B-26 Marauder Footage

Hi Guys,

I found another interesting piece of footage on the British Pathe site here. It shows a number of different clips, most likely unrelated, of B-26 Marauders on an airstrip in the UK and also in the air over France.

I have identified a number of areas on the Cotentin in the sequences shot from one of the aircraft. The first location found is between time marks 07:07 and 07:16 and shows Foucarville and some of the inundated flooded marshes between the village and the coast.

Frame 427 (07:07):


| 428 | 429 | 430 | 431 | 432 | 433 | 434 | 435 |

...and 436 (07:16):


Below is the Google Earth locator chart for the start and end frames:



More to follow.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

The second sequence identified runs for 14 seconds between time marks 07:17 and 07:31. It's a wide angle oblique shot presumably from one of the B-26s' side windows looking southeastward along the D14 road.
Here is the first frame 427 (07:07):



| 438 | 439 | 440 | 441 | 442 | 443 | 444 | 445 | 446 | 447 | 448 | 449 | 450 |

...and 451 (07:31):


This is the first time I have seen aerial footage of the Brecourt battery field, albeit from very high altitude. I also wonder what the large bright object is at 'Q'?

More to follow.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Dale,

The 128th Evacuation Hospital set up at Boutteville on the 11th of June and moved again on the 22nd, so it must be sometime within that date window.

As with this and other footage, it is rarely all from the same source or date.

If you look through the full clip, there are sequences which show heavy cloud cover as the camera plane flies south westward from just north of Sainte Mere Eglise towards Chef du Pont. There is no such cloud cover visible in the early sequences above.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

The next sequence appears to be a different one from those above as cloud cover is apparent in all eight seconds. The area in view is centred on the large glider field across the D17 road from the La Londe A6 ALG:



Below is the GE finder chart:



The other 7 second frames show almost the same view:

| 453 | 454 | 455 | 456 | 457 | 458 | 459 |

Note the 'tidied up' gliders on the east side of the La Londe Farm Avenue and the northern most corner of the A6 ALG. I have also referenced field SME-H-21 from the Glider Landing Site Survey field index.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

The next sequence shows a run over DZ 'O' to the west of Sainte Mere Eglise. This is the first time I have seen the locations of quite a few gliders in this area and even though cloud cover is a problem, these new locations add significantly to our knowledge base.

British Pathe seem to have restricted the viewing of stills to the first minute of footage so the screenshots below are not as sharp as they could have been:

Time mark 07min 39sec:


Time mark 07min 44sec:


Time mark 07min 47sec:


Time mark 07min 51sec:


...and the GE finder chart (aircraft is flying WSW):



Note the stepped hedgerow and Waco 1 marked on the first of the four screenshots. Both appear in one of the first NCAP images I obtained a number of years back; TARA_ACIU_US30_4108_1062, flown on the 8th June:


Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.aerial.rcahms.gov.uk

Note also the La Couture Farm avenue leading to the 82nd Divisional CP just visible on the last of the four screenshots above.

I wonder if the original of this sequence shows the N13 as it appears to be just out of shot as the sequence opens. It is probably shot from too high an altitude to show any wrecks on the roads in any case...but you never know

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Hans,

If you can find more locations from this footage, do please post them here. I used screenshots for the heavy cloud locations above only because I could not get the stills to show the gliders without cloud on LZ 'O'.

There are other locations shown such as Torignie sur Vire, easily identifiable by the 'question mark' shaped lake, and I think also one second of the raid on the Clecy viaduct.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Hans,

Have you found any further locations in the B-26 Marauder footage?

Thanks,

Pat

 

Hi Hans,

Are you depending on the bunker only to tie this location?

I could be wrong, but I think these bunkers were a standard type used on many beaches to house 50mm AT guns (sometimes facing inland).

I cannot see a match for the pathways behind the beach as shown in the B-26 footage still and the groynes seem to be fully intact which would be unusual for an invasion beach.

Like I say I could be wrong

Regards,

Pat

 

However...

There certainly is some footage of Gold Beach in the film, so perhaps you do have the correct location Hans

​

These guys seem to be flying at a higher altitude on a slightly different course but the formation may be splitting up to hit two different targets...also I presume they would climb after crossing the beachhead area to avoid German flak to the south.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Hans,

Have you seen the intact groynes (sand traps) in any other cover for Gold Beach?

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Hans,

I note that the few seconds of footage before your still shows both sea and air traffic traveling in the opposite direction to that of the Marauders - I wonder could the sand traps be on the south coast of England as the aircraft head home :dodgy:

I had a look at the beach in front of Bournemouth and Brighton as just two examples where sand traps are used extensively today. The locations show huge post war sea front development so I cannot judge if these are possible locations.

Staying on on our side of the Channel, I found that Pont Herbert has also become much bigger that it was in 1944, however the 'lazy W' double bend in the River Vire is unmistakeable:

​

The town cemetery, marked 'C', has also grown proportionally over the years!

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Hans,

Just in case you are checking, I tried going round the Isle of Wight last night with no success.

Regards,

Pat