This B-26 Marauder Crew image was captured by a WWII AAF Photographer, who I’ll be featuring on this sight very soon. He was using a Speed Graphic 4×5 camera. For the younger photogs among us, that means manual settings, photographic plates, and big camera.
This weekend the 22nd BG is having their reunion; sure wish I could be there.
At 0715 on 8 Dec 1941, less than 18 hours after the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor, the 22nd Bomb Group, the Red Raiders, took off in brand new B-26 medium bombers from Langley field, VA headed for Muroc, CA to fly shore patrol. My father was a crew chief on one of those B-26s in the 33rd squadron. From Muroc, they boarded the airplanes and flight crews onto ships and sailed to Oahu. At Hickam Field, they reassembled the planes and island hopped to Australia.
The 22nd BG was one of the first units to take offensive action against the enemy. From from bases in northern Australia, they flew bomb missions without fighter escort against Japanese bases and shipping around New Guinea and the surrounding waters. The Marauder could actually fly faster than the enemy fighters. Still. loses were heavy in the early part of the war. As the war continued, they island hopped toward Japan while also moving from B-26s to B-25s to B-24s bombers.
