Glenn Martin 167 in French service 1939-1940

[Stig Jarlevik]

Well, I have not come across a specific book dealing with the Martin 167 (Maryland).
A number of books/articles exist of course but it is a tricky situation, since some aircraft just seems to
disappear.

What is known is that the French ordered 345 Martin 167F-1/2/3 and they should have been assigned
No 1 - 345.
What is also known is that the French received No 1 - 234
Also known is that the British took over the French order from No 284 and up

The problem aircraft are those in between, ie No 235 - 283.
From what I have gathered there are five unaccounted aircraft in that later batch which we simply
don't know where they ended up.

The "villain" in the equation is the vessel 'Jean-Louis Dreyfus' which carried 26 Martin 167F to France in July
1940 but ended up in Liverpool with its cargo. Had we known exactly what was onboard, there would
have been no problem, but we don't!

France received for certain
No 236, 250, 259, 260, 263-266, 268-269, 272-278, 283 + five unknown.

The 26 aircraft onboard Dreyfus were given RAF s/n BS421 - 428 and BS760 - 777, and only BS777 is known
to have been ex No 262

Source: Air Arsenal by Phil Butler and Dan Hagedorn

Cheers
Stig

[bearoutwest]

Malcolm Laird of Ventura Publications wrote an e-book on the Martin 167 (in French and British service) way back in the 1990s. Perhaps you could contact him on his website and see if he has any details.

https://www.venturapublications.com/


...geoff