Researching Invaders

The process of researching Invaders and their crews is rarely straightforward. On this page we will explain some of the methods that we use to discover clues about these planes and the people who flew them.

The foundational starting point of our work revolves around a pair of documents. The first of these documents is the US Air Force Serial Number list. This list enumerates all of the Invaders that the Air Force accepted into their inventory; 2,453. The second document is the production list from Douglas. This list notates all of the Invaders that Douglas manufactured; 2,503. Right off the bat it seems like there is a discrepancy, however, both of these numbers are accurate. Douglas produced more Invaders than the Air Force accepted. Approximately 50 Invaders were built for the British Royal Air Force, but they were never delivered due to the war in Europe coming to a close.

With these serial number lists as a starting point, we then turn to the inventory records for these planes. The military kept records of when different planes were accepted into service, transferred to another unit, or stricken from the inventory.