America's WW2 Flying Boat That Came With A Kitchen | Martin PBM Mariner

Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S: playwt.link/RexsHangar Follow the link to download the game to get a premium tank, aircraft AND ship, along with a seven day account boost just for downloading. F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible. Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)

The Mariner at time 27:40 being hoisted by a crane to a tender was literally my dad’s airplane. The plane was named DYNA MIGHT. There is a picture of her at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL.

I have the pilots notes for the Catalina. It warns that the aircraft is naturally tail heavy so if you have a full load of fuel and stores you have to get the whole crew and as many bags as possible as near to the front as possible. My wife's grandfather stacked a Cat into Auckland harbour. This was due to the above problem, a tail heavy stall on take off followed by a a cartwheel into the sea. It is all in his log book. The results of the inquiry go into the Catalina's problems and eliminate pilot error. He was pretty bashed up, but after a long recovery he was well enough to fly Wellingtons, bombing submarine pens in Belgium (?) Nasty missions at night with heavy flak. His log book simply says "missing in action" . No sign of his aircraft or crew have ever been found. I think quite a few Catalinas have been lost in take off crashes ? Love your videos. Thanks mate.

My uncle, who was in the U.S. Navy in WW2, and the U.S. Army during the Korean War and Vietnam War, didn't talk about his combat experience, but he told me about flying in one of these. He said it felt like being in a building that somehow took to the air.

Our next door neighbor was a gunner on a PBM, training at Corpus Christi and destined for Olympic when the bombs dropped. He's 96 now and still talks about the old bird.

I was a kid, talked to an older neighbor. Telling him how much I loved aircraft and flying. I was surprised by his response. He told me he hated flying and wouldn't get on an airplane for the rest of his life. He was in the US navy pacific theater during ww2. He was a gunner on a mariner, signed up for action(dumb kid) flew countless missions some up to 20 hrs. Long. Said he never saw a "god damn thing" or wanted near an airplane after. Guess all crews didn't have fond memories 😕 lol

My friend Bob passed away recently. He piloted these in WW2. He told me some interesting things about them such as for every hour of flight time 4 hours of maintenance was required because of the pounding the plane endured taking off and landing. Bob told me that mother ships would meet these planes out in the ocean and haul them aboard for repairs. While waiting, crewmen were required to walk the wings of the plane to keep an eye out for Japanese frogmen sent from submarines in the area. These frogmen would attach explosives to anything they could to destroy them. He said our guys were told to shoot anything that moves in the water, don’t try to check it out, just shoot. It was interesting to hear him talk about his service. I’m blessed to have known him.

My mother served as an aircraft inspector at Martin's plant in Middle River, MD during the war. She was hired as a typist but she was moved onto the factory floor when it was discovered she had a mechanical aptitude. I remember her describing climbing all through Mariners before they were moved into the river after assembly. She loved the work. I saw one in a museum years ago. What a beast!

There's something about this flying, gunslinging houseboat that has always appealed to me. The image of a Mariner coming thundering out of the blue like a steel whale to the surprise and dismay of a submarine crew is a powerful image, but my favorites will always been the rescue operations undertaken by Mariners and Catalinas.

Thank you so much for this fine, in-depth study. My Grandfather served aboard a Mariner from 1943 to 1946, first out of Banana River, Florida, then from the USS Pine Island in the Pacific campaign. We talked a LOT about his service and the characteristics of the big seaplane, including the gasoline fumes - he told me that, once, they'd picked up a full Colonel who'd ditched at sea, and the man insisted he was going to have a cigar - Grandpa said he offered to pitch the Colonel out of the airplane if he so much as touched his lighter. Grandpa was Jack Keller, from Deep River, Iowa - perhaps someone will find him in their records.

War thunder is about as free to play with as a Porsche.

The RAF's Shackelton also had a kitchen (galley). Christmas of '79 I was in Keflavik as a Weapons Director on a USAF E-3A. We were to fly an exercise with the Brits from No. 8 squadron out of RAF Lossiemouth. One day's exercise canceled but the Brits wanted to fly anyway. Prior to takeoff, we and the crew went to the base commissary to get food for the flight. I forget what I got but at least one of the Brits got a big can of Chung King Chop Suey (and the noodles) which he heated on a two (I think) burner electric stove. I believe the stove was on the starboard side just forward of the wing spar. The E-3A also had a galley that was pretty much what was on commercial Boeing 707s.I think there was a refrigerator/freezer, oven to heat frozen meals, coffee pot, and a sink.

The Navy built an all new successor to the Mariner called the SP-5M Marlin. It was basically a drastically improved PBM. It looked much like the older WWII era Mariner, but with a large radome nose where the nose gun turret had been, an improved hull, and a single vertical tailfin. It was called the Marlin and entered service in 1951. It operated with the US Navy until 1968. The last US flying boat operation was Operation Market Time during the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese were smuggling arms and supplies to the Viet Cong on small boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Marlins were used to detect and interdict these supplies. They were ideal for this operation for the same reason they made great anti sub patrol planes. The Marlins were retired shortly after this operation.

Saw the Mariner in the Pima Museum last summer and was stunned how large it looks in person. The museum is worth a visit for anyone out that way. Great work on the video!

Yes, the American equivalent of the Short Sunderland, including the galley and beds. My late mother's cousin flew in them during WW2 and served with distinction taking over for a machine gunner who was wounded during an attack, he was tragically posted missing in action some time later and was never found. R I P Flying Officer Henry Morton DSO.

I was part of a work crew scrubbing the ground of carcinogenic and radioactive contaminants left over from the Glen L Martin's Mariner plant. Beautiful location that let the finished planes be rolled into Middle River, MD for their final checks and first flights. If anyone has time I highly recommend visiting the Glen L Martin Aviation Museum. Its very small but run by the childrren of the families who flooded the area in the 30s-60s to work the plants and the passion is unbeatable. The museum also has a collection of jet fighters spanning from korea to desert storm sitting lined up on a runway shared with the national guard(?) flying A10s regularly. It is the most unique aviation museum I've ever neen to.

That 3/8 scale unit is adorable!

"The enemy's experience of a flying canteen dropping high explosive ordnance on their heads" hahaha you sir, are a legend !🤣 Great vid and Keep up the good work !

My father was a sailor and was invited to fly on a PBM during target practice in the Caribbean Sea. He got to fire the twin fifties up front as they did simulated strafing runs. The guns got so hot they started cooking off rounds. They were standing deep in spent brass.

My father-in-law was a bombardier/navigator on a PBM-5 stationed in Fort Lauderdale at the tail end of WWII. Loved hearing the stories of his time on board. Notably bombing one of our own submarines (name unknown) and most notably, he was involved in the search for flight 19, the squadron of torpedo bombers that was lost in the Bermuda Triangle. There were two PBM-5's in the search and so happens one of them also disappeared. Thank God it was not the one my father-in-law was on. We lost him in 2012 and still miss him every day.