- 2 months ago
For educational purposes
The he B-26 Marauder was no stranger to controversy, the plane became the first American aircraft ordered directly off the drawing board, an unprecedented action in 1939.
In the beginning, the B-26's high wing loading, necessary to provide speed and altitude, made the plane very difficult to fly.
The result was an alarming accident rate and two nick-. names from the pilots who knew the B-26 well: "The Widow-maker" and "One Day In Tampa Bay".
Still, the aircraft survived constant criticism, and when its wings were lengthened and some unforgiving characteris-tics eliminated, the B-26 Marauder saw service in many war theaters in World War II.
The only Army plane ever to drop torpedoes, it became a highly successful medium bomber with a very impressive war record.Here is the inspiring story of the B-26, a celebrated air-craft with a firm place in our nation's history.
The he B-26 Marauder was no stranger to controversy, the plane became the first American aircraft ordered directly off the drawing board, an unprecedented action in 1939.
In the beginning, the B-26's high wing loading, necessary to provide speed and altitude, made the plane very difficult to fly.
The result was an alarming accident rate and two nick-. names from the pilots who knew the B-26 well: "The Widow-maker" and "One Day In Tampa Bay".
Still, the aircraft survived constant criticism, and when its wings were lengthened and some unforgiving characteris-tics eliminated, the B-26 Marauder saw service in many war theaters in World War II.
The only Army plane ever to drop torpedoes, it became a highly successful medium bomber with a very impressive war record.Here is the inspiring story of the B-26, a celebrated air-craft with a firm place in our nation's history.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Tonight on Wings,
00:27take off with the Discovery Channel and the Martin B-26.
00:31In its day, the Martin B-26 was the cutting edge of military aviation.
00:36The first of the night attack aircraft,
00:38the B-26 saw service in the air forces of all the major Allied powers during World War II.
00:44Its outstanding performance as a night attack medium bomber
00:47was due largely to its high rate of survivability.
00:50In nearly 130,000 missions, Allied forces boasted a loss rate of only 1%.
00:56Tonight, soar high with the Martin B-26 on Wings.
01:03The B-26 made its first flight on November 25, 1940.
01:12A sleek, modern-looking airplane.
01:15Just over nine years before, on April 29, 1931,
01:19the United States' first mono-wing bomber had made its first flight.
01:23The Boeing B-9, with a crew of four, sitting in open cockpits,
01:28could carry around 2,000 pounds of bombs over a range of 495 miles.
01:34It had a cruising speed of 130 miles per hour and a top speed of 165.
01:39Later versions pushed the speed up, but even 165 was a 50-mile-per-hour improvement
01:45on the biplanes that it was replacing.
01:48Boeing's metal monoplane was the parent of World War II bombers,
01:52but it was never to be built in quantity.
01:54In 1932, the United States, supported by a majority of the nations represented,
02:16was suggesting to the World Disarmament Conference that the bombing plane should be abolished.
02:21Even while such earnest wishes were being expressed,
02:24the Martin Company was producing a new bomber that was to eclipse the B-9.
02:30Elsewhere, Nazism was gaining support in Germany.
02:33Mussolini had been in power for eight years,
02:36and the Japanese were casting their eyes about foreign empire.
02:40Martin's new plane, the B-10, enclosed its crew
02:43and employed a rotating turret, flaps, brake main wheels, and variable-pitch propellers.
02:49It housed its bombs internally and flat-out could carry 2,200 pounds of bombs at 213 miles per hour,
02:57faster than fighters of the day could fly.
02:59The B-10 today looks recognizably modern, where the B-9 seems to belong to an earlier era,
03:12yet little over a year separated their first flights.
03:28The B-10s were capable of operating under extreme conditions,
03:32a reflection of the growing understanding of the need for constant ready use of the airplane's power in total war.
03:42When the first B-10s appeared, they were a startling combination of the state-of-the-art,
04:02including all the latest ideas, from reduction of drag in the shape,
04:06to the plane's embodiment of the strategic use of bombing might.
04:10They produced the result that all such breakthroughs achieved,
04:13which is to send the rest of the world's designers back to their drawing boards.
04:17For a time, it was the most advanced bomber in the world,
04:20and the Martin Company was justifiably proud of it.
04:23Martin Builds Bombers had long been a company motto,
04:27and building the world's best bomber gave them a certain satisfaction.
04:31A variety of engines powered different models,
04:55and mutations of the basic shape abounded.
04:58It even appeared on floats to lure the Navy's interests.
05:02Yet the mighty Martin plane, which broke so much new ground when it first appeared,
05:06was to be outdated by the time that war broke out.
05:10Though later B-10s unloaded had a speed of 260 miles per hour and a range of over 2,000 miles,
05:17they were appearing in 1938 when the Boeing B-17 was capable of doing that,
05:22carrying 4,000 pounds of bombs.
05:25The B-10 was lightly armed and carried a moderate load,
05:28so it seems fairer to compare Martin's plane to the twin-engine bomber that it replaced.
05:37The Douglas Company's B-18 had been the runner-up in competition with the B-17,
05:42yet due to economic considerations,
05:44it had ended up with the lion's share of orders in the couple of years that followed.
05:49Its performance figures are not more impressive than those of the B-10.
05:54Top speed had, after modifications to increase armor and range, fallen to only 215 miles per hour,
06:01with bomb load and range smaller than that of the replaced plane.
06:05Neither could have coped with Second World War combat.
06:09They lacked the performance, bomb load and defensive armament of European contemporaries.
06:14In effect, the United States had no effective medium bomber available.
06:19One of the failed solutions in the Army's 1938 search for a twin-engined attack bomber had been the Martin Maryland,
06:48which, after sales to the French and British, had mutated in 1940 under British specifications to the Baltimore.
06:55It was to stay in production until 1944, seeing action in the Mediterranean.
07:00Designed six years after the B-18, with the war already teaching lessons,
07:05the Baltimore, like the original Maryland, had a speed over 300 miles per hour,
07:10carried around 1,000 pounds of bombs, and had formidable forward-firing guns.
07:15It was an excellent light attack bomber, but it never gained much favor with the United States Army.
07:20While the Maryland, and later the Baltimore, were being accepted in Europe,
07:27the U.S. planners had issued a specification in January 1939 for a new mission of the United States Army.
07:29While the Maryland, and later the Baltimore, were being accepted in Europe,
07:44the U.S. planners had issued a specification in January 1939 for a new medium bomber
07:51with emphasis given to high speed, long range, and a bomb load of 2,000 pounds.
07:56Omitted from the specifications yet implied in the targets set by the paper
08:01was that the plane would have a high wing load and high takeoff and landing speeds.
08:05In essence, the quest was for a plane that, while sharing many desirable performance and dimensional similarities to the Baltimore,
08:13would carry twice the bombs and double the crew.
08:16With war threatening illustrating the urgency, and with conflicts around the world illustrating the needs,
08:22the parameters were extreme.
08:24What was needed were planes to push the limits forward radically,
08:28to overtake, not to catch up, to regain the lead once held by the B-10,
08:33and complement the excellent heavy bombers in use and on the drawing board.
08:42Martin's Peyton Magruder designed a plane that took a streamlined cigar shape
08:47and added the smallest practical wings and suitably powerful engines
08:51and had a plane that immediately looked right.
08:54With a crew of five, navigator, pilot, bomb aimer, and two gunners,
08:58it carried 3,000 pounds of bombs at 315 miles per hour.
09:06In carrying three times the Baltimore's load, it had only marginally larger dimensions,
09:11and its performance projections were such that it was clearly the winner in the competition.
09:16With the urgency of the international situation pressing,
09:19and Martin's reputation as a reassurance,
09:22the Army ordered the plane from the drawing board.
09:25There would be no prototypes.
09:26The first plane produced would be the first one deployed,
09:29and 201 were ordered in September 1939.
09:33The Marauder was to be armed with two .50 caliber guns
09:44in the first power-operated dorsal turret on an American bomber,
09:48and had a hand-operated gun in the tail.
09:50Up front was a .30 caliber gun,
09:53socket mounted into the bombardier's transparent nose cone.
09:56But as was the painful experience of all bomber designs in combat,
10:00the guns were, though effective in shooting down enemies,
10:03not effective as defense.
10:05The hard lessons about bombers needing protection,
10:08or clear skies, lay ahead.
10:11Additional guns were added to the plane fairly regularly,
10:14and later standard Marauders carried 11 .50s.
10:34The interior, crowded with equipment, was starkly functional.
10:38It may have been home to seven men for long periods,
10:41but it was anything but comfortable.
10:43The plane was an advanced weapon of war, free of embellishment.
10:50A B-26 was in the bombardier's nose compartment, was very small.
10:56And for somebody at my height, about six foot one, six foot two,
11:00it's pretty tight.
11:02So what we did, of course, we were not only that,
11:05we were supposed to kneel for the four hours
11:07because they did not put a seat up in front for us.
11:10We immediately found seats of some sort, and we would sit down
11:13and work a little better without being so tired and cramped.
11:17Without the benefit of prototypes and test aircraft to assess the 26's performance,
11:30Martin went into full production,
11:32and Marauders started to roll from the factory in increasing numbers.
11:36Despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles,
11:39this flow of production was to continue without interruption
11:42until the last B-26 was built in 1945.
11:45.
11:48.
11:52.
11:54.
11:56.
11:58.
12:00.
12:02.
12:04.
12:05.
12:06.
12:27.
12:28.
12:29.
12:31.
12:33.
12:58.
13:00The first planes produced were assigned directly to the 22nd Bomb Group,
13:23an experienced formation which had been together for two years.
13:27With almost no fuss, the Marauder went into service with the outfit
13:30and was soon deployed to the Pacific after Pearl Harbor,
13:33operating initially from Australia in the New Guinea campaign.
13:37.
13:38.
13:39.
13:40.
13:41.
13:42.
13:43.
13:44.
13:45.
13:46.
13:47.
13:48.
13:49.
13:50.
13:52.
13:56.
14:20The 22nd, with experienced pilots and highly developed group morale, was a very effective unit.
14:39They had accepted their marauders with enthusiasm, and as they flew them in combat, they became more and more vehement in their praise of the plane.
14:47They quickly reached the conclusion that their planes were the best of their type available, and they were not reluctant to say so.
15:17The support of the combat crews using the plane was to be very important in the coming months, as the marauder back in the States was starting to gain a different reputation.
15:27Pilots in training were dying in their B-26s.
15:42The training school at MacDill Field in Florida was losing planes into the sea at a rate which spurred the rhyme, one a day in Tampa Bay.
15:52To be fair, the figures averaged about one a week, but evidently something or a combination of things had gone severely wrong.
16:00The obvious conclusion was that the project should be abandoned.
16:04It was a hot ship, and it needed well-trained pilots, but it was in training pilots to fly it that the plane became known as the flying coffin.
16:13The Army was carefully selecting men after exhaustive physical and aptitude testing, and then was unable to prepare them for the weapon that they were supposed to use.
16:22The crashes continued, and the small wings spurred the B-26's new nickname, the Baltimore Whore, implying that the aircraft had no visible means of support.
16:32But though the marauder was heavily loaded, in the hands of an experienced pilot, it flew impeccably.
16:39It had arrived in service concurrent with the expansion of the Air Force to undreamed-of sides, and many of the pilots and trainers had little or no knowledge of flying twin-engine planes.
16:50To have your first hands-on experience after a docile and well-behaved trainer in something as ornery and powerful as the marauder was simply asking too much of the recruits.
17:01If it had not been for the enthusiasm of the crews flying the plane in combat, the first board of inquiry into the plane might have scrapped the project in 1942.
17:11But to add to the praise from the Pacific came the experience with the marauder in the North African campaigns.
17:17The British had taken delivery of some of the new bombers and had assessed them as suitable for tactical use and deployed them to the desert,
17:24where the crews, once again experienced, had been delighted with them and lost no time in advertising the fact.
17:31As the fighting went on and the German counter-attacks lost their strength, more B-26s arrived in the theater and began operations.
17:39They were not only used as bombers but as fighters, intercepting the lumbering German transports over the sea and dispatching them and their cargoes to the water below.
17:51The marauders harried the enemy front lines and disrupted their supplies, both being brought up to the front and being shipped and flown across the Mediterranean.
17:59It was the strangulation of material that was to finally spell the end of the Axis resistance.
18:05Some German units fought to the bitter end, but once the Allies had wrested control of the air, the Africa Corps was unable to sustain a defense.
18:14An intriguing prop like a
18:40The jubilant French population
19:09welcomed its liberators
19:10and there were parades
19:11and dancing celebrations
19:13to mark the exit
19:14of the Axis powers
19:15from the African continent.
19:32The German airfields
19:34had become graveyards
19:35for many of the Luftwaffe's planes.
19:37The wreckage standing
19:38as testimony
19:39to the effectiveness
19:40of tactical bombing.
19:57Meanwhile,
19:58in the U.S.,
19:59inquiries into the accident rate
20:01and training continued
20:02and new changes
20:03were made to the Marauder,
20:05including giving it
20:06a larger wing
20:07in an attempt to lower
20:08the landing speed
20:09and the wing loading.
20:10This was obviously needed,
20:12but what was just as obviously
20:14not needed
20:14was for the margin
20:15gained by this
20:16to be immediately sacrificed
20:18in adding more weight
20:19to the plane.
20:21However,
20:22the big wing
20:22was accompanied
20:23by another increase in weight,
20:25which swallowed the new area
20:26and left the plane
20:27with no improvement
20:28in wing loading.
20:29The figure now stood
20:31at 58 pounds per square foot
20:33with the plane weighing
20:34over 37,000 pounds.
20:36With the big wing
20:37had come external gun nacelles
20:39and other innovations,
20:41and with each of these changes,
20:43it fell to the test pilots
20:44to assess the effect
20:45on the plane.
20:46Logically,
20:47particular attention
20:48was given to takeoff
20:49and landing behavior
20:50in this testing series.
20:51The testing of the plane
21:03tended to produce
21:04a repetitive result.
21:06In the hands
21:07of an experienced pilot,
21:08the B-26 behaved.
21:10Even flying 10,000 pounds
21:12more weight
21:12than the designer
21:13had targeted,
21:14the marauders
21:15still made devotees
21:16of their crews,
21:17a powerful vindication
21:18of the design.
21:21The test pilots were,
21:36by the nature
21:37of their profession,
21:38very experienced aviators,
21:40and they appreciated
21:41what a B-26
21:42had been designed to do.
21:44The marauder
21:44was in every sense
21:45a hot rod.
21:51The marauders
21:56on the planet
21:58and on the planet
22:01are out of my state
22:01and not really
22:02the wind
22:03This is the big
22:17in Russian
22:17this is the winter
22:18in Russian
22:19in Russian
22:19The test pilots came to know the B-26s very well,
22:38and significantly, a couple were retained at Wright-Patterson for general testing and for use as chase planes.
22:49While the furor had continued in America about the safety of the bomber, examples had been efficiently flowing from the Martin plant and more groups of B-26s had been deployed.
23:00In the Pacific, longer range planes took over and the center of marauder operations shifted to Europe.
23:19Serious doubts were expressed again when the second mission flown from Britain turned into a disaster with the entire raid being lost to flak, fighters and a collision.
23:37But as whenever these doubts were raised, cool heads pointed to the plane's obvious success in its place, and the marauders were retained, though they were not to be used at low level for some time.
23:49If you lost an engine, then it was very critical on one engine, and if you pulled too much power on one engine, you sometimes lost control of the airplane.
24:01So this was what made it so difficult to learn to fly, but once you had an appreciation of these things, and were always aware that it could happen, then pilots began to love the airplane.
24:20The pilots that finally ended up in combat are those who survived the training missions.
24:27You know, the code word used to be a B-26 a day in Tampa Bay, but that was in the early days of training.
24:39Europe was to be the theater where the B-26 proved itself in the long run.
24:44After the initial shocking loss, the crews settled into the hard routines of their work, and the marauders' reputation grew more balanced.
24:59The fact that it was vindicated in combat is not surprising.
25:03Martin had put a lot of time and expertise into the plane, despite the rush to get it into production and use.
25:10Among other effects, the weight increases had led to a series of accidents caused by landing gear failure, and the wheel struts were strengthened.
25:19The Hudale bomber, trailing its loaded B-26 strut, put in many hours, and all the components were subject to the same thorough evaluation, though not always as bizarrely as this.
25:31These tests evaluated different angles for the wheels.
25:41The infamous wings were not gambles. They were calculated to satisfy a need and with margin for safety.
25:59If there had been any initial inadequacy, the plane would never even have lifted into the air with the hugely increased loads that the Army subsequently expected of it.
26:09The initial calculations were proven. The plane, though demanding, was safe and reliable.
26:14A test program is of little use if it tests only favorable conditions.
26:25The test series on aircraft are often pursued until a part is destroyed, as in tests shown here, where a wing surface is brought to the point of buckling.
26:34The treatment devised for the components in these laboratory environments was, to say the least, extreme.
26:41There was no part of the plane that did not represent a deliberate and logical choice, sometimes with some compromise, but the designer's aim for excellent performance is evident from the choices made.
27:09With a small wing, heavy demands were placed on the pilot, or more particularly, on his training.
27:19Wherever it could, the company did everything possible to protect the crew, experimenting with many combinations of armored glass, for example, in seeking the ability to withstand the blows of bullets.
27:31creatures from the��ler Gary Foxx
27:33For the fighting man's
27:51time to protect the crew from the treatingcia's can be found.
27:59But no amount of company design could protect the crew
28:11from the disastrous combination of the rapidly expanding Air Force
28:15and the intolerance of the Martin to mishandling.
28:18Not only trainee pilots, but trainee ground crew and mechanics contributed to the crashes.
28:23Once units had been shaken down and prepared to take up their place in the line,
28:31accidents diminished rapidly,
28:33and the universal acclaim for the B-26 from its combat users continued.
28:38In addition, in the hands of the newly formed 9th Air Force,
28:42it had found a role as the Ravager of Communications.
28:46With fighter cover, the eight B-26 groups of the 9th
28:49assumed the role of medium-altitude, high-precision attack.
28:53The increasingly paralyzed Luftwaffe could do little
29:02to stop the process of surgically precise cuts
29:04made in communications all over the occupied countries.
29:08and the next particles.
29:10So in order to stop the commanding, the 4th is a 4th is a 1st.
29:22The 3rd is not a single object in Denmark,
29:24but there is no one at the same time.
29:26That means that the third species of the 9th is a 4th is a 4th.
29:29It is a 3rd is a 3rd is a 3rd is a 5th.
29:31The momentum of Allied air dominance grew,
29:50and the effect on the Nazis' ability to resist invasion and defeat was critical to the war's outcome.
29:56The stable that produced the Marauder had also been responsible for the first production bomber designed in the United States in 1918.
30:07Martin was a company with a long tradition and a lot of pride, and the criticism of the B-26 had hurt them.
30:14Their workforce, highly skilled and highly valued, produced planes that were second to none,
30:20and the company's history of breaking new ground in planes that were practical, efficient and well-built was a valuable asset.
30:34With gasoline rationing, the company organized transport for the workforce with car sharing arrangements and public transport.
30:41The war was felt at home not only in the carpools and reliance on public transport,
31:08the large numbers of women who came into the workforce reflected the fact that the country had placed so many of its young men at risk.
31:15I'm Bob Lucas, Colonel, U.S. Air Force, retired. The B-26 will be right back on wings.
31:23Now, I think the B-26 is a great airplane, primarily because of its speed.
31:30It's been a rugged airplane.
31:33Several times on missions we had battle damage and came back no problem.
31:40The thing could fly and go right back a few hours later and it would fly again.
31:46In Europe, the B-26s went on with their task in a manner that became more and more efficient with growing experience.
31:56In the European theater, they would fly 129,943 operational sorties by war's end, dropping 169,382 tons of bombs.
32:08The loss of only 911 aircraft in combat represented a loss rate of less than 1%.
32:15To offset this, B-26 gunners were credited with 402 aircraft shot down.
32:21The biggest threat shot down.
32:22The other two aircraft shot down.
32:27so
32:57together with other allied attack and medium bombers the marauders reduced hitler's empire
33:04to isolated centers with communications in shreds often flying in a sky crowded with different
33:11allied planes the marauders pounded the germans in the lead up to the invasion and then in the
33:16inexorable pressure and subsequent allied blitzkrieg as the allies fought their way toward
33:21berlin
33:51so
34:01so
34:03so
34:13so
34:15so
34:25so
34:27so
34:37so
34:39so
34:49so
34:51so
34:53so
35:03so
35:05so
35:07so
35:19so
35:21the marauders found favor with the pilots of many forces
35:35not only did the british and u.s. army and navy buy them but they were flown by french australian south african canadian and greek crews
35:49photographic variants target toes and trainers appeared as the model matured and it became the first army air force plane to operate the ship
35:55the marauders found favor with the pilots of many forces not only did the british and u.s. army and navy buy them but they were flown by french
36:01and the glory so it was exactly the way that day but the maritime military craft became свое upro
36:11so that theOTHER military was vision that takes becoming fasterERT by even though the party had waited for
36:22so
37:23In Baltimore, the last parts of the Marauder story were written as production ceased on March 30th, 1945.
38:11And anticlimactically, a few photographs later, a chapter in aviation production had closed.
38:47The last plane, Tail End Charlie, was a model TB-26G-25MA, which gives some idea of the proliferation of types and subtypes since the original, simply titled B-26, had flown three and a half years before.
39:05Tail End Charlie was fitted out as a target tow and trainer plane.
39:09The second-to-last Marauder named Middle River Stump Jump and given an additional re-identification as the XB-26H was, ironically,
39:29considering the takeoff and landing controversy that had surrounded the B-26, involved in testing the radical new undercarriage being developed for the Boeing B-47 Stratojet.
39:40It was modified to have tandem main wheels retracting into the fuselage and outrigger legs housed in place of the normal main members in the engine nacelles.
39:51The last half years.
39:53The last half years.
39:58The last half years.
40:06The fuselage of the plane had to be specially strengthened
40:34with the external reinforcement you can see
40:36to take the landing loads of the bicycle undercarriage.
40:44Occasionally, the tests would be interrupted
40:46as the violence of some of the maneuvers saw gear failure
40:50in the cobbled-together assembly,
40:52which was made up with bits from B-26s and B-17s.
41:04Middle River Stump Jump
41:27was involved in preparation for the next generation of planes,
41:30and this next generation was to represent another great leap forward
41:35as the jet engine would make the entire World War II inventory instantly outdated.
41:42They got 11 out of 36 airplanes on the first time that M-262s were used.
41:49That's quite a score.
41:51I remember the debriefing, and we kept asking all the tail gunners,
41:55all the gunners, everybody what hit us,
41:58and nobody seemed to know.
42:00It was very confusing, and then that night,
42:03we got a wire from 9th Bomber Command headquarters
42:06that said that we were hit by jet aircraft.
42:11And to a man, we all said, what's the jet?
42:14I was so impressed with the B-26 that after the war,
42:22I went to the Martin Company while I was in college
42:27and worked there as a co-op student
42:30until I got my aeronautical engineering degree
42:33and then stayed with the Martin Company for approximately 10 years
42:38working on various missiles, rockets, and aircraft.
42:42For some World War II bombers, there was a life after the war as commercial planes.
42:48But the Marauder, although rehabilitated in the minds of fliers, still experienced a mixed reputation.
42:55And given that it was more expensive to build than, for example, the North American Mitchell,
43:00the B-26 disappeared with astonishing suddenness.
43:05One day, there were thousands of planes,
43:07and it seemed that the next day, there were millions of aluminum ingots in their place.
43:11They were scrapped even faster than they had appeared.
43:14The French used them until 1947, and that was that.
43:19Abruptly, the B-26 Marauder was gone from the sky.
43:23The Marauders
43:42The Marauders, ruggedly designed and capable of absorbing damage unshaken,
43:46played a relatively unsung part in the war.
43:49But a part of that was of the highest importance.
43:53The losses in planes and crews were the lowest for any U.S. type employed in numbers in the European theater.
44:00But there was a price to pay for victory,
44:02and some of it was paid with the lives of the B-26 crew.
44:11With the war's end, there were many airmen who could thank the Marauder for their survival.
44:16And there are still many B-26 men who will argue loudly that their plane was the best of its kind in the war.
44:22And there are still those who will look at the B-26 man as he says this and strongly disagree.
44:29But with adequate training of crew, both flight personnel and maintenance,
44:36over some of the subcontractors, the plane emerged from its infamous infancy to establish a record that,
44:42with due respect for those who remember the plane as the Widowmaker,
44:45tends to support the veterans who remember the B-26 as the Marauder.
44:52Even allowing for the controversy, there is no denying the B-26 an honorable place as one of World War II's best planes.
45:00THE END
45:28The End
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