NEW WARBIRD COMING TO EUROPE
It was recently announced that the 1945 Douglas A-26C Invader “Sweet Eloise II” which is currently in Santa Rosa, California, USA will soon be ferried to Europe where it will be taken on by a new owner in Poland.
The aircraft with extensive combat history in Korea (Over 1800 Hours of combat time, Flak damage, wounded crewman) underwent a very extensive 7-year IRAN (Inspect, Repair as Necessary) which was completed in 2018. Since then she was flown regularly at the airshows in the US painted in the markings it had originally when it was the personal aircraft of the 730th Bomb Squadron Commander, Charles H. Howe, at Pusan, South Korea in 1951, who named the aircraft "Sweet Eloise" after his wife. It was also the first A-26 developed into a Fire Bomber, in 1959.
“Sweet Eloise II” was built in 1945 as an A-26B-50 and was initially delivered to Hunter AAF, Savannah, Georgia before being ferried to McClellan AAF, Sacramento, California where she was put into storage.
She was taken out of storage in 1951 and was immediately ferried initially to Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach to receive the latest factory mods/upgrades and later to Hill AFB, Ogden, Utah for further modification prior to being deployed to Korea. During those modifications she was converted to a glass nose “C” model. Both .50 cal turrets were removed along with the aft gunners periscope/hardware and replaced with a SHORAN receiver transmitter and navigator’s station hardware.
In June 1951 she was ferried to Miho, Japan to join 452nd Bomb Wing 730th (Long Beach) Bomb Squadron “Rebels.” Tech. Sgt. Bill Dawson and Byron “Curly Davis were assigned as 313’s crew chiefs and then based at Pusan East, (K-9) South Korea. Later that year 313 became the personal aircraft of the Squadron Commander and named “Sweet Eloise II” after his wife. Later was named “Junio” by Squadron Commander Nevling who had replaced the squadron’s original Commander.
On December 27th, 1951 she took a direct 40 mm hit to its fully loaded Bombay badly injuring 1st Lt. Raymond Koch seated at the navigator’s station table in the aft compartment. Fire, hydraulic failure, partial control (cable) failure forced the crew to divert to K-46, the nearest AFB. 313 was later ferried to Miho, Japan for repairs. She returned to K-9 with a new black paint job to make her less visible. In February 1952 she was badly damaged again when she took a 40mm flak hit to its glass nose which destroyed its Norden bombsight and shattered the co-pilot’s canopy.
The 452nd Bomb Wing timed out in 1952 and was decommissioned. In May Invader 313 was reassigned to the 17th Bomb Wing, 95th Bomb Squadron “Kicking Mules.” It became the Squadron's spare aircraft but nobody wanted to fly “The Magnet” due to its notorious reputation for attracting flak and bullets according to 1st Lt. Fox who flew his 50th and final mission in 313.
On July 27th, 1953, the last official day of the Korean conflict 313 flew a SHORAN mission over North Korea before being ferried to McClellan AFB, Sacramento where she was put into storage. In total she accumulated close to 1900 combat hours in two years.
In 1957 at a government surplus auction she was sold for $1,776.00 and received a civil registration of N5457V. In 1958 she was modified for cloud seeding before being modified again in 1960 and becoming “Tanker 27”, the first B-26 Invader of its type to be modified as a “Borate Bomber” for firefighting operations. She was later fitted with a hard “B model” nose and STOL wingtips and remained a Borate Bomber flying as “Tanker 20”, “Tanker 16” & “Tanker 23” accumulating nearly 2000 total hours of fire fighting operations prior to being retired in 1986.
After her life as a Borate Bomber, she was donated to Reynolds Aviation Museum and later sold to an undisclosed owner who repainted her in the WWII livery of the 319th Bomb Group and refitted her with a “C model” glass nose.
Since then she has changed the owners multiple times flying with, among others, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum and Commemorative Air Force before being bought by Black Crow Aviation LLC who performed a very extensive 7-year IRAN (Inspect, Repair as Necessary) including recovering of all flight controls, Repainting airframe to the original Korean War scheme, All new hoses, New tires, Annual inspection and many many more. The IRAN was completed in 2018 and “Sweet Louise II” took part in the Planes of Fame Airshow in Chino the following year.
Currently, the aircraft is awaiting it’s ferry flight to Europe where she will be taken by her new owner in Poland. When it arrives, the aircraft will be one of only three A-26s flying in Europe, the other two being the A-26B “Sugarland Express” of Nordic Warbirds, based at Västerås in Sweden and the A-26B "Rum and Coke" of Tina Fly GmbH based at Eschbach in Germany.
“Sweet Eloise II” is due to perform her European Airshow debut at the Antidotum Airshow Leszno on the 17th-18th June 2022 where she will fly alongside other historic aircraft such as the B-25J Mitchell Bomber from the Flying Bulls.
Photos source: Antidotum Airshow Leszno
