Flak Bait: The Martin B-26 Marauder That Flew Two Hundred and Seven Missions

Flak Bait, a Martin B-26 Marauder assigned to the 449th Bomb Squadron, 322nd Bomb Group, Ninth Air Force, flew more combat missions than any other American aircraft in the European Theater of World War II - 207 missions in total. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum is now restoring the complete aircraft at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, preserving over 1,100 individual battle damage patches as a primary historical record of the tactical air war over Europe.

The B-26 Marauder’s Troubled Early Reputation

Martin designed the B-26 in 1939 as a high-speed medium bomber. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp radials producing nearly 2,000 horsepower each, the aircraft could cruise at approximately 215 miles per hour and carry nearly 4,000 pounds of bombs.

Its small wings - a deliberate tradeoff for aerodynamic efficiency and speed - made the aircraft exceptionally demanding to fly. Early training at MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida produced a climbing accident rate that gave rise to the saying “One a day in Tampa Bay.” Congressional hearings followed, with serious proposals to cancel the program. Crews dubbed her the “Baltimore Whore” - a sardonic reference to her small wings and the quip that she had no visible means of support.

The Army Air Forces responded by bringing in experienced instructors, revising the training syllabus, and standardizing approach speeds. The accident rate came down. Combat crews who learned to respect her handling found the Marauder genuinely durable - able to absorb battle damage, fly home on one engine, and survive conditions that would have destroyed a less robust aircraft.

What 207 Missions Actually Means

Flak Bait arrived in England in early 1943 and flew her first combat mission on May 14, 1943. Her crew painted a small bomb symbol on the nose after each one.

For scale: the Memphis Belle, the B-17 that became a wartime celebrity, completed 25 missions - enough for a crew to rotate home. Flak Bait flew more than eight times that number, outlasting crew after crew across more than two years of operations. Different pilots, different gunners, different navigators passed through that cockpit while the airframe kept flying.

Her last mission was April 25, 1945. Allied armies had crossed the Rhine, and Germany had weeks left. Flak Bait flew a final mission over a rail target, returned to base, and was stood down for good.

Over 1,100 Patches: Reading the Damage

The damage records show battle damage on nearly every mission. Some repairs were minor. Others required ground crews to work through the night to have the aircraft ready for the next morning’s briefing. Flak Bait returned to base on multiple occasions with fuselage sections torn open, control surfaces damaged, hydraulic lines cut, and landing gear that had to be manually cranked down on final approach.

Each of those 1,100-plus patches represents a hole punched through the aluminum skin by flak, rifle fire, or fighter cannon - and the subsequent repair made by field maintenance crews working on turnaround schedules they could not miss. Some patches sit directly on top of earlier patches. The layers are a legible combat history.

The Ninth Air Force’s Overlooked Air War

The B-26 crews of the Ninth Air Force flew tactical missions supporting the ground campaign - hitting railroad marshaling yards, bridges, and V-weapon sites along the French coast. These were low-altitude missions against heavily defended targets close to the front lines, where the flak was dense and gunners below had a clear angle.

The Mighty Eighth Air Force and its B-17 crews built an enduring mythology. The medium bomber crews of the Ninth received shorter chapters in the history books. Casualty rates on those low-level tactical missions were significant. Flak Bait represents not only her own successive crews but the entire body of Ninth Air Force medium bomber operations from England and later from France, through the final collapse of Germany.

The Smithsonian Restoration at Udvar-Hazy

The Smithsonian received Flak Bait’s nose section in 1950. For decades, that battered nose - mission markers still visible, patches readable under the old paint - was what the public could see. The rest of the aircraft sat in scattered storage across multiple facilities.

The full restoration at the Udvar-Hazy Center combines archaeology, detective work, and precision metalwork. Researchers tracked down scattered components by matching serial numbers and tracing paperwork across storage sites. Where originals could not be found, period-correct replacement parts were sourced or fabricated from original Martin company drawings. The restoration team has documented every single patch - its location, size, probable cause, and repair method - in detail that aerospace historians will work with for generations.

The goal is not a factory-fresh aircraft. The team is displaying Flak Bait as she actually was: a machine that was damaged, repaired, damaged again, patched with whatever aluminum sheet the field depot had on hand, and returned to the line. When the restoration is complete, visitors will be able to walk around a complete B-26 Marauder - almost certainly the only opportunity to do so anywhere in the world. Of the roughly 5,000 Marauders built, only a handful survive in any condition.

Why This Matters

The veterans who flew B-26s over occupied Europe are largely gone. The aircraft that carried them are nearly all gone too. What remains are the records, the photographs, and in rare cases the machines themselves - primary source documents of the air war that cannot be recreated once altered beyond a certain point.

The Smithsonian’s approach - preserving battle damage rather than concealing it - treats Flak Bait as the historical artifact she is. Those patches are not cosmetic blemishes to be sanded smooth before display. They are evidence of what a medium bomber crew faced on a tactical mission in 1944, and what the ground crews accomplished every night to put the aircraft back in the air. The condition of the airplane is the story.

Key Takeaways

• Flak Bait flew 207 combat missions over Europe - more than any other American aircraft in the European Theater, and more than eight times the 25 missions flown by the Memphis Belle.
• Over 1,100 battle damage patches in her aluminum skin document a mission-by-mission record of hits sustained and repairs made.
• The B-26 Marauder earned a dangerous early reputation during training, but combat crews found her exceptionally durable under the punishment of low-level tactical operations.
• The Smithsonian is restoring the complete aircraft at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, preserving all battle damage as part of the historical record rather than restoring to factory condition.
• When complete, Flak Bait will represent the often-overlooked Ninth Air Force medium bomber crews who flew tactical support missions from Normandy through the end of the war in Europe.