<p>The Invader is a timeless aircraft. A detractor might argue that it had no 'stretch' potential and was not amenable to modernization, but men who flew the well-loved, unsung and, at times, troublesome A-26 would put it another way: right from the start the machine was so good in the right hands that there was no sense in tampering with its perfection.
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<p>The plain fact is that the A-26 fought in more wars than any other aircraft type. Americans flew it in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Others flew it in Indo-China, Algeria, Biafra, Cuba, the Congo, and in a dozen other dirty little conflicts. And if it does not spring instantly to mind as the most important of American combat aircraft, the A-26 was, at least, a remarkably durable and potent light bomber that lasted four decades or more.
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<p>Designed as a replacement for the A-20 Havoc by the superb engineering team under Edward H. Heinemann at Douglas' El Segundo, California facility, the prototype XA-26 (42-19504) took to the air on 10 July 1942 with Ben Howard at the controls. The outward appearance of the Invader would change little, but the first machine was unusual in having camouflage and large propeller spinners.
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<p>Heinemann began from the outset with three variants: the XA-26 (later A-26C) bomber with a glazed nose for the bomb-aimer, the A-26A night-fighter with radar and four ventral 20-mm cannon, and the XA-26B with a solid gun-nose for the ground-attack role. The night-fighter version was short-lived (though the French air force later resurrected a night-fighter Invader in the 1950s), but bombers churned from the Douglas production lines at Long Beach, California and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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<p>The A-26B had six 0.5-in (12.7-mm) machine guns in the nose (later increased to eight), remotely controlled dorsal and ventral turrets each with two 0.5-in (12.7-mm) guns and up to 10 more 12.7-mm (0.5-in) guns in underwing and underfuselage packs. Heavily armored and able to carry up to 1,814 kg (4,000 lb) of bombs, the A-26B with its maximum speed of 571 km/h (355 mph) at 4,570 m (15,000 ft) was the fastest Allied bomber of World War II. Some 1,355 A-26B models were followed by 1,091 A-26C machines with a bomb-aimer's glazed nose.
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<hi style=hdr1>Invader in Combat</hi>
<p>Rushed into combat with the 553rd Bomb Squadron at Great Dunmow in England by September 1944 and soon also operating in France and Italy, the Invader was flying air-to-ground missions against the Germans before its bugs were ironed out. Pilots were delighted with its maneuverability and ease of handling, but the A-26 began life with a needlessly complex and fatiguing instrument array, a weak nose gear that collapsed easily, and an early cockpit canopy that was difficult to hold in the 'open' position for bail-out. Time and attention resolved these problems, and A-26 pilots took pride in mastering a demanding but effective bombing machine.
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<p>In the European theater of operations, Invaders flew 11,567 sorties and dropped 18,054 tons of bombs. The A-26 was also nimble enough to hold its own when intercepted by fighters. Major Myron L. Durkee of the 386th Bomb Group at Beaumont in France was credited with the probable kill of a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter on 19 February 1945. Some 67 Invaders were lost to all causes in the European theater, but A-26s also chalked up seven confirmed air-to-air kills.
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<p>Two Invaders were supplied briefly to the Royal Air Force, but the RAF apparently saw no significant benefit over other types then in service, such as the de Havilland Mosquito.
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<p>In the Pacific war, the Invader also progressed from an inauspicious beginning to respectable achievement. With its 2,000-hp (1,491-kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27 Double Wasp engines and sea-level speed of no less than 373 mph (600 km/h), the Invader was a potent anti-shipping and ground-attack weapon, but crews did not immediately take to it. A-20 pilots who had reigned supreme in their high, single-seat cabins now found themselves with a YOT ('you over there') in the navigator's right-hand jump-seat, essentially a co-pilot without controls. When rockets and bombs were expended in unison in a low-level pass, debris from the rockets' explosions damaged the underside of the Invader. In the belief that the new machine was unsuited for low-level work, the 5th Air Force commander, General George Kenney, actually requested not to convert from the A-20 to the A-26. But conversions went ahead, the A-26 also replacing North American B-25 Mitchells in some units. The A-26 served with the USAAF's 3rd, 41st and 319th Bomb Groups in operations against Formosa, Okinawa and Japan itself. Invaders were active near Nagasaki when it was razed by the war's second atomic bomb on 9 August 1945. After VJ Day the aircraft which may have arrived one war too soon became a familiar sight at Far East air bases, including those in Korea. Many were converted to other tasks as CB-26B (transport), TB-26B/C (trainer), VB-26B (staff transport), EB-26C (missile test vehicle) and RB-26B/C (reconnaissance).
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<hi style=hdr1>One-Off Prototypes</hi>
<p>The XA-26D and XA-26E were one-off prototypes for Invader variants cancelled at the war's end, the latter variant being described by historian James C. Fahey as 'an X article no data released', though now known to have been a glazed-nose high-performance model with R-2800-83 radials and designed to match the performance of the XA-26D solid-nose model with 2,100-hp (1,566-kW) R-2800-83s. In a postwar attempt to capitalize on the jet engine, a single Invader (4434586) was converted to XA-26F with the addition of a 1,600-lb (7.12-kN) thrust General Electric I-16 (or J31) jet engine in the rear fuselage. This machine was also fitted with four-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers, initially with large hub-type spinners. The natural-metal XA-26F apparently flew for several years but the jet engine installation, which markedly reduced the Invader's range, never found practical application.
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<p>The North Korean assault on South Korea on 25 June 1950, followed by massive Chinese intervention in November, created a war of relatively short distance and intense battlefield environments where the durability and load-carrying capability of the B-26 Invader were all-important. The B-26 (as it had been redesignated in 1947) proved effective against tanks and truck convoys and was later unleashed on more general, high-altitude bombing missions. Solid-nosed B-26B and glazed-nosed B-26C Invaders also flew night intruder missions against Communist rail lines and other targets. At first, only crude searchlights and flares were available. On 14 September 1951, flying a B-26B (43-49770), Captain John Walmsley attacked a large convoy, hit a train, and when out of ordnance and ammunition loitered in the area under heavy fire illuminating targets for his wingman. Walmsley was shot down and killed, the inevitable consequence for his acceptance of enormous risk; he became one of only four airmen in the 1950-53 Korean War to receive the highest American award, the Medal of Honor.
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<p>The USAF's 3rd, 17th, 47th and 452nd Bomb Groups flew B-26 Invaders in the bulk of Korean operations. The 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing flew RB-26C aircraft, with dorsal turret removed, on photo missions. In Korea, the Invader performed well in all regimes, including low-level strikes, and scored several probable air-to-air kills against Chinese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s.
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<p>The most important foreign user of the Invader was the French Armé de l'Air, which had up to 180 B-26B, B-26C and RB-26C aircraft, most of them committed to the Indo-China war. France's 1946-54 struggle with Viet Minh forces tested the B-26 Invader under crude, difficult tropical conditions, culminating in the siege at Dien Bien Phu where Invaders bombed and strafed Communist forces in the surrounding hills. French pilots liked the Invader for its toughness, firepower and handling characteristics. They flew B-26s again in their 1956-62 conflict in Algeria.
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<p>Nine ex-USAF B-26Bs were provided to Saudi Arabia in 1955 to make up the first operational squadron in that country's fledgling air force. A 1961 survey found Invaders in no fewer than 21 countries, mostly in Latin America but also in the Congo and Indonesia. 1961 also saw American UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson hold up a photo of a B-26 in the General Assembly and claim that free Cubans had escaped from Castro's air force in the bomber. Stevenson had been purposely kept in the dark on the CIA-supported, White House-approved invasion by Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs, and was enraged to learn that he had been telling UN delegates a fake story designed to justify B-26 pounding of the insurgents' beach-head. Apart from being a total fiasco, the Bay of Pigs invasion was the only instance when B-26 Invaders fought each other—CIA-backed exiles battling members of Castro's air arm.
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<hi style=hdr1>'Counter Invader' in Vietnam</hi>
<p>War clouds were gathering elsewhere. In 1962, the US supplied B-26B and RB-26C Invaders to South Vietnam, where they were flown in combat with American crews and South Vietnamese markings. Wing stress problems, resulting in the loss of one airframe and its crew when a wing was literally ripped off, brought an end to B-26 operations in Vietnam in early 1964. However, the US Air Force had decided that the type could have a rebirth if low-hour airframes could be converted for the special combat conditions of the Southeast Asia war. The On Mark Engineering Company, one of several firms which had also produced executive transport versions of the B-26, made the conversion and produced a virtually new machine, the YB-26K, first flown in production form in May 1964.
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<p>The B-26K was outwardly similar to the Invaders which had come before it, but on the inside it was a new airplane. The fuselage was remanufactured and had the twin turrets removed, while the wings were rebuilt and strengthened, the tail section was enlarged, and new Pratt & Whitney R-2800-52W engines with reversible propellers and feathering controls were installed. The YB-26K had eight underwing hardpoints and six wing guns in addition to the nose guns. Wing guns were deleted on the 40 B-26K machines which followed, all but one with solid noses. While the camouflaged B-26K was being tested at Edwards AFB, California, in the Congo and in the Panama Canal Zone, the USAF completely obfuscated the situation by redesignating the 40 B-26K aircraft (63-17630/17679) as the A-26A. The A-26A (B-26K) was moderately successful in the conventional strike role in South Vietnam and was used for 'black cover' operations by the USAF's 609th Special Operations at Nakhom Phanom AB, Thailand as late as 1970.
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<hi style=hdr1>Flying the Invader</hi>
<p>Piloting the A-26 Invader was an experience. "It was graceful, potent and extremely unforgiving," said Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Erly, who flew the A-26C with the 416th Bomb Group in the European theater. Wide-track mainwheels and tricycle gear gave the A-26 excellent ground-handling characteristics. On take-off, it tended to "eat up runway" said Erly, especially with a full ordnance load, "but once you rotated and started to climb out, there was no ambiguity about it." A revised instrument layout made the aircraft easy to handle and the Invader's tall single tail assured responsiveness in turns.
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<p>Visibility was not as good as on the A-20 because the engines were placed closer inboard and further forward, but the pilot remained able to see ahead and above remarkably well. Flight controls were provided for the pilot only (until the dual-control B-26K) and the flight deck was roomy but cluttered. The 'YOT' in the right seat (navigator or flight engineer depending on the mission) was less comfortable than those for the pilot or the dorsal radio operator/gunner. The pilot had a heavy control yoke and throttles far forward for his right-hand reach. The bomb-aimers' station on the glazed-nose A-26C, reached through a nosewheel hatch, provided a Norden bomb sight and a hand-held bomb-release button attached to a long chord to permit movement.
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<p>"Once rid of the bombs it was a real fighter," says Erly. "Not only were we almost as fast as any fighter in the air, we were almost as maneuverable. We had studies showing that at some altitudes, under some conditions, we could turn inside a Messerschmitt 109. I never heard of a fighter successfully engaging an A-26 because we had the choice. We could run away from him in the straightaway, or we could turn and fight."
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<hi style=hdr1>Specification</hi>
<hi style=hdr2>On Mark A-26A (B-26K) Counter Invader</hi>
<item><hi format=bold>Powerplant:</hi> two 2,500-hp (1,864-kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-103 W Double Wasp 18-cylinder piston engines
<item><hi format=bold>Performance:</hi> maximum speed (clean) 365 mph (587 km/h) at medium altitudes; service ceiling (maximum weight) 21,500 ft (6,555 m); typical range 1,330 miles (2,140 km)
<item><hi format=bold>Dimensions:</hi> span 70 ft 0 in (21.34 m); length 51 ft 2 in (15.6 m), 1 in (0.6 cm) longer with bombardier nose; height 18 ft 5 in (5.6 m); wing area 540 sq ft (50.17 m<su>2</su>)
<item><hi format=bold>Armament:</hi> in version illustrated, eight 0.5-in (12.7-mm) nose guns (two more in dorsal turret if fitted) plus internal bay and eight wing pylons for wide range of stores up to overall limit of 12,000 lb (5,443 kg)
