Widdow Maker as well as the B-25 Mitchell. He's 93 and living in Florida.

My Dad flew 50 missions over Germany in the B-26. Survived crash landing in Italy. Gave a talk to AirPower group last week in Ft. Worth. Presented same talk by invitation on podcast this week. He is 93-1/2 as of today, 2-9-2018.

there are more left as far as I know.

The pilot (Don Porter) went on to play the father of Gidget (Sally Fields) on the popular TV Show.

And the corporal in back is Art Carney!

amsterdamgeorge2 thank you. i felt it was tv film like..

Actually filmed at Barksdale Field Louisiana. At 13:25 the large tower in the background is the water cistern with the building built around it, building with the doors facing parallel on the nose is known as Hanger 9 and the original tower is over the top turret in front of the vertical stabilizer. The building behind the 2 hangers on the left is now the Air Force Global Strike Command Hq. the large building seen behind the airplane is the current 8th Air Force Hq. My dad trained here in 1944 and we were stationed here for 8 years. I have live here for 50 years and I currently work at the Barksdale Global Power Museum. We take great pride in this film being done here. Te actors are Don Porter and Craig Stevens

Patrick W Deck thanks for that information I know I knew him from many a tv show but couldn’t pin it down , I watched another old doc about flying a twin engine plane private plane and I recognize another young actor from way back

Super great video one of the best on U tube. The b 26 crashed in Tampa Bay cause they were starting it over and over on internal batteries and when the battery got drained the internal batteries ( rem no alternators in those days ) Curtis electric props would freeze in flat pitch. Viola a runaway prop!!! A portable battery card solved the problem! ❤❤❤❤❤ my uncle flew the '26 in north Africa. He was the lead bombardier on the Monte Cassino mission.

?

Does he have any stories?

+Konstantin Serdyukov Konstantin Serdyukov - And dangerous to inexperienced pilots. Due to its high landing speed, and need to balance the aircraft's fuel internally to prevent destabilisation at higher operating speeds.

amsterdamgeorge2 yes i read doc on that in magazine. Th B25 was said much more safer.

Misha Kosolapov especizlly in aluminium color of the last version with crew free art. They were fling paints

The saying goes if it looks right it fly's right. Wtf happened to the B-26 then!!!

Cough cough (B17)

Please cherish those items of important pieces of both family and American history.

My father was a crew chief working on them

He was right, it was a deathtrap....

@@alteredbeast67 No it wasn't. At the beginning when they were working the bugs out, it was dangerous. With modifications and proper pilot training, it was a fine aircraft.

It did in the beginning went by pretty fast.

No, you mean extremely high wing loading. Area divided by weight.

B-26 Marauders actually had the lowest loss rate in combat of any US bomber during WW2.

Not Ford engines...But ONLY built at the Ford Plant. Pratt and Whitney

my gpa did lol id bet ,... omg i got lost bout a minute in the video lol

Its easy to fly when compared to B-36 and B-29...

@@macieksoft I'm thinking he's talking about the nb-36h

Charles Inglin The Japanese had a ton of zero fighters flying combat air patrol over their precious carriers at Midway.They shot down alot of our low flying torpedo pla es that morning.Unfortunately for them our high flying Dauntless divebombers were able to score bomb hits on all four Japanese carriers. Exploding fuel lines and ordnance subsequently led to all 4 sinking by the following morning.

I am hot rod!

@@hoffer54 lmao I commented this years ago cause I used to have a KZfaq channel called like that nvm

The same checklist and manual use of controls would apply to any aircraft flown during the WW2 / Korean War era. Pilots and crew had to be intelligent and KNOW their aircraft, there were no computers to help them!

Smokey Stover not exactly. If you look at the history it was a handful if you didn't fly it right on the numbers. The early models did well in the Pacific especially consider they had no fighter cover in the early days. While the plane was getting a bad reputation in America the pilots in the Pacific loved the plane. They redesigned the plane with slightly more wing area and more wing incidence. The training was also refined. The early missions over Europe at low altitude were disastrous . Once the missions were changed to medium altitude the marauder had the lowest loss rate of a medium bomber in the ETO. It was more complicated and more expensive than the B25. Production ended sooner for this reason.

Two things to remember, people who have grandfathers or great grandfathers are more likely to look up and view these old movies. Also, they made 5200+ of these. In some of the logs of these aircraft, there were over 500 different crew members over the short life of the aircraft. It’s hard to fathom today the numbers of aircraft and pilots at that time. Even from the time I was in during the 80’s the military is a fraction of the size especially in aircraft and pilots today. When I first started flying, many of the ww2 pilots were in their 60’s and 70’s. What alway shocked me was the number of aircraft these men flew. One man flew b-17’s, b-29’s, b-36’s b-47’s and b-52’s before retirement!!! Even Jimmy Stewart flew b-24’s, b-36’s, b-47’s and the b-58. That doesn’t count all of the various training aircraft and he was restricted due to his duel careers.

@@samuelbiskin3416 Was definitely ahead of it's time, beautiful machine!

How about Fathers? We heard it direct from them. My wife's Father was an armorer in the Marines and flew on a PBJ and loaded the cannon. My Dad was on a carrier. CVE-1. A small light carrier that transported planes all over the Pacific. They were the first carrier to Guadalcanal. My uncle was a tank crewman in an M-4 Sherman with Patton's Army in North Africa and Italy. You should never question a veterans family. As for me I was 82nd Airborne, Vietnam. Want to question my service?

My Dad flew 93 missions in a B-26.

Not necessarily. Lowest loss rate in combat of any US medium bomber.

According to my father, after the necessary modifications where made to the aerodynamic design of the wings and after Dr Jimmy Doolittle taught the young pilots how to fly the thing, the B26 became a very reliable and valuable asset for the air corp. Dad said that once Dr Doolittle showed them how to better control their landings at high speed, how to better execute low high speed bombing maneuvers and finally how to bring a battered airship home he felt more comfortable with the plane. I ask Dad what was the advantage to being a bomber pilot and he said that if he wasn't killed during the day that he slept on clean sheets at night. Also the ladies loved the flyboys he said. I said 'yes of course that makes more sense".