Military Variants - Technical Data, main page

	Individual aircraft armament specifications

	Research and development configurations for nose armament. One 75mm Cannon stbd, Two .50 MG port One 37mm Cannon stbd and port One 37mm Cannon stbd, Two .50 MG port One 75mm Cannon stbd, 37mm Cannon port One 37mm Cannon port, Four .50 MG Stbd Four .50 MG stbd, 37mm Cannon port Four .50 MG stbd, Two .50 MG port Six .50 MG, four stbd / Two port Another config studied was for two new design quick-firing 37mm Cannons in a ventral pack with magazines extending into the bomb-bay. The .50Mg wing guns were introduced at the A-26B-50-DL (solid nose) and A-26C-30-DT (glass nose) production blocks.   Guns - Late model A-26B 8 - 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the nose 6-8 - 0.50 in M2 machine guns in/under the wings (internally mount or gun pods) 2 - 0.50 in M2 machine guns in remote-controlled dorsal turret 2 - 0.50 in M2 machine guns in remote-controlled ventral turret (or fuel cell) Bombs: 6,000 lb (2,700 kg)-4,000 lb in the bomb bay and 2,000 lb external on the wings (post A-26C-45-DT block introduction).   Note: The C-Model, was typically was built with 2 forward firing .50's, plus 2-twin barbettes and additional guns were added to the wings once delivered for operations in the field. C-models performed as pathfinders and observation aircraft often, and were fewer in production numbers. Original A-26B from Original Pilot’s Training Manual was listed as having 6 configurations for the "All Purpose Nose" (The B model) – not counting the original two "4-pack" gun pods option that could be mounted under the wings (before the 6 internal .50's - 3 per wing - were done with/after 45-block). 6 - .50s (later upped to 8) – most commonly ordered configuration 1 - 37mm and 4 - .50's 1 - 37mm and 2 - .50's 2 - 37mm’s (gah!) 1 - 75mm and 1 - 37 mm (Racks held 20 rounds for manually loaded 75mm) 1 - 75mm and 2 -.50's (30 actually ordered and deployed)   Ordnance Up to 6,000 lb, consisting of 2 × 2,000 lb max in 2 internal bays, plus 4 underwing hardpoints rated at 500 lb each. Total of 20 hard points, but maximum of 16 could be used at any one time points. Loadout was generally: 4 - 1,000 lb, or 8 - 500 lb, or 8 - 250 lb, or 12 - 100 lb internal 4 - 500 lb or 4 - 250 lb under the wings additional typical, 4 - 100 lbs possible Torpedoes/rockets: 14 - 5 inch rockets under the wings instead of bombs. Original Training Guide also lists 2 torpedoes carried internally (doors open), but I don't think it was ever used this way in WWII, since by that time, Axis fleets were mostly done, and an A-26 low and slow for torps is not a good use of that plane.)   Ammunition for C-model: 500 rpg for each twin - .50 barbette 400 rpg for 2 forward nose .50's and 6 wing-mounted .50's Ammunition for B-model: 500 rpg for each twin .50 barbette 400 rpg for 6 wing-mounted .50 cal MG options for nose 6 - nose mounted .50's w 400 rpg 8 - nose mounted .50's w 400 rpg 1 - 75mm cannon w 20 rds, 3-5 second load time (manual) plus 2 - .50's with 400 rpg (no 37mm options ever ordered from factory I am aware of, and may have been intended for Lend-Lease....so I left them out). In brief:   A-26 Invader Forward Firing Armament Options Notes: Green Text indicates that nose was put into actual production; red text indicates it remained only on paper. References: Douglas A-26 and B-26 Invader by Scott Thompson   Nose Type Armament XA-26C 37mm 4 x M4 or X-9 37mm Cannon (32 rpg) Bombardier Nose 2 x M2 .50 Cal MGs (400 rpg) (Mounted on Right Side) All Purpose Nose Six Gun Nose (Photo) 2 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Left) (400 rpg) 4 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Right) (400 rpg) All Purpose Nose Eight Gun Nose 4 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Left) (360 rpg) 4 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Right) (360 rpg) All Purpose Nose 37mm / .50 #1 (Photo) 1 x M9 37mm Cannon (Left) (75 rpg) 4 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Right) (400 rpg) All Purpose Nose 37mm / .50 #2 2 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Left) (400 rpg) 1 x M9 37mm Cannon (Right) (75 rpg) All Purpose Nose 37mm (Photo) 1 x M9 37mm Cannon (Left) (75 rpg) 1 x M9 37mm Cannon (Right) (75 rpg) All Purpose Nose 75mm / .50 2 x M2 .50 cal MGs (Left) (400 rpg) 1 x T13E1 75mm Cannon (Right) (20 rpg) All Purpose Nose 75mm / 37mm 1 x M9 37mm Cannon (Left) (75 rpg) 1 x T13E1 75mm Cannon (Right) (20 rpg)

	Clarification I had a mail recently from a C. O. Smith who worked with the A-26 during the Korean war. He wrote, In your description of the armament on the B-26 you indicated that the bomb load was 4000 Ib's. During the Korean war, when  we carried only 500 Ib bombs, the load was 10 -500 Ib's, six in the bomb bay  plus  two 500 Ib bombs under each wing.  In addition we often carred two flares - one on each wing. When we carred 260 Ib frags, we double and tripple hung them in the bomb bay (three double hung on one side and three tripple hung on the other side)   so that we carred 15- 260 frags plus the four  500 # wing bombs. For a total load of 5900 Ib's. "We flew them off the runway at a max gross of 40K Ib's." Other load options were Bomb Racks 3 - each side internal 4 - 2 per wing external 2 - 1 per wing photoflash All A/C were eventually equipped with rocket launch stations.     In Brief:     A-26 Invader Approved Uniform Bomb loads References: Douglas A-26 and B-26 Invader by Scott Thompson Loading Mix # Bomb Bay Total Payload 1 4 x 1,000 lb 4,000 lbs 2 6 x 500 lb 3,000 lbs 3 8 x 250 lb 2,000 lbs 4 16 x 100 lb 1,600 lbs 5 2 x Mk 13 Torpedoes 4,432 lbs 6 4 x Mk 26 1,000 lb Naval Mines 4,000 lbs Notes: On the underside of each wing were two hardpoints designed to accept bomb racks, chemical tanks, or machine gun pods. Each rack could carry a single 100, 300 or 500 lb bomb; thus with a full wing rack loadout; four 500 lb bombs could be carried in addition to the bomb bay payload. When used with machine gun pods, each hardpoint could carry a single pod containing a pair of M2 .50 caliber MGs, each provided with 300 rpg. Thus, when fitted with four gun pods, an A-26 had eight machine guns and 2,400 rounds in addition to whatever was fitted in the nose. (Photo of Gun Pods) Later A-26s could carry seven 5” HVAR rockets per wing, for a total of 14.

	Gun round ejections   Ron Lapp from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, sent in the above three drawings along with the narrative attached, thanks Ron. Hi Martin, I finally received some definitive information concerning how the expended cases and links in the solid nose 8 gun A-26B Invader were handled. I posted my question on the Yahoo A-26 forum, which you had listed on your web site, and Rick Elwood from the Pacific Coast Air Museum in Santa Rosa, CA responded that "The 8-gun nose collected spent shells and links in a canvas bag in the lower rear part of the nose. They were removed after each flight through a large access door in the bottom aft of the nose." I asked him if he could send me the pages which covered this in the technical document that he referred to (Maintenance and Erection Manual AN 01-40AJ-2) and I recently received this excellent information. I scanned the three pages and thought I would send them to you and you could post them in the "Drawings/Illustrations" section of your web site if you wished. I checked with Rick to ensure it was okay with him, and he gave me the green light. I am therefore enclosing the three pages from the Maintenance Manual for your information. In the e-mail that you sent me on April 14 2008, which contained Don Vogler's comments from a B-26K armament crewmembers, it sounded like the cases and links were not collected in a bag, but rather just piled up in the nose of the aircraft under the guns. I sent Don a subsequent e-mail to try and get some further clarification, but as of yet, I have not heard from him. If I do, I will let you now.

	B-26K Gun management Most pilots considered the gun set-up on the K as first rate. They were newly manufactured and dependable and eight guns with a couple of thousand rounds of .50 caliber gave a lot of fire-power. The fire control panel for the .50s was on the center overhead console, just in front of the emergency jettison handle of the clamshell canopy. The .50 cal. trigger was on the right horn of the pilot's yoke. Guns were fired electrically, charged pneumatically. On a gun run the nav. usually charged the guns as the pilot rolled in. Coming off the target the nav. held the "gun hold-back switch" open to keep the breeches open and let the guns cool down. Most pilots experience on the B-Model and those guns were anything but reliable. At Bien Hoa most Bs had six-gun noses. A couple had eight gun set-ups and a couple had 14 guns in the wings and nose. They were all bad when it came to fouling, jamming, cooking-off and burning out. Every aircraft had its own history and there was no telling how old most of those guns were. Barrels were burned-out and scrapped regularly. On strafing runs, guns would start and stop firing randomly and it was the navigators job to do a quick re-charge when itgot down to 2 or 3 guns firing. Navigators always tried to hold the breeches open for a couple of extra seconds to get fresh air blowing into the barrels. When coming off of strafing runs it was common to have rounds cook-off long after the pilot released the trigger. On the six-gun nose the number five and six gun was not in the nose but in the right side of the fuselage right in front of the cockpit. That put the breeches of those two guns right in front of the navigator’s knees. There was suppose be a canvas curtain separating the cockpit from the gun bay but it had usually rotted away. When in action the cockpit was filled with smoke and cordite. generally the canvas curtain in front of the bomb bay was usually gone too, as well as other canvass gaskets and rubber canopy seals so that wind constantly roared thru the cockpit. A guy could get a chart sucked right out of his hand thru the crack in the canopy where the seal had long since rotted away.  Some Bs had manually-charged guns. There was a panel just below the nav’s instrument panel that had six cables dangling out of it. Each of these cables had a T-handle that let the navigator manually pull open the breech on each gun. It took a pretty good tug on each T-handle to chamber a shell and navigators were always told to charge twice.

SITE NAVIGATION