B-26B
| This page is about the American bomber B-26B. For the French version, see B-26C. |
Contents
Description
In March 1939, the USAAF issued a design specification for a twin-engine medium bomber with speed and range as a priority. The Glenn L. Martin submitted their design four months later, which were accepted for contract for what would be later known as the Martin B-26 Marauder. After entering service in 1941, the Marauder became notorious for its tendency to crash during landing due to its short wingspan resulting into high stall speed that forced the pilot to land at a dangerously fast approach speed, often with fatal results. Because of this, along with the overall instability during flight that is uncomfortable for anyone on the plane, led to the Marauder to be hated by its crews and spawned numerous derogatory nicknames. Chief among these are the "Widowmaker" and the "Martin Murderer".
In response to numerous fatal crashes, in 1942 the Truman Committee demanded Martin to rectify the flaws of the Marauder or else the contract for the aircraft would be cancelled entirely. This resulted into the B-26B variant, featuring an extended wingspan and larger stabilizer and rudder to improve the overall flight characteristic and reduce the stall speed. After the problem was ironed out, the Marauder proved itself to be a very reliable and durable bomber, with the lowest loss rate of any bombers operated by the USAAF. With one aircraft in particular, the Flak-Bait, being notable for having survived 207 sortie over Europe, the most of any American aircraft in World War II.
Introduced in Update "Wind of Change". The B-26B served as a stopgap between the B-25 Mitchell and the B-17E Flying Fortress. Featuring frontal machine guns to strafe ground targets like the Mitchell while also being closer in size and payload to the Flying Fortress. As expected for a plane of this size, the Marauder is quite sluggish, though in return also featuring heavy ordnance for its class. Allowing it to tackle any kinds of ground or naval targets.
General info
Flight performance
As expected from a medium-to-large bomber, the B-26B Marauder's flight characteristics are quite similar to its predecessor, the B-25 Mitchell, being generally sluggish to handle but with decent flatline speed. Though due to its bigger size and weight, the general weakness found the B-25's flight performance is further exacerbated. The Marauder will lose quite a lot of energy when making any manoeuvres, especially in vertical manoeuvres that will almost always result in a stall if the plane did not have enough energy prior to the movement. This poor energy retention also results in the plane having very poor climb rate, even when compared to heavy bombers. The plane's control surface lock up when exceeding 540 km/h, and the wings will break if exceeding 580 km/h.
On the bright side, the Marauder's engines provide enough power to accelerate in shallow dives and allows the plane to reach the target faster. This also helps in emergency cases as the Marauder is also capable of flying with one engine in case the other is knocked out.
| Characteristics | Max Speed (km/h at 3,962 m) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | 403 | 387 | 8500 | 35.3 | 36.6 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 950 |
| Upgraded | 525 | 491 | 32.8 | 34.0 | 10.3 | 5.6 | ||
Details
| Features | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 568 | 265 | 382 | 320 | 297 | ~8 | ~3 |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < 270 | < 320 | < 370 | > ___ |
Survivability and armour
- 12.7 mm steel - floor and port side of nose gunner/bombardier's position
- 8 mm steel - slightly curved armour plates behind flight deck seats (pilot, copilot, plus one unoccupied position that is presumably the navigator/radio operator's position)
- 9 mm steel - under main oil coolers in each engine nacelle
- 12.7 mm steel - under beam gunner
- 12.7 mm steel - two curved plates aft of dorsal turret
- 12.7 mm steel - aft of tail gunner
- 8 mm bulletproof glass - small window for tail gunner
There is basically no protection from the front for the flight crew, so while your offensive battery of five forward-firing M2 Brownings might make head-on attacks tempting, your pilots are shockingly vulnerable from that angle.
The four large self-sealing fuel tanks in the wings are relatively easy targets for enemy fighters, and your engines are also an easy target. To make matters worse, the B-26 had a reputation for being very challenging to keep in the air with only one engine. While the Marauder is often able to absorb a considerable amount of punishment, it is unlikely you'll make it alive back to base. Use your speed to keep pursuing fighters on your tail, where your relatively well protected defensive gunners can discourage pursuit.
Modifications and economy
| Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
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Armaments
Offensive armament
The B-26B is armed with:
- 1 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine gun, nose-mounted (200 rpg)
- 4 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns, cheek-mounted (250 rpg upper + 200 rpg lower = 900 total)
The B-26B features five .50 cal Browning machine guns mounted on the nose and cheeks as its offensive armament. These guns were mounted with the intent of being used to strafe ground targets, which the Marauder is perfectly capable of doing. However, unlike the B-25, due to the guns being mounted quite low on the fuselage and being placed quite far apart, this results in the guns having poor convergence and thus are very hard to aim at an enemy plane. This is not helped by the fact that the plane has much worse handling than the B-25 and that its large tail directly blocks the aiming point. Because of this, it is better used against ground targets or slow-flying AI planes instead.
Suspended armament
The B-26B can be outfitted with the following ordnance:
- 30 x 100 lb AN-M30A1 bombs (3,000 lb total)
- 14 x 300 lb H.E. M31 bombs (4,200 lb total)
- 8 x 600 lb H.E. M32 bombs (4,800 lb total)
- 4 x 1,000 lb AN-M65A1 bombs (4,000 lb total)
- 2 x 2,000 lb AN-M66A2 bombs (4,000 lb total)
- 2 x 1,600 lb AN-Mk 1 bombs (3,200 lb total)
- 1 x 2,216 lb Mk.13-1 torpedo
The B-26B features a large payload for its type. The stock payload of 30 x 100 lb bombs are actually quite potent, being able to take out two bases in downtier and one in uptier, though due to the bomb series set up, the payload often requires micromanagement to precisely manage the drop. Due to the quantity, the 100 lb payload are very useful against columns of vehicles. The most "optimal" payload against bases in air battles is the 8 x 600 lb bombs, which can destroy the same number of bases as the 100 lb bombs, but are much easier to handle.
Other than the smaller bombs, the Marauder also has access to large bombs to tackle ground and naval targets. The plane has access to 4 x 1,000 lb or 2 x 2,000 lb bombs to provide destructive CAS against the enemy team.
The Marauder also has an option to mount a single Mk.13 torpedo. However, only the notoriously terrible, early version of the Mk. 13 is available, with very poor drop speed and range. This, combined with the plane's large size, means that the Marauder pilot should rely on its large bombs against enemy ships instead.
Defensive armament
The B-26B is defended by:
- 1 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine gun, nose turret (270 rpg)
- 2 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns, dorsal turret (400 rpg = 800 total)
- 1 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine gun, 2 x beam turrets (240 rpg)
- 2 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns, tail turret (800 rpg = 1,600 total)
Usage in battles
The B-26 is best used at high altitudes to avoid combat as much as possible due to lack of armour, its size, and because most bombers go out solo, leaving you no other allies to help you. Be sure to use its speed to your advantage. Some notable enemies that should be avoided at all costs are aircraft like the Do 335: its absurd amount of guns can surely rip you in half with nearly a burst or two. If you can dodge any enemies that come your way, then it's a cakewalk when taking out bases.
Manual Engine Control
| MEC elements | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mixer | Pitch | Radiator | Supercharger | Turbocharger | ||
| Oil | Water | Type | ||||
| Controllable | Controllable Not auto controlled |
Not controllable Not auto controlled |
Controllable Auto control available |
Separate | Controllable 2 gears |
Not controllable |
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good payload consists of bombs of various size for different targets
- Tough airframe with armour plates protecting pilots and gunners, capable of soaking up damage
- Tricycle landing gear allows the plane to land and take off on smaller airfields
- Powerful engines provide decent flat acceleration and also allow the plane to fly with one engine
- Adequate defensive armament at the rear
- Access to five machine guns for strafing ground targets
Cons:
- Quite large in size, can be easily targeted
- Wide frontal gun convergence resulting into inaccuracy, especially against aircraft
- Low structural limit speed (~580 km/h), can make dive bombing quite tricky to perform
- Very poor climb rate and energy retention
- Poor overall manoeuvrability, especially at higher speed
- Limited defensive gun coverage at the front, side, and below
History
The Martin B-26 medium bomber was submitted by the Glenn L. Martin company in 1939 to the same USAAC specification (Circular Proposal 39-640) as the North American B-25 Mitchell, and both were accepted off the drawing board. Unsurprisingly, the two airplanes share much in common: twin-engined medium bombers, similar in size, with similar offensive and defensive armament. Both saw service in all major theaters of the war, with both U.S. and allied forces.
What sets the B-26 Marauder apart is that it was designed for speed; designed around two massively powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines, its maximum speed is a full 10% faster than its slightly smaller and lighter B-25 counterpart. However, this speed came at a cost. With high wing loading and demanding flight characteristics, the B-26 was noticeably harder to fly than the Mitchell. This pilot skill differential, combined with the pressures of wartime training, led to a track record of deadly crashes early in the plane's history, gaining a reputation as a "widow maker".
Despite this unpromising start to its career, the B-26 Marauder racked up a solid combat record. Mostly deployed at medium altitude missions, it became known for accurate bombing, and by the end of the war, the U.S. 9th Air Force reported that the so-called "widow maker" recorded the lowest combat loss rate of any aircraft type.[1] One B-26, named "Flak Bait", survived over 200 missions and is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.[2]
Although most of its combat flying was done in the European Theater of Operations, a notable early engagement in the Pacific was the sortie of four torpedo-equipped Marauders against the Japanese fleet during the Battle of Midway. None of the torpedoes hit, two of the planes were lost, and the other two returned so badly shot-up that they were written off. Over the fleet and pursued by Japanese A6M Zeroes, a B-26 named "Susie Q" actually overflew the length of the Akagi's flight deck at very low level, strafing the deck crew with its machine guns. Susie Q landed, just barely, back at Midway with over 500 bullet holes.[3]
The in-game version represents the B-26B model after some modifications had been made, including lengthening the wings to improve (but not eliminate) the tricky handling characteristics. Most B-26 were built at the Glenn L. Martin plant in Baltimore, Maryland, but the essentially identical B-26C (found in the French tech tree) was built in Omaha, Nebraska. A total of 5,288 aircraft of all models were built between 1941 and 1945.[4]
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the aircraft;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Glenn L. Martin Company | |
|---|---|
| Attackers | AM-1 |
| Bombers | B-10B · B-26B · PBM-1 · PBM-3 · PBM-5A |
| Jet bombers | B-57A* · B-57B* |
| Export | Martin 139WC · Martin 167-A3 · B-26C |
| * These aircraft were license-built from The English Electric Company Limited who developed and built the British English Electric Canberra. | |
| USA bombers | |
|---|---|
| Dive | SB2U-2 · SB2U-3 · SBD-3 · SB2C-1C · SB2C-4 |
| Torpedo | TBD-1 · PBY-5 Catalina · PBY-5A Catalina · TBF-1C · BTD-1 |
| Medium | B-10B · B-18A · B-34 · PV-2D · B-25J-1 · B-25J-20 · A-26C-45 · A-26C-45DT · B-26B |
| Heavy | B-17E · B-17E/L · B-17G-60-VE · PB4Y-2 · B-24D-25-CO · B-29A-BN |
| Hydroplanes | OS2U-1 · OS2U-3 · PBM-1 "Mariner" · PBM-3 "Mariner" · PBM-5A "Mariner" |
