Marauder 41-31585, what happened?

Total speculation on my part but possibly a dead stick landing due to fuel starvation? Possible battle damage to the fuel tanks or transfer system or the like. Pilot may have come up short on landing or otherwise was not able to keep the bird on the runway which in turn lead to the failure of the nose wheel. It seems more likely to me that both engines were feathered at the time of the landing so just trying to work out an explanation to fit that scenario.

Feathering the engines is the WORSE thing to do. A feathered prop can act like a plow blade and dig in, ripping engines and wings off. A blade in take off pitch will fold back with minimal damage to the engines and airframe

Surprising. Any instances of this?

In that case you might be right, I assumed they were hydraulically adjustable but didn’t check that.

As for manually feathering the props, chances of that having been done are slim if you ask me. You’d have to drain the oil out of the engines and use a tool to twist the blades.

Didn’t the B26 use Curtis Electric props? I assume these can be feathered without the engines running.

Feathering the engines is the WORSE thing to do. A feathered prop can act like a plow blade and dig in, ripping engines and wings off. A blade in take off pitch will fold back with minimal damage to the engines and airframe

That’s one of those facts that may or may not have been known to the crew at the time. Perhaps they knew it but decided that with the mains down, shutting down and feathering the engines might prevent them from getting damaged. They might have decided differently without any gear legs down.

As for manually feathering the props, chances of that having been done are slim if you ask me. You’d have to drain the oil out of the engines and use a tool to twist the blades. It would probably be easier to just remove the props in such a case as putting force on those blades to get them to this position would not be very practical.

I’m sure they do, but would they stop in the feathered position?

Adrian

Metal props at idle coming into contact with concrete stop rotating very quickly.

With both engines feathered the crew were most likely at a decision point between most or all of the crew bailing out if needed or just trying to make the field if possible. The props clearly weren’t turning when the plane reached the ground, no chord-wise scratches and only a bent tip or two on the low side. We don’t know if the engines were damaged separately or if possibly they both suffered fuel starvation. Whatever caused the last engine to stop turning, the crew was able to feather it while they still had oil in the prop hub, which greatly increased their glide range, options, and chances of survival.

The B-26 has 3 gear levers on the back side of the center pedestal. The first lever is the normal gear extension/retraction lever, the second is the Emergency Nose Gear lever, and the third is the Emergency Main Gear lever. The 2 Emergency levers operate shuttle valves between the normal and emergency systems. Normal operation of the landing gear, flaps, and brakes is hydraulic, and pressure is provided by 2 engine-driven pumps, one in each engine. If these both fail and pressure falls below 130 lbs., emergency pressure can be provided by a hand pump to operate the doors and locks of the nose gear and mains by 2 separate emergency systems. Emergency procedures are to use the nose gear lever first and hand pump the nose gear down and locked, then using the main gear lever the hand pump only needs to provide enough pressure to open the doors and release the uplock and gravity will cause the mains to drop and the air load will lock them into place. After the nose gear is down and locked if the mains don’t come down the extended nose gear will minimize fuselage damage. If you were to put the mains down first and then the nose gear wouldn’t extend, loss of ship and crew injuries were more likely. If the nose gear won’t come down first, you would never put the mains down but would belly land.

So it looks like the crew did a great job and were able to feather both engines and then get all 3 gear down and locked but then broke the nose gear on landing. They would have been on emergency hydraulic systems so may have had little or no control of brakes and flight surfaces and suffered a runway excursion. The B-26 doesn’t have nose wheel steering, the wheel can swivel 45 degrees left or right of center and is controlled by differential braking and engine power at speeds below rudder effectiveness. I’m guessing that the photographer from the 1361st Photographic Squadron who took this shot may be standing at the edge of the runway or it is out of frame to the left side.

Descriptions of many of the 386th Bomb Group missions are online but I haven’t seen any for the day in question. The 386th BG B-26s were bombing some important targets during this period and for every real invasion target they attacked they were instructed to bomb 2 targets in other areas to act as diversions from their actual intended purpose.

The props seemed to have both stop rotating in the best position to prevent engine damage so I’d suggest that the threat of a post-landing nose wheel collapse is the explanation. The props being hand rotated into a position where they would do the least damage.

So where on the airfield was the photo taken? There is no obvious sign that the aircraft has ploughed along the ground up to that point. Perhaps it landed okay and was then towed away, the props having been manually positioned to protect against a possible nosegear collapse? Then the expected happened?
All speculation of course.

Just a guess but if they knew that the nosewheel was going to collapse, perhaps they shut down the engines on final to limit the damage to the engines.

Feathering the engines is the WORSE thing to do. A feathered prop can act like a plow blade and dig in, ripping engines and wings off. A blade in take off pitch will fold back with minimal damage to the engines and airframe

Just a guess but if they knew that the nosewheel was going to collapse, perhaps they shut down the engines on final to limit the damage to the engines.

That’s the pic! See what I mean about the props?

Thank you all, by the way, for not picking up on my typo of the date… oops! I blame trying to type in a tablet.

Adrian

According to “FOLD3”
23 June 1944: B-26B serial 41-31585 ‘Blazing Heat’ (coded AN-J) of the 553rd Bomb Sq, 386th BG suffered a nosewheel collapse on landing as a result of battle damage.

Martin B-26B-15-MA Marauder

41-31585 (386th BG,553rd BS ) Crash landed at base June 22 1944.

Source.1941 USAAF serial numbers.

Not much more than you started with,good luck.

Regards Mike