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On 3rd June 1943, a B-26 Marauder 41-34707 had taken off from
Meeks Field, Iceland, on the next leg of a ferrying trip from
the USA. The crew which comprised of 5 airmen assigned to the
323 Bomb Group, 455 Bomb Squadron, were according to the aircraft
accident report, bound for Horam, Suffolk,England, though the BG
would soon be moving to Earl`s Colne on 14th June that year.
Weather was poor that day, with low cloud, fog and drizzle which
would make navigation very difficult. The B-26 was bound for the
airfield staging post at Prestwick, Scotland, and the pilot was
flying on instruments and letting down in the dense overcast, but
the descent was being made too early for approach, so he was most
likely just trying to fly part contact and part instrument and
hit the mountain as a result, killing all 5 crew outright.
The pilot 1/Lt Young was quite an experienced pilot with a tally
of 450 flying hours since August 1942, and some 250 hours on the
B-26 Marauder, however, the majority of these hours would have
been in the USA where flying weather would have been much better.
It is of interest that on a section of the accident report headed
`ATC Base Operation Section` a footnote submitted in the report by
Lt G.G.Pell of 63rd Ferry Sq, 2nd Ferry Gp and flight leader of
the B-26s that left Meeks Field bound for Prestwick advises that
`he was briefed at Meeks Field to the effect that anything other
than a strictly contact (Visual) flight from Stornaway to Prestwick
would not be attempted. i.e. No on top (Above cloud) or instrument
flying, and that if such contact flight was not possible, ships
should either land at Stornaway, or return to Meeks Field`
Based on this latter note it would appear that Lt Young was just
following orders, in that he was trying to keep in contact with
the ground, rather than fly in cloud on instruments, or above the
cloud, and he was probably contemplating a landing at Stornaway.
Crew of 41-34707:
Pilot: 1/Lt Merrit E. Young.
Bomb/Nav: 2/Lt Robert A. Anderson.
Engineer: S/Sgt Vincent Bravo.
Radio: S/Sgt Marshall R.Miller.
Gunner: M/Sgt Lewis M. Cross.
Footnote: 2/Lt Anderson & M.Sgt Cross are buried in the American
Cemetery at Madingly,Cambridge.UK. Whilst the rest resturned to
their hometowns in USA for burial.
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Probably one of the best, if not `The Best` books ever written
about the B-26 Marauder, nicknamed `The Flying Prostitute` the
latter most probably because of what a prostitute does,and what
it did to many of its crews.
The book was written by my good friend Lt/Col Lawrence Jack Hunter
of Dallas,Texas,and is a very graphic account of life in a bomber
crew, as seen through the eyes of a pilot of many missions, Jack
describes in graphic detail how if you didn`t treat the B-26 with
great respect, it could, and most probably would kill you!!!
To visit the `Flying Prostitute` Website with views from some of
Jack`s crew and info on the book, just click the cover above.
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B-26 41-34707 -Scotland
