The RAF had far fewer B25's available than the USAAF had B26's, often it was the case that the RAF would carry out medium bomber raids with up to three sorts of bomber aircraft usually Havocs, B25s and Mosquitos in different waves at different heights. The RAF and USAAF eventually pretty much settled on using their respective B25's and B26's from between 10-15000 feet on similar targets. I recently read a very good book called Third Reich Intruders which told the story of the RAF's medium bomber attacks against occupied Europe from UK bases. The Marauders operated by the SAAF, RAF and Twelfth Air Force in the general Mediterranean area did great things but as I have not read of them in many years they are not fresh in my memory, perhaps I should read a little on how both these bombers were used by the Americans in this theatre. Um having had time to think about this a little more the thought I had in my head last night when I wrote this thread was more along the lines of which was the better bomber in Northern Europe rather than the better bomber in general. A burst of production of A-26 models at the end of the war meant that there were enough A-26s around to man the front-line medium bomber units that remained after post-war downsizing. The A-26 carried the same or greater bomb load as the B-26 over the same or greater distance, but it was a good 50 MPH faster and had a smaller crew. Another factor moving the B-26 out to pasture was the arrival of the Douglas A-26 Invader. What was important was that the B-25 was readily available, had enough fuselage room to carry a useful load of people and stuff, was easy yet rewarding to fly and had low operating costs. After the war, the fact that the B-26 was slightly faster than the B-25 wasn't important. North American embraced the field experiments using the B-25 as a dedicated strafer and skip-bomber. That's extra important at the end of a long supply line. Presumably, it was a lot less resource intensive to fly.
The B-25 was somewhat less powerful than the B-26, but it was also lighter. The B-26 could not bomb from the same altitude as the B-24 or B-17, and it didn't have the range of the heavies. It's two engines were only 20% less powerful than the 4 engines on the B-24 and B-17. The B-26 was like a 2-engined substitute for a heavy bomber. I can only guess the reason why the B-25 remained in service but the B-26 did not. I had the most problems with medium bombers. As a mental exercise, I tried to come up with my own list of the top 20 combat aircraft of World War II. Pattle, yours was a nice, concise summary of B-25 vs. I think in the B25 and B26 we have a rare opportunity to compare two separate aircraft on a level playing field. I wonder if the early reputation of the B26 as a dangerous aircraft coupled with the fame of the B25 through it's various exploits such as the Doolittle raid was responsible for the B26s downfall and obscurity.
The RAF chose to use the B26 in the Med and the B25 in Northern Europe while the USAAF chose to do things the opposite way around by using their B26's in Northern Europe and their B25's in the Med, my understanding is that this situation mostly occurred due to there having been a need for USAAF medium bombers in North Africa at a time when only the newly arrived B25's based in England were available, from what I can gather both aircraft were successful in both theatres.Īt wars end however the B26 was fast tracked to the scrapyard while the B25 managed for some years to secure a limited future in the new USAF, consequently today while we are rather flushed with B25's while only a very small number of B26's survive. The attributes of these two planes did vary somewhat with the B26 being faster and able to carry a heavier bomb load than the B25 which balanced out it's comparative weaknesses with greater range and ceiling than the B26. The B25 and B26 were aircraft of a similar nature both being armed twin engine bombers designed and used for broadly the same purpose. Sorry if this thread has already been done, I did look back but surprisingly I couldn't see anything.
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