I just completed the purchase of a postcard from Delcampe, which is a source for many European items that one rarely sees on eBay. This one is especially desirable to me. It pictures a Douglas B-26 Invader bomber being readied for a mission during the First Indochina War between the French Army and Viet Minh insurgents; I am currently working on a web page about that war.
In addition to the fact that I collect stamps, covers, postcards and collateral material about that war, the B-26 Invader is especially interesting to me because of a personal connection. In March, 1943, Donald Overturf, my father-in-law (now deceased), quit his job as an instructor at Santa Ana Junior College in California to become a supervisor on assembly lines at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach. One of the planes he worked on was the B-26 Invader, which was a light bomber and attack aircraft that saw a great deal of action in both the European and Pacific theatres of the Second World War.
Soon after the French re-occupied Indochina after the war, the United States committed billions of dollars' worth of military aid to assist the French in overcoming the Viet Minh insurgency; one of the principal aircraft that the French used was the Invader. It's possible that the B-26 pictured on this postcard was one which was built under Don's supervision.
The Invader continued to be used to some extent by American forces during the Vietnam War.
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 25 Jun 2015 04:36:08pm
re: A postcard with WWII, Indochina War, and Vietnam War connections
There is another side to the "B-26" story.
The Martin Marauder "B-26" looked quite similar to the Douglas Invader "A-26" later also called the "B-26.
In the late 1940s-early '60s we lived in Levittown near Mitchel Field and saw many of the different types landing or taking off.
The difference has to do with the wings being attached near the top of the fuselage rather than to the middle. That made it difficult to identify correctly from a distance and provoked some debates (haha) among my 6th or 7th grade school mates, especially those of us who had models of one or the other. In those days, I had a handy book that contained line drawings of just about every aircraft ever produced to date, commercial and military. I liked to win those discussions.
One difference was that the Martins were mostly retired after WW-II while the Douglas served into the 1960s and Vietnam.
Probably other nations kept some flying longer and I think the CIA used several "B-26s" flown from Nicaragua during the Cuban Missile crisis.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
re: A postcard with WWII, Indochina War, and Vietnam War connections
For a long time I too was confused about the existence of two B-26 bombers. It must have confused a lot of people, especially since they are so similar. They even had the same engines.
Note to David: The seller didn't describe the postcard or show an image of the back; I assume that it is unused.
Today I won another Delcampe auction, another First Indochina War B-26 postcard offered by another dealer:
I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that cluster of .50 calibre machine guns!
re: A postcard with WWII, Indochina War, and Vietnam War connections
Hey Charlie, you're confused too! The Douglas A-26/B-26 was the "Invader," not the "Avenger". The only Avenger I know of is the Grumman Avenger, aka the "TBF" Torpedo Bomber, aka TBM if built by General Motors. I'm guessing that you know that already. Blame your computer!
Here's a photo of a TBM that was operating as a slurry bomber in New Mexico; I took it in 1962 when I was working on a feature story about forest fire fighting for the El Paso Times:
The Avenger is the aircraft that George H.W. Bush was flying when he was shot down over Ie Jima island, where the communication centre for Japanese military in the South Pacific was located. Here's a picture of Bush in his plane:
It was a close call for Bush: He was madly paddling away from Ie Jima in a life raft, with a Japanese patrol boat in hot pursuit, when an American submarine surface nearby and rescued him.
Here's a photograph of a TBM taking off from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown:
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 25 Jun 2015 07:37:29pm
re: A postcard with WWII, Indochina War, and Vietnam War connections
HA-ha, you got me. I watched a documentary about the Yorktown yesterday and of course the destruction of Torpedo Eight at Midway. It must have slipped into my mind from that.
I'm going to edit it before someone from Wikipedia uses it as a source.
Would you believe it, I deleted "Avenger" and then began to type it in again !!! But it is fixed now. B-26/A-26 Invader it is.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
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