George Blancard, Marauder Man.

George W. Blancard 1917-1944

Louis George Newman was named by his aunt Gloria after his two most recently deceased close relatives. Louis came from his grandfather, Louis Newman, who was mayor of Havre and Great Falls, Montana. George came from his cousin George Blancard, who was a pilot who died in an airplane crash during World War II. That is all the facts that I knew until one day in 2007 when I decided to look up his name on the Internet. A Google search of the name gave me a list of names on another web site which offered to send an accident report back to for a fee. I received a response offering the accident report for a B-26G that crashed three miles north of the Nashville airport on 18 August 1944 at 0958 CWT, six pictures of the accident site as well as the 100 page accident report.

First Lieutenant George Blancard was born on 4 Dec 1917. He enlisted in the Army Air Force on 27 Jan 1942 and was qualified in these aircraft: BT-13, AT-8, PT-17, L-3, P-38, A-20, B-24, B-25, and B-26. He flew B-26 in Europe for 14 months and received the Air Medal with seven Oak Leaf Clusters. He had 900 hours of flying time and his flight records from 1944 were included in the package. After completing his overseas tour of duty, he was reassigned first in Wilmington, Delaware in January 1944, and then as an instructor/ferry pilot based in Nashville, Tennessee from 18 May 1944. The B-26G that he flew that day was made in the Martin plant at Offutt Field in Omaha, Nebraska, as were B-29s used against Japan including the Enola Gay and Bockscar. It was painted with British markings and was being delivered to Europe. It was headed to West Palm Beach, Florida. That seemed strange until I realized that the southern ferry route went through Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Guyana, Brazil, Ascension Island and Africa.

It was a clear day in Nashville; George and his co-pilot, Harold Strickland (a commercial pilot who had only enlisted 15 days earlier), had a long taxi to the end of the runway at Berry Field. They waited for traffic to clear, and then were told that their bomb bay door was open. This was closed and they proceeded down the runway. There was some smoke coming from the left engine and the aircraft took the entire 5500 foot runway on takeoff. It gained about 200 feet in altitude before it banked left into the ground. The cause of the accident was left engine failure. His mother, Viola L. Blancard, was notified.

What happened? The B-26#43-34484 was powered by two Pratt&Whitney Double Wasp 18-cylinder engines with 2000 horsepower each. This engine was successfully used on a large variety of aircraft including Navy carrier fighters and later on the DC-6. On a hot day, the air-cooled engine would overheat on a long taxi or flight delay and then fail on takeoff. The B-26 was unstable at low speed with one engine powered. There were many fatal training accidents in this aircraft due to unstable flight; hence the undesirable nickname, Widowmaker. The final accident report recommendation was to increase the idle speed of the engine from 1000 revolutions per minute (rpm) to 1400 rpm to decrease the engine loading. This aircraft type (B-26) was withdrawn from service right after the war and only one flying version exists today.

My grandmother, Jennie Newman, had a younger sister, Frances. She married Al Lubin, a theatrical producer in New York. She said she had a wonderful life with Al. They had one daughter, Viola. Viola had one child, George. She had said that George was the perfect child and was quite distraught by his death. I was warned never to mention George to her when I was growing up, so I never knew anything about him. She subsequently married Max Mioduser. He owned Falcon Truck Renting on Long Island before he sold out to Hertz and retired to a house with a boat on a canal near Miami, Florida. After he passed, Viola moved to a condo near the beach in North Miami where I finally met her in 1978. They had invited me to visit them several times over the years, but I had not had permission from my parents, the money, or the opportunity. Viola then moved in with her old friend from New York, Hy Fishman, and disappeared. I never got the chance to learn anything about George or even see a picture.

I wish I had seen this accident report years ago, when I could have told my family, but they are all gone now. Perhaps someone at B26.com would be interested or knew George.