100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE
BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 55Above
A Baltimore, believed
to be from 454
Squadron Royal
Australian Air Force,
being man-handled
out of the mud on
a southern Italian
airstrip, 1944.Left
Maryland I AR735
served with 431 Flight
and 69 Squadron
from Luqa, Malta,
from late 1940. It was
in this aircraft that Flt
Lt Adrian Warburton
and his crew were
attacked erroneously
by a Hurricane
while approaching
Malta on February
13, 1942.
PETER GREEN
COLLECTIONMARYLAND AND BALTIMORE
MARTIN MARYLAND AND BALTIMORE
Type: Four-crew light bomber
First fl ight: June 14, 1941, entered service January 1942
Powerplant: Two 1,660hp (1,238kW) Wright Double Cyclone GR-2600 radials
Dimensions: Span 61ft 4in (18.69m), Length 48ft 6in (14.78m)
Weights: Empty 15,200lb (6,894kg), All-up 23,000lb (10,432kg)
Max speed: 302mph (486km/h) at 11,000ft (3,352m)
Range: 950 miles (1,528km)
Armament: Two machine guns in each wing, two in dorsal turret and two in
ventral position. Up to 2,000lb (907kg) of bombs
Replaced: Bristol Blenheim from 1942; Lockheed Ventura from 1944
Taken on charge: 1,575
Replaced by: Consolidated Liberator, de Havilland Mosquito, Douglas Boston and
Vickers Wellington from 1944MARTIN BALTIMORE III equipped Mk.IIIs, IVs and Vs.
The first unit to take the Baltimore
to war was 223 Squadron at Tmimi,
Libya, in January 1942. Australian
and RAF Baltimores operated
extensively in North Africa, across
to Sicily and throughout the Italian
campaign.
Under Wg Cdr H N Garbert,
500 Squadron took delivery of itsfirst Baltimores at Pescara on Italy’s
Adriatic coast in September 1944.
Atrocious weather conditions turned
Pescara and other airstrips in the
region into mud baths and it was not
until December that the unit could
begin offensive sorties. German troop
concentrations, road and rail choke
points were the main targets for 500’s
Baltimores.
The squadron also undertook
leaflet dropping and sorties across
the Adriatic to Yugoslavia. There the
bombers were directed to objectives
by partisan forces and 500 also carried
out supply drops to the freedom
fighters.
A Baltimore failed to return from a
sortie out of Casenatico in late April- Flying south of Graz in Austria
there was a tussle with an ill-informed
Soviet fighter and a forced landing
was called for. The crew returned to
the unit in the first days of May. By
that time 500 Squadron was based at
Villaorba and preparing to celebrate
VE-Day.
In October 1945 orders were issued
to redeploy to Eastleigh in Kenya.
There 500 Squadron was re-numbered
249 Squadron. This unit was the
last to fly Baltimores, trading them
in during the spring of 1946 for de
Havilland Mosquitos.
he shot down an enemy bomber in
flames. Fg Off Warburton has at
all times displayed a fine sense of
devotion to duty.”
Detached to the USAAF’s 7th
Photographic Reconnaissance Group,
Sqn Ldr Warburton DSO* DFC**
and US DFC failed to return on April
12, 1944. His body was found in
the wreckage of his Lockheed F-5B
(modified P-38 Lightning) in 2002 to
the west of Munich; it seems he had
been shot down.UNSUNG BOMBER
By the time the RAF was accepting
diverted Marylands from theFrench order, the deep pockets of
the British Purchasing Commission
had already signed a contract with
Martin for a much more developed
version of the Model 167. This was
named Baltimore and it became a
reliable, if unsung, bomber used
almost exclusively in North Africa
and across the Mediterranean.
The Maryland was fitted with
1,200hp (895kW) Pratt & Whitney
Twin Wasps, but the Baltimore
adopted 1,660hp Wright Double
Cyclones. It featured a much deeper
fuselage, allowing for a large bomb
bay. The more basic Mk.Is and
IIs were followed by the turret-“A Baltimore failed to return from a sortie
out of Casenatico in late April 1945. Flying
south of Graz in Austria there was a tussle
with an ill-informed Soviet fi ghter and a
forced landing was called for.”