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Claims attributed to Charles Mendenhall's Deadly Duo

[edit ]

There are two incorrect claims in the article that I can trace back to Mendenhall's Deadly Duo, one which cites it as a source directly (source 1) and another that cites a NMUSAF factsheet (source 42) which itself has no source but seems be based on a misunderstanding of a passage of Mendenhall's book.

Claim #1: "The 5,288 serial numbers published in Mendenhall's Deadly Duo effectively refutes the lesser count of the National Air and Space Museum." (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder#cite_note-2)

One can argue that Mendenhall claims 5,157 B-26s were built, or that he claims 5,269 B-26s were built, but not 5,288. Mendenhall states that 5,157 B-26s were built on page 66, a total that is likely excluding the 109 B-26B-45-MAs converted into AT-23As (5,266 - 109 = 5,157). This total contradicts another cited in his book: if one counts all aircraft listed in his serial number breakdown (p. 151-157) they will arrive at a total of 5,269 aircraft.

This is because Mendenhall lists three aircraft twice: 40-1380 (under B-26 and XB-26D), 41-17704 (under B-26B and B-26B-2), and 44-68221 (under B-26G-25 and XB-26H), thus the correct total is 5,266 (5,269 - 3 = 5,266). The reason he lists 40-1380 twice is likely because he does not know that 40-1380 is the XB-26D (Martin drawings 257000, 257007 & 08 and several others confirm its identity). The other two aircraft are likely oversights because the aircraft were built in one configuration but modified into another. This book does not at any point claim that 5,288 B-26s were built, despite being listed as the source for this claim. I have done the math several times using excel and cannot arrive at 5,288. Per Joe Baugher and the source falsely refuted in the claim, B-26 serial numbers are: 40-1361 through 1561, 41-7345 through 7483, 41-17544 through 18334, 41-31573 through 32072, 41-34673 through 35872, 42-43260 through 43459, 42-95629 through 96528, 42-107471 through 107855 (42-107471 through 108470 ordered, but 42-107856 through 108470 cancelled), 43-34115 through 34614, 44-67805 through 68254. (source: https://app.aircorpslibrary.com/unit/b-26 also list B-26 serial numbers

Claim #2: "Beginning with block 10, the wingspan was increased from 65 feet (20 m) to 71 feet (22 m) and flaps were added outboard of the engine nacelle to improve handling problems during landing caused by high wing loads." (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder#cite_ref-B26B10_fact_44-0)

While this claim is quoting its source correctly, the claim itself is wrong and I suspect its origin is the following passage from page 70 of Deadly Duo: "An inboard and outboard slotted (after the B-26B) flap was located on either side of the nacelle on each wing." The statement means that the flaps were slotted after the B-26B, not that outboard flaps were added after the B-26B, Mendenhall's phrasing was ambiguous. The short wing models were fitted with split-slotted flaps (sometimes called just split flaps or just slotted flaps, they were made of only the bottom surface of the wing but produced a gap between themselves and the wing when extending), while the long wing Marauders used regular slotted flaps. There are an extremely large number of sources that prove that the short wing B-26s had outboard flaps, such as any photo of a short wing B-26 with its flaps down, but also the following:

Glenn L. Martin Company drawings (my own collection, from microfilm duplicates purchased from the Smithsonian): -General Assembly drawings 257000, 311000 and 313000 (for the B-26, B-26A & B-26B respectively), -B-26, B-26A & B-26B Installation, Flaps, Inboard & Outboard, Outer Wing. Drawing 257034, -B-26, B-26A & B-26B Wing Flap Assembly, Outboard. Drawings 257037 & 38. Note: Martin calls all short wing B-26Bs (41-17544 through 41-18184) "B-26B" and all long wing B-26Bs (41-18185 through 41-18334, 41-31573 through 41-32072, 42-43260 through 42-43459 and 42-95629 through 42-95228) "B-26B1", so the above drawings refer only to the short wing models. The general assembly drawing for the B-26B1 (long wing B-26B models) is 344000, and the outboard flap assembly drawings for it are 361391 & 92.

Manuals: -Handbook of Operation & Flight Instructions for the Model B-26, April 11th, 1941, pages 6, 8 and 9. -Technical Order No. 01-35EA-1: Handbook of Operation & Flight Instructions for the Models B-26 and B-26A Bombardment Airplanes manufactured by the Glenn L. Martin Company, March 20th, 1942, page 3 paragraph 1-a. -Technical Order No. 01-35EA-2: Handbook of Service Instructions for B-26, B-26A, and B-26B Airplanes, November 25th, 1942, page 41 paragraph 2-a-3 and page 45. (Available here https://app.aircorpslibrary.com/document/viewer/ap20b26jw51?p=49, already set to page 45 in document, which is 49 in the PDF)

I hope this post is useful and apologize for the bad formatting. There are other claims that need addressing but I will do so later. The article is very informative and overall very factually correct, avoiding several incorrect claims that get repeated very often in other sources. MattG179 (talk) 04:39, 2 June 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

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