Today Warbirds Online presents a set of images from our Warbird photo archives of Martin Mariner PBM-3R transport flying boats. These photos were mostly taken at the RAAF Flying Boat base at Townsville Qld by an unknown photographer. The photographs were acquired from various sources, including second-hand dealers and Ex RAAF staff. It was common practice for multiple copies of photos to be shared across multiple personnel. Given the source of the photos, poor quality of the contemporary cameras and processing methods the quality of the images is variable but as a historic record they are priceless.
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- Martin Mariners of RAAF 43 Sqn
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- Martin Mariners undergoing work
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- Martin Mariners possibly Lake Boga Vic
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- RAAF PB2Y Martin Mariner
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- Martin Mariner of RAAF 43 Sqn
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- US Navy PB2Y Martin Mariners in Korea during the war 1952
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- US Navy PB2Y Martin Mariners Korea 1952
The RAAF acquired 12 Martin Mariner PBM-3R aircraft apparently from an allocation to the RAF who decided not to use the type and the allocated examples were stripped of all radar and armament. The aircraft were flown in the Transport role with No 40 Squadron RAAF alongside Short Sunderlands. The aircraft were flown extensively in the transport role and entered service in 1943 and left service in 1946. No examples of the type still exist in Australia. However several cockpit sections were converted to caravans post war following scrapping and one or two of those have made their way into museums.
Warbirds Online welcomes any additional information about the photos, location and people pictured.
© John Parker 2021
Always enjoy and appreciate the work of Warbirds online, but the identification in some of the photos of Mariners as ‘PB2Ys’ is not correct. The PB2Y was the Consolidated Coronado, ‘Y’ being the USN code for that corporation, and the Coronado its second design after the PBY Catalina.
The heading of the item has the correct form PBM. Yours.
Hi John
Thanks for the correction, we always appreciate feedback about our news.
Kind regards
John
Hi John
I occasionally think to look for material on the RAAF Martin Mariners. Sad that nothing whole remains. My late father-in-law JO Bryant flew these in WWII but unfortunately didn’t talk of his experiences in any detail. It was only after his death some years ago that I have looked at his log book and found that he did his basic flying training at Temora, then more training in Victoria and was assigned to multi-engines and did conversion training for the Mariners at Lake Boga and spent the war ferrying up and down the east coast to New Guinea, etc.
His hearing suffered badly from the engines, with the right ear being most affected as he flew more in the co-pilot’s seat.
I’m planning to attend the Temora event in three weeks. Been once previously.
Kind regards,
Seppo Ranki
Hi Seppo
Thank you for sharing your memories about the Martin Mariners.
Kind regards
John
Has anyone knowledge about the recovery of RAAF Mariner A70-10 that was forced down in the open sea off Woodgate on 19 December 1945.
A RAAF air sea rescue launch (O3-2) took it on tow the following day and just before entering the Burnett River and Bundaberg the tow line parted.
It is believed that a line was then looped/thrown over the rear fuselage and the Mariner was then towed backwards into the harbour.
Can anyone confirm the towing backwards incident?
Murray,
Just found your message. I am not sure if the link will work, but it refers to a newspaper article downloaded from TROVE with a photo of the aircraft being towed up the Burnett River towards the town reach of the river. The image quality is poor, but it can be seen that the aircraft is being towed backwards from an attachment under the rear hull although it is not possible to see if the tow line was looped around the rear fuselage.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212559943?searchTerm=flying%20boat%20woodgate#