OK wedding is done, it went well, life is good etc
It appears that the 'wired shut' comment comes from William Hess's book "Fighting Mustang" Chapter 2, "The Invader"
"The men of the A-36s had been told in the United States that their dive brakes would be all but useless and the best thing they could do was to wire them closed"
Roger Freeman's book "Mustang at War also references the not using the dive brakes.
"The air brakes restricted speed built up in the dive but had a nasty habit of not extending equally due to imbalance of hydraulic pressures. When this happened it was difficult to keep the aircraft aimed true at its target and there were instances of complete loss of control."
"At one time A-36 training was resulting in the highest accident rate per hours flying time of any other major combat aircraft in the USAAF."
"Although a calamitous test in the United States had resulted in recommendations that in dive bombing A36As that angle of descent be reduced to 70 degrees and because of inconsistency of operation, the brakes should not be used, the 27th Group kept very much to the original concept of attack."
"Modifications had largely overcome the dive-brake problems and the brakes were always extended for a near vertical dive."
Robert Gruenhagen "Mustang-The Story of the P51 Fighter"
"Hydraulic control systems had not been developed sufficiently to allow extension of the brakes after high speed was attained. In this configuration it was possible to achieve unequal extension of the brakes and some aircraft to roll which detracted from the pilots aiming procedure. In service this created some difficulty when using dive brakes until pilot technique was developed."
"During the island campaigns, some of the units experienced difficulty with the dive brake systems on the A-36 and as a result, the airplane was reported to be unsatisfactory. This was not a true evaluation however and when time was available for maintenance to rig and adjust the systems and pilot operating techniques were developed,, the dive brakes performed satisfactorily."
It would seem a fair assessment of things would be that initially there were problems, both in the States and when the A-36 first got into combat in the MTO, and that over time they were resolved.
It appears the 'wired shut' comment comes from Hess. Where his source for this was, I don't know. It also appears the recommendation to not used the dive brakes was based on official testing that resulted in the loss of the test A-36 based on what Freeman writes. Greunhagen refers to initial problems in the MTO. All three talk about the problem being solved in time and the A-36 using them successfully.
I think it fair to say that the 'wired shut' comment as urban legend was a bit strong. There seems to be some basis in the actual experiences of the A-36 from it's growing pains to combat. In terms of the comments of the 27th FG pilot, Freeman supports that in his comment about the 27th FG staying the course, so to speak in terms of the dive bombing technique.
