1/48 Revell B-26 "Mild and Bitter"

[Paul]

Awesome looking, again and again brother.

[Manny1943]

Where'd the 'cals come from?

[Fermis]

Where'd the 'cals come from?

The box!

[Manny1943]

Where'd the 'cals come from?

The box!

Oh, cool...didn't know that was a "well-known" plane...so the pilot also flew Flak Bait as well???

[Duke Maddog]

This rocks Fermis! I am amazed at the quality of this build; it looks like you did go all out to the nines! Way to go! So where in California is Lou? I'd love to meet him if he's in Southern California.


Once again, I bow in the presence of greatness!

[Fermis]

Oh, cool...didn't know that was a "well-known" plane...so the pilot also flew Flak Bait as well???

"Mild and Bitter" was the first to complete 100 missions.
Pilot (Lou..who this model was for) did fly "Flak Bait", as did co-pilot, Ed Vollenweider (the first model I did was for his son, Bill). The were together in "Patches" as well (as in the video w/ first post).

Why "Mild and Bitter" is famous....

It was the first Allied bomber in the European Theater of Operations to complete 100 operational missions. This was accomplished by Mild and Bitter on an afternoon raid on a Nazi airfield at Evreux/Fauville, southwest of Rouen, France, on 9 May 1944. She was a B-26B-25, Serial Number 41-31819, of the 450th Squadron in the 322nd Bomb Group (M) of the 9th Air Force and had flown her first mission on 23 July 1943. She did all this on her original engines, amassing a total of 449 hours and 30 minutes on them, 310 hours and 40 minutes of that in combat! During this time she never aborted due to mechanical failure, and not one of her many crewmen was a casualty. She was taken off operations after her 100th mission and flown back to the States to conduct War Bond selling tours.

Why "Flak Bait" is famouser...

Even more amazing was the fact that a B-26 was the first Allied bomber in the European Theater of War to fly 200 operational missions! In fact, Flak Bait, Serial Number 41-31733, actually flew 202 combat missions over a 21 month period. She was assigned to the 449th Squadron of the same 322nd Bomb Group and flew her first mission on 16 August 1943; when Mild and Bitter had completed her 100th, Flak Bait had 99. She never did get the press coverage that Mild and Bitter received, but she persevered and it paid off in the end. She flew her 202nd and last mission in early May 1945 from Airfield Y-89 at Le Culot, Belgium, from which she had also flown the now-famous 200th. (Sgt. W.J. Johnston, now of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the engineer-gunner on the third crew assigned to Flak Bait, and, although he didn't realize it at the time that it was to be her last mission, he was on it. His crew flew approximately 30 missions in Flak Bait, including numbers 199, 201, and 202. Why not number 200 when it was "their" airplane? The old military truism "Rank has its privileges" reared its ugly head for this historic event, and Sgt. Johnston's crew had to stand down that day so the top brass of the outfit could receive the glory. At least the Sarge flew on that last one and now gloats over the fact that Flak Bait is probably the most famous Marauder of them all. She was appropriately named, having absorbed over 1000 enemy hits during her combat days. Her nose section -well preserved but unrestored and in original condition- now resides in a place of honor at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. After the war, Devon Francis even wrote a book about her, appropriately titled Flak Bait.