“Two hundred missions are a lot for any ship, but Flak-Bait carried her age well,” Col. For two years, the aircraft took everything the Germans could throw at her, including shrapnel from flak and machine-gun bullets from enemy fighters, and became the American bomber to survive the most missions of World War II. This was the 200th for the B-26B-25-MA, manufactured by Martin in 1943. They successfully led a strike against the German defensive positions and returned safely to the airfield in Belgium.īut what made this day special for Flak-Bait was the number of missions. Samuel, commanding officer of the 332nd Bombardment Group in the Ninth Air Force, had selected this aircraft as his “flagship” for the assault against Nazi targets in Magdeburg. This would be a historic flight for the aptly named Flak-Bait, and not just because it was leading the attack that day. Across its fuselage was a quiltwork of more than 1,000 patches covering holes-some as large as 16 inches-caused by shrapnel from exploding antiaircraft shells on previous combat missions. The airmen must have wondered how this plane-marked with serial number 41-31773, but better known by the nickname Flak-Bait-was even able to fly. One flight crew examined their two-engine medium bomber with particular interest. It was April 17, 1945, and World War II in Europe was nearing an end, though the killing was far from over.Īs teams of men lifted heavy bombs into the weapons bays and started rotating the large propellers on the B26 Marauders in preparation for takeoff, aircrews went through checklists and studied maps in advance of their next target: Magdeburg, Germany. At a forward airfield in Le Culot, Belgium, ground crews worked feverishly to ready the 449th Bombardment Squadron for another mission.
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