The SAAF Forum

Progress on my group build Marauder III

_________________
Brent Best

Very cool!

_________________
http://www.aviationlink.co.za/
http://saafinscale.blogspot.com/

You da man, Kremlin!

Next visit to Cape Town, the drinks are on me Kremlin!

_________________
Travelling in Europe - including photos.
http://anewad.blogspot.co.uk/

My Portfolio of Airplane Pictures
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/member ... php?p=6981

Thanks Guys

I'm working on getting that metal feel to the texture ... here's the profile at 100%.



Make it a nice cuppa char & you have a deal

_________________
Brent Best

Deal Kremlin! With a few other 'of us' to have a chat and a laugh with.

_________________
Travelling in Europe - including photos.
http://anewad.blogspot.co.uk/

My Portfolio of Airplane Pictures
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/member ... php?p=6981

This olive drab .. is a @#!!$&^()** nightmare ..

I've re-sprayed this three times already .. trying to get the shade right .. but I'm slowly but surely creeping in the right direction ...

_________________
Brent Best

Wow ........ the detail below the cockpit is excellent.

One question I am still trying to figure out is did the SAAF B-26's carry the two waist guns as the RAF and USAAF aircraft did. The hatches they protrude from are behind the mid upper turret and just in front and below the horizontal stabilisers.

I know the SAAF removed two of the four .50 guns mounted below the cockit.

Thanks W407594F

I need to iron out this detail also ... I can not see the waist guns on pictures of the SAAF B-26's, so I'm assuming they were not used. Hopefully somebody has the definitive answer ...

_________________
Brent Best

75 Years on Wings of Eagles - by Dave Becker has this pic which may help...


and a rather poor pic form "Last but not least"



Book : Last but not Least" on B26G Marauder in SAAF service notates that the Nose Gun and the Tunnel gun were not fitted in Marauders used in 30 Sqdn. So I guess by implication the other waist guns were. Starboard waists 0.5 in machine gun and Port waist gun 200 rounds....

Further Edit: Yep the Wireless Operator doubled as the Waist Gunner and the book lists the SA names of all serving WT/AG in the Sqdn.

From the 39th Squadron RAF: B26 Marauder Association.

http://www.39thsquadronmarauders.org.uk/index.html

Although a RAF Squadron, some discussion takes place on SAAF units:-

Also see the link below for a so-so photo of a Marauder - SAAF? Difficult to say.

http://www.historyofwar.org/Pictures/pi ... luka2.html

_________________
Travelling in Europe - including photos.
http://anewad.blogspot.co.uk/

My Portfolio of Airplane Pictures
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/member ... php?p=6981

The main problem with the waist gun postion is that in even in flight the guns are kept inside and nearly always only swung out when in use, these guns are directly opposite to each other and the aircraft is quite narrow there, so has to be a one man job.

Plus the ammo boxes for the rear guns are just behind the wing, so this ammunition is also feeding past this position, which does not leave much space.

The photo with the B-26 with a B on it, was it not called Bliksim

I don’t see a reference to ‘B” being for Bliksem…but hey I love the thought of that name.
Marauder ‘B’, was a veteran of 76 missions between 26 Sept 1944 and 24 April 1945, had the distinction of having brought her crew and bombload back to base notwithstanding a full body blow from an 88mm anti-aircraft shell. It was the lead aircraft ‘B’ (Lt Col Aitchison) and had received a direct hit on the starboard side of the rear bomb bay. The shell passed forward and upwards, through the tail fin of a bomb, and left a large exit hole at the port wing root…, without exploding. Because of the damage to the bomb bay, only five bombs could be released and the balance returned to base.
Ref: Last but not Least – by Brig. F van Niekerk, SM

It must be remembered though, the four guns mentioned at # 10 on the diagram, SAAF aircraft only carried two of the four mentioned, one on each side, the two upper guns were removed by them.

There was such an aircraft B = Bliksim

Thanks W407594F (Bliksim that's a mouthful...me thinks you need a name)
As mentioned I think ‘B” for Bliksim was a superb name and typically South African. Doing some more reading in “Last but not Least” - it also captures much of the handling characteristics of the Marauder. I see one Marauder was named ‘Coughin Coffin’ and speaks of the name being well earned from its unaccountable habit of doing flip-flops in the air. The ‘Coughin Coffin’ coughed live an invalid and would turn belly-up in the air like a tickled puppy, but she came home with an honourable discharge after 50 combat missions (pg 253) in which it shot down 8 German fighters and sank 3 ships, one an Italian cruiser. It was cited by Prime Minister Churchhill for bombing a bridge in Tunisa, and 3 times came back on one engine…something they said a Marauder couldn’t do. The Marauder had high landing and take-off speeds hence the dog with a bad name which resulted from a high wing loading…..
I do wonder how many of the Aircraft carried ‘names’ different from the Phonetic alphabet in use at the time by the RAF which differs somewhat from the latter day Phonetic radio alphabet. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc.
‘Bliksim’ would by all accounts be a good and uniquely SA slang substitute by the guys flying them and obviously very descriptive. I see “W” in the Squadron was called the “Hoodoo” Marauder…but that name driven by superstition and not rhyming phonetically. It would be good to see a LIST (if there is one) of the nicknames –based on phonetics given to the aircraft by the SAAF personnel.