Customer Reviews

Deadly Duo: The B-25 and B-26 in WW II

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This is the only book I'm aware of that examines the development of these two famous U.S. medium bombers in the same volume. However, readers looking for war stories about the exploits of the men who flew the Mitchell and the Marauder in World War II are likely to be disappointed, as Mendenhall concentrates mainly on the technical aspects of the craft.

That's the strong point of his narrative, but readers unfamiliar with aviation technology and jargon might find some of his detailed descriptions of the intricacies of landing gear and wing assemblies hard to follow, if not downright boring. For the more technically oriented, however, these are the strongest chapters in the book, and while Mendenhall is not a particularly vivid writer, he does a decent job in making his technical descriptions intelligible and easy to follow.

The historical material on the design, testing, manufacture, and deployment of the B-25 and B-26 also is handled well and thoroughly. For those who are interested, Mendenhall painstakingly details the different design changes that each plane underwent -- e.g., the transition of the Mitchell from a high-level bomber to a low-altitude attack plane (some equipped with a 75mm cannon, no less!), and the initial difficulties with the Marauder's "stubby" wings. After many operational accidents the bomber's wings were extended by six feet, which helped make it a less unforgiving plane to fly.

Mendenhall gives a general description of the deployment of the aircraft during WWII, listing the major theaters in which they were used as well as many of the USAAF and other units to which the planes were assigned. (The British Royal Air Force and the Soviet Union each received roughly 900 Mitchells during the war, and many other air forces also used the plane.) With the exception of the Jimmy Doolittle's famous raid on Japan in April 1942, in which 16 B-25s flew from the deck of the USS Hornet, there are few operational details about the missions of either aircraft. However, Mendenhall provides interesting information of how the two planes came to be assigned to certain combat areas -- the B-26 was removed from the Pacific and restricted to the European theater from 1943 onward, while the B-25 was relegated largely to the Asia/Pacific and Mediterranean areas and hardly used at all by the Britain-based Eighth AAF in northern Europe.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of "The Deadly Duo" are the numerous illustrations. There are dozens of photographs documenting the design changes in the two aircraft as well as combat photos and even a gallery of post-war conversions as civilian business transports. Mendenhall also provides several of his own highly detailed drawings of the planes.

Again, this is an excellent resource on the development and technical aspects of these two important aircraft. Other books might be more informative about the planes in combat and about the men who took them there, but Mendenhall provides an appreciation of the imagination and hard work it took to get the Mitchell and Marauder into the hands of the aviators who made them legends.