Martin B26 'Marauder'

Another medium bomber used by the allied air forces, the B26 was often referred to as the 'Flying Coffin' due to it's bad habit of 'cracking up' during take off and landing due a fault with the 'tricycle' undercarriage nose wheel. Vets recall seeing a lot of these aircraft piled up at the side of various runways in all the theaters of operations. Despite this fault the B26 was a fast and rugged plane, only three Marauders were lost in 84 raids on Lae between 24th of April and 4th of July, 1942, whereas in the same period and against the same targets 11 B25s were lost in 70 raids. Production ceased in 1944 and the Marauder was dropped from the Air Force inventory in 1948, the A26 'Invader' was redesignated 'B26' (A, designating 'Attack', and B, the designation for Bombers).