The Question Mark was the plane my dad flew many missions in during the early days of the Korean War. He was a sergeant in the 730th Squadron, 452nd Bomber Wing, 5th Air Force and among the first airmen sent to Korea when the war broke out. The plane was a Douglas B26 Invader medium bomber/attack aircraft, originally designated A26 when it first appeared late in WWII. When the Martin B26 Marauder was decommissioned in the late 1940s the Douglas A26 was re-designated as the B26. The Invader was one of the only planes to fly combat missions in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
This version of the plane was powered by two Pratt and Whitney 2,000hp radial piston engines and had a three man crew; pilot, navigator/bombardier and gunner. Instead of a glass nose for the bombardier, the Question Mark had a hard nose with eight .50 caliber machine guns. Three more were in each wing, and there was a total of eighteen. 4,000 pounds of bombs were carried in the bomb bay, and a 750 pound napalm bomb and up to seven rockets were carried under each wing. The machine guns were loaded with 5,000 rounds of armor piercing incendiary ammo.
My dad flew 68 combat missions as the gunner. They were supposed to rotate home after 50 missions, but a snafu kept him in action longer. He controlled two twin .50 caliber machine gun turrets with the first remote control device used by the US Air Force. His compartment was just aft of the bomb bay. The upper turret had a 360 degree swing while the lower one only covered the aft 180 degrees. He aimed these by viewing through a periscope type device. Dad was there when the Chinese entered the war and he flew many missions attacking them as they crossed the Yalu River. He also flew missions in support of the US Marines at the frozen Chosin Reservoir. On several of these his heater was not working and he paid the price for that. Upon returning to their home base in Japan, he had to be carried from his plane because he could not walk due to being frozen almost stiff. Even so, when it was time to fly the next mission, he was on the job.
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