Canadian Warplanes 3: Martin Maryland

Martin Maryland

(IWM Photo, A 8223)

Martin Maryland Mk. I, photo reconnaissance aircraft of No 771 Squadron Fleet Air Arm.

The Maryland was an American medium bomber first flown in 1939. Martin's design was a twin-engine all-metal monoplane, capable of around 310 mph (500 km/h) with a crew of three. The XA-22 was not adopted for operational service in the U.S., because the contract was won by the Douglas DB-7, which became the A-20 Havoc, but Martin received foreign orders, and about 450 of the fast, twin-engined bombers were built.

The prototype Model 167W was powered by twin-row Pratt & Whitney R-1830-37 Twin Wasp engines, which were replaced in French production aircraft by single-row nine-cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines, although the Twin Wasps were then restored for the British Maryland. All versions of the Model 167 were armed with six machine guns, four fixed guns in the wings (mainly for ground-attack), one dorsal gun and one ventral gun. In the prototype, these guns were all 0.30 in Browning machine guns. The dorsal gun was mounted in a fully retractable turret. The French aircraft used license-built Belgian Fabrique Nationale FN-Brownings, and used a lighter semi-retractable dorsal turret. The weight saved helped to increase the top speed to 288 mph (463 km/h).

The Model 167 was a fairly typical twin-engined bomber of the period. The most unusual feature of the Model 167 was the very narrow fuselage, although it was shared with a number of late prewar contemporaries. The crew of three was carried in two isolated compartments: the bombardier sat in the nose below the pilot and the gunner was in the mid-upper twin-machine gun turret in a separate rear compartment, isolated by a bulkhead.

Glenn L. Martin doubled the size of the Baltimore factory, and built all 115 aircraft in six months, but they were prevented from delivering them by a US government arms embargo. Despite that, the French placed an order for an additional 100 aircraft. The embargo was lifted in October 1939, and the 115 aircraft from the first order were delivered by late November 1939. Deliveries then slowed, and only 25 of the second batch reached France before the French surrender to the Germans.

Just before the Franco-German Armistice, the remaining 75 aircraft on the French order were signed over to the United Kingdom; 32 Marylands had been completed to French specifications and were converted to British requirements in the UK. Engines were changed from the Cyclone 9 to the Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp and various weapons and instruments were replaced. The last 43 of the order were completed as required by Glenn Martin. All these aircraft became the Maryland Mk. I. A further 150 aircraft had been ordered directly by Britain with two-speed superchargers on their Twin Wasps as the Maryland Mk. II.

Many of the aircraft were shipped to Egypt and Malta in time for the 1941 fighting there. The RAF used the aircraft mainly for photo-reconnaissance operations in North and East Africa, it being faster than the Bristol Blenheim. A Maryland bomber photographed the Italian fleet before and after the Battle of Taranto on 11 November 1940.[6] The pilot, Adrian Warburton, scored his five confirmed kills with the Maryland's forward-firing guns.Seven Maryland Mk.Is were transferred to the British Fleet Air Arm[7] and were mainly used for target towing duties.[8] On 22 May 1941, a Maryland of 771 Naval Air Squadron based at Hatston in the Orkney Islands, reported that the German battleship Bismarck had left Bergen, confirming that she was breaking out into the Atlantic. (Wikipedia)

(IWM Photo, ATP10679B)

Martin Model 167 Maryland Mk. I (Serial No. AR703), on the ground at No. 37 Maintenance Unit, Burtonwood, Lancashire, November 1941.

(RAF Photo)

Armourers preparing to load a Martin Maryland of No. 39 Squadron RAF with its full complement of eight 250-lb GP bombs, at a landing ground in the Western Desert. No. 39 operated the Bristol Blenheim and Martin Maryland out of Egypt before converting to the Bristol Beaufort in August–September 1941.

(RAF Photo)

Martin 167 Maryland.  Flown by RCAF aircrew serving with the RAF.

(IWM Photo, CM 634)

A Martin Maryland Mark I of No. 39 Squadron RAF undergoing servicing at Heliopolis or Shandur, Egypt.

(IWM Photo, E (MOS) 260)

Martin Model 167 Maryland. Martin Maryland Mark I, AR725, on the ground , probably at Burtonwood, Lancashire. One of a batch of fifty aircraft taken over from a French contract after the German invasion, AR725 served with No. 203 Squadron RAF in the Middle East before crashing on a ferry flight to join No. 69 Squadron RAF in Malta.