Operational overview - Military

World War II

Douglas A-26 B

The Douglas company began delivering the production model A-26B in August 1943. Invaders first saw action with the Fifth Air Force in the Southwest Pacific theater on 23 June 1944, when they bombed Japanese-held islands near Manokwari.

They began arriving in Europe in September 1944 for assignment to the Ninth Air Force, and entered combat two months later on 19 November.

Post War era

The USAF Strategic Air Command had the B-26 (RB-26) in service from 1949 through 1950. The US Navy also used a small number of these aircraft in their utility squadrons for target towing and general utility use. The Navy designation was JD-1 and JD-1D until 1962, when the JD-1 was redesignated UB-26J and the JD-1D was redesignated DB-26J.

Korean War

Invaders carried out the first USAF bombing mission of the Korean War on 29 June 1950 when they bombed an airfield outside of Pyongyang. Invaders were credited with the destruction of 38,500 vehicles, 406 locomotives, 3,700 railway trucks, and seven enemy aircraft on the ground. On 14 September 1951, Captain John S. Walmsley Jr attacked a supply train. When his guns jammed he illuminated the target with his searchlight to enable his wingmen to destroy the target. Walmsley was shot down and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Invaders carried out the last USAF bombing mission of the war 24 minutes before the cease fire was signed on 27 June 1953.

First Indochina War

In the 1950s, the French Airforce's Bombing Groups (Groupe de Bombardement) including GB 1/19 Gascogne and GB 1/25 Tunisia used USAF-lent B-26 during the First Indochina War.

Cat Bi (Haiphong) based Douglas B-26 Invaders operated over Dien Bien Phu in March and April 1954 during the siege of Dien Bien Phu. In this period a massive use of Philippines based USAF B-26s against the Viet Minh heavy artillery was planned by the U.S. and French Joint Chief of Staff as for Operation Vulture, but it was eventually cancelled by the respective governments.

The USAF in Southeast Asia

The first B-26s to arrive in Southeast Asia were deployed to Takhli RTAB, Thailand in December of 1960. These unmarked aircraft, operated under the auspices of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, were soon augmented by an additional 16 aircraft, 12 B-26Bs and Cs and four RB-26Cs under Operation Mill Pond. The mission of all of these aircraft was to assist the Royal Lao Government in fighting the Pathet Lao. The repercussions from the Bay of Pigs invasion meant that no combat missions are known to have been flown, though RB-26Cs operated over Laos until the end of 1961. The aircraft were subsequently operated in South Vietnam under Project Farm Gate. The only other deployment of B-26 aircraft to Laos prior to the introduction of the B-26K/A-26A, was the deployment of two RB-26C aircraft, specifically modified for night reconnaissance, deployed to Laos between May and July 1962 under Project Black Watch. These aircraft, initially drawn from Farm Gate stocks, were returned upon the end of these missions.

The aircraft from Laos participated in the early phase of the Vietnam War with the U.S. Air Force, but with Vietnamese markings as part of Project Farm Gate. Though Farm Gate operated B-26B, C, and actual RB-26C, many of these aircraft were in fact operated under the designation RB-26C, though they were used in a combat capacity. During 1963, two RB-26C were sent to Clark AB in the Philippines for modifications, though not with night systems as with those modified for Black Watch. The two aircraft returned from Black Watch to Farm gate were subsequently given the designation RB-26L to distinguish them from other modified RB-26C, and were assigned to Project Sweet Sue. Farm Gate's B-26s operated alongside the other primary strike aircraft of the time, the T-28 Trojan, before both aircraft types were replaced by the A-1 Skyraider.The B-26s were withdrawn from service in 1964 after two accidents related to wing spar fatigue.

In response to this, the On Mark Engineering Company of Van Nuys, California was selected by the Air Force to extensively upgrade the Invader for a counterinsurgency role. On Mark converted 40 Invaders to the new B-26K Counter Invader standard, which included upgraded engines, re-manufactured wings and wing tip fuel tanks for use by the 1st Air Commando Group. In May 1966, the B-26K was re-designated A-26A for political reasons and deployed in Thailand to help disrupt supplies moving along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Two of these aircraft were further modified with a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR system) under project Lonesome Tiger, as a part of Operation Shed Light.

Bay of Pigs

Within only a few months after the success of the Castro-led revolution which overthrew the Batista government of Cuba in January of 1959, it became clear that his new regime was going to take on a definitely Communist flavor, with nationalization of private industries, one-party rule, suppression of dissent, and the export of leftist revolutions elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere all being promised. Not about to stand idly by and let a Communist regime take hold only 90 miles from American shores, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began a series of efforts to undermine the new Castro regime in Cuba.

By September of 1960, a decision was made in Washington by the Eisenhower administration to recruit a force of anti-Castro Cuban exiles and supply them with arms so that they could invade Cuba and overthrow the Castro regime before it could consolidate its power. A group of Cuban exiles plus some American "advisors" were assembled under CIA sponsorship at secret bases at Retalhuleu in Guatemala and at Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua. The governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua were more than willing to look the other way. Anxious that the upcoming invasion be perceived as an indigenous uprising of the Cuban people rather than as an American-sponsored attack, the CIA created a number of "front" organizations to disguise its role in the sponsorship of the affair--among these were Southern Air Transport, the Double-Check Corporation, Intermountain Aviation, and Zenith Technical Enterprises, Inc.

Since a number of the Cuban exile recruits already had some B-26 experience, the decision was made to acquire about twenty surplus B-26s out of USAF surplus stocks at Tucson, Arizona. These aircraft would be used to provide air support during the upcoming invasion. These Invaders were primarily solid-nosed B versions. These planes were "purchased" by the CIA front organization Intermountain Aviation and immediately sent to the launching sites in Guatemala and Nicaragua. Since Castro's air force was also equipped with Invaders, the exile Invaders were painted in FAR colors and were provided with fake FAR serial numbers in the hope that when the operation took place, it would be perceived as a strictly local uprising within Castro's own air force and not an American-led invasion. However, it seems that the CIA was unaware of the fact that most of Castro's Invaders were transparent-nosed B-26Cs rather than solid-nosed B-26Bs. At the same time, a group of B-26Bs had separately been provided to the air force of Guatemala, and these planes were used for training of the exile group.

The invasion began on the morning of April 15, with an attack by two exile B-26s on the Santiago de Cuba airfield. Other B-26s hit the Libertad airfield and the base at San Antonio de los Banos. One exile B-26 was shot down during the attack on Libertad, and two exile B-26s were damaged severely enough that they had to divert to emergency airfields at Key West, Florida and on Grand Cayman Island. As part of the deception campaign at the beginning of the attack, a Liberation Air Force B-26B painted as FAR serial number 933 and equipped with fake battle damage landed at Miami, claiming that it was a defecting Cuban aircraft which had strafed and bombed some of Castro's air force as it escaped.

Still other B-26s supported the Bay of Pigs invasion itself, which began on April 17. Unfortunately, there was no fighter cover provided during the invasion, and a group of FAR Sea Furies immediately attacked the landing fleet and sunk one of the ships. There was even a situation in which a FAR B-26 and an invasion B-26 briefly exchanged fire, marking one of the few occasions where Invaders actually fought against each other.

Actual invasion fleet B-26 losses were eight in all, one to AAA during the initial attack on Campo Columbia and the remainder destroyed by FAR fighters. Castro's force of T-33 jet trainers proved particularly effective during the fighting, shooting down no less than five of the attacking FAL B-26s. Two more were shot down by FAR Sea Furies. Deprived of air support that could have protected the attacking force from Castro's T-33s and Sea Furies, the invasion was quickly defeated and those troops unable to escape were forced to surrender. This was a humiliating defeat for the new Kennedy administration in Washington which had inherited the invasion plan from the previous administration but nevertheless had opted to go ahead with it.

After the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation and the withdrawal of the survivors, the remaining Liberation B-26s were left to languish at Puerto Cabezas. Many of these aircraft eventually joined the ranks of the Fuerza Aerea de Nicaragua, although some were apparently returned to Davis Monthan where they were put back into storage.

A single B-26B is on display in an open-air museum at Playa Giron to commemorate the Castro victory at the Bay of Pigs. It is pained as FAR serial number 933. However, this aircraft is probably a war prize returned to Cuba from Angola and painted to commemorate the events of 1961.

Africa in the 60's

CIA mercenary pilots that may have been the same Cuban exiles flew them against "Simba" rebels in the Congo Crisis who were supported by Cubans, the Communist Chinese and the Soviets.

The Portuguese Air Force acquired Invaders for use in Angola.

Biafra used two provisionally armed B-26s in combat during Nigerian Civil War in 1967, flown among others by Jan Zumbach.

(See Biafran Invaders In "features")