[ARC5] NASM B-26 Flak Bait Restoration - Radio Op Position Status

[Robert Eleazer]

Once the lightning calmed down enough for me to be able to use my computer again this morning, I brought up my copy of the B-26B pilot's manual and can confirm that the airplane had the usual BC-375 liaison transmitter as a companion to the BC-348.  As in most installations, the BC-375 was located on the rear wall of the radio/nav compartment, which is why you don't see it in Flak Bait's forward fuselage.  Storage spots for the unused BC-375 tuning units were scattered all over the airplane, and I suspect that all but one or two were yanked off the airplane pretty early and stored in the unit's radio shop.

I recently read "Flying the B-26 Marauder Over Europe" written by a B-26 navigator, and the book provides more details on how they operated than in any other work I have read.  One of the surprising things to me is that the B-26 in Europe had both a navigator and a bombardier.  In contrast, in the B-25 the two roles were combined into a single nav/bomb crewman.  One of my high school teachers was a nav/bomb on the Doolittle Raid and I had assumed all the medium bombers did it that way.  Once aloft, the navigator proceeded to the nose, which required that the co-pilot slide his seat back to enable access - in the B-25 that was an open passageway.  Once in the nose the nav and the bomb guys arranged themselves as best they could - there were no seats - and, in the words of the author, proceeded to spend the rest of the flight arguing where they were, thankful the rest of the crew could not overhear their disagreements.

Unlike the B-26, the Douglas A-26 Invader had only the command set and radio compass with no liaison radios.          

Wayne