RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 2 Fighters and Bombers of WW2

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RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 2: Fighters and Bombers of WW2

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RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 2: Fighters and Bombers of WW2

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ormed 100 years ago on 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force is the world’s oldest independent air force, and has the legacy to match. Throughout its distinguished career, the RAF has shaped the course of modern warfare and thereby history itself. It has had a profound effect on all our lives, but perhaps none more so than during its ‘Finest Hour’ in World War 2. When Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, the RAF was still undergoing rapid expansion to modernise its equipment and train its crews. It was woefully unprepared compared to the battlehardened Luftwaffe, but the defining events of the Battle of Britain will forever be enshrined in the pages of history, immortalised by Churchill’s famous words: ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’. But this was only the beginning. The largest RAF effort during the war was Bomber Command’s strategic bombing campaign against Germany, a battle fought in the factories as well as over the night skies of Europe.

This then, is the fascinating story of RAF fighters and bombers in World War 2. From Hurricane to Meteor, from Hampden to Lancaster, Volume 2 of our ‘RAF Centenary’ series focusses on 25 of the service’s most influential front-line aircraft of the conflict, illustrating the dramatic wartime evolution of the world’s greatest air force. AVIATION ARCHIVE SERIES ‘RAF Fighters and Bombers of WW2’ is No 37 in the successful Aviation Archive series. It features unparalleled photographic coverage, including many exclusive and rare shots that have never been published before. The words and photographs are complemented by ‘period’ cutaways from the talented pens of the ‘Flight’ and ‘Aeroplane’ artists of the era.

Front cover: RAF Hurricane in the colours of HW840, EG-S, of No 34 Squadron. John Dibbs/The Plane Picture Co

Aviation Archive Series

RAF Centenary: 100 Famous Aircraft – Vol 2: Fighters and Bombers of WW2 • Editor: Allan Burney • Design: Philip Hempell • Group CEO and Publisher: Adrian Cox • Commercial Director: Ann Saundry • Distribution: Seymour Distribution Ltd +44 (0)20 7429 4000 • Printing: Warners (Midlands) PLC, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH. All rights reserved. The entire content of Aviation Archive is © Key Publishing 2018. Reproduction in whole or in part and in any form whatsoever is strictly prohibited without the prior permission of the Publisher. We are unable to guarantee the bona fides of any of our advertisers. Readers are strongly recommended to take their own precautions before parting with any information or item of value, including, but not limited to, money, manuscripts, photographs or personal information in response to any advertisements within this publication. Published by Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincs PE19 1XQ. Tel: +44 (0) 1780 755131. Fax: +44 (0) 1780 757261. Website: www.keypublishing.com ISBN: 9781912205387

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CONTENTS

RAF Centenary 100 Famous Aircraft Vol 2: Fighters and Bombers of WW2 6

ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH WHITLEY

12 FAIREY BATTLE 16 HAWKER HURRICANE 21 SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE 28 HANDLEY PAGE HAMPDEN 34 VICKERS WELLINGTON 41 BOULTON PAUL DEFIANT 44 BRISTOL BEAUFORT 48 WESTLAND WHIRLWIND 50 SHORT STIRLING 56 BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER 61 AVRO MANCHESTER 64 HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX 68 HAWKER TYPHOON 72 DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO 78 AVRO LANCASTER 86 HAWKER TEMPEST 90 GLOSTER METEOR US TYPES FLOWN BY THE RAF 94 BREWSTER BUFFALO 95 CURTISS P-40 TOMAHAWK/KITTYHAWK 95 DOUGLAS BOSTON/HAVOC 96 BOEING B-17 FLYING FORTRESS 96 NORTH AMERICAN B-25 MITCHELL 97 NORTH AMERICAN P-51 MUSTANG 97 REPUBLIC P-47 THUNDERBOLT

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CONTENTS

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HEAVY BOMBER

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley T he first ‘real’ monoplane bomber for the RAF (the preceding Harrow was always viewed as a stop-gap), the Whitley was not an attractive aircraft. But more importantly it was robust and, as such, became the RAF’s bomber of choice during the early war years. The Whitley was developed by Armstrong Whitworth’s chief designer, John Lloyd, in response to Air Ministry Specification B3/34, which called for a heavy night bomber to meet the requirement to replace the RAF’s outdated biplane bomber force. The design of what was to become the AW 38 was in fact a development of the Armstrong Whitworth AW 23 bomber-transport that had lost out to the Bristol Bombay. Such was the urgency for the requirement, that an order for 80 AW 38s, now called Whitley after the location of Armstrong Whitworth’s main factory, was placed in 1935, some considerable time before chief test pilot Alan Campbell-Orde took the prototype, K4586, into the air for the first time on 17 March 1936. The machine’s two Armstrong Siddeley Tiger X engines turned the then-new three-blade, variable pitch de Havilland propellers. The second prototype, K4587, was furnished with a pair of more powerful medium-supercharged Tiger XI engines. The initial production Whitley Is differed little from the prototypes, and first deliveries were begun early in 1937. A total of 34 Mk Is was built before the Whitley II was introduced, the variant powered by the Tiger VIII engines. The Whitley was Armstrong Whitworth’s first design to incorporate monocoque construction, and proved to be a very strong and robust aircraft. The Whitley had a crew of five: a pilot, co-pilot/navigator, a bomb aimer, a wireless operator and a rear gunner. The pilot and second pilot/navigator sat side-by-side in the cockpit, with the wireless operator further back. The bomb aimer position was in the nose with a gun turret located directly above. The fuselage aft of the wireless operator was divided horizontally by the bomb bay; behind the bomb bay was the main entrance and aft of that the rear turret. The offensive armaments were stowed in two bomb bays housed within the fuselage, along with a further 14 smaller cells in the wing. The early examples had a nose turret and rear turret, both being manually

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operated and mounting one Vickers 0.303in (7.7mm) machine gun. On the Whitley III this arrangement was substantially revised: a new retractable ventral ‘dustbin’ position was installed mounting twin 0.303in Browning machine guns and the nose turret was also upgraded to a Nash & Thompson poweroperated turret. On the Whitley IV, the tail and ventral turrets were also power-operated, mounting four Browning machine guns thus making it the most powerfully armed bomber in the world against attacks from the rear. The Whitley featured a large rectangular-shaped wing, which led to it receiving the nickname ‘the flying barn door’. The distinctive tailplane featured a pair of fins braced to the fuselage using metal struts. By far the most numerous of the Whitley variants were those fitted with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, which were first installed in production Whitley IVs, from early 1939. The following Mk V was produced in greater numbers than any other variant, and was identified by its modified fins with straight leading edges, and an extension of the rear fuselage to provide the rear gunner with a wider field of fire.

In service The Whitley entered RAF service with No 10 Squadron at Dishforth in 1937 and when war broke out on 3 September 1939, Bomber Command had six squadrons of the type operational with No 4 Group. It saw action on the first night of the war delivering propaganda leaflets over Germany, before dropping bombs in anger for the first time on 19 March 1940. The target was the seaplane base on the island of Sylt. It was not an auspicious start as unfortunately, the bombers hit the neutral Danish island of Bornholm by mistake. Whitleys also carried out the first raid on Italy, visiting Genoa and Turin on the night of 11 June. The RAF dropped its first bombs on Berlin during the night of 25 August 1940, the attacking units including Nos 51 and 78 Squadrons with Whitleys. Unlike the Hampden and Wellington, which had met Specification B.9/32 for a day bomber, the Whitley was always intended for night operations alone and thus escaped the early heavy losses received during daylight raids. Although obsolete as a bomber from the outset of

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Heavy bomber 5 70ft 6in (21.49m) 84ft 0in (25. 6m) 15ft (4.57m) 2 x Rolls-Royce Merlin X V12 of 1,145hp each 200mph (322km/h) 33,500lb (15,196kg) Guns: 1 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Vickers K in nose turret, 4 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Brownings in rear turret Bombs: Up to 2,000lb (907kg)

war, production continued, and the aircraft remained as part of Bomber Command’s Main Force until the night of 29/30 April 1942, when No 58 Squadron bombed the Port of Ostend in Belgium, the last operational mission by a Whitley-equipped bomber squadron. Thereafter, it continued in a variety of secondary roles, including troop and freight transport, paratroop training and glider towing. It also played an important role in Coastal Command when the Whitley GRVII appeared in late 1941, a dedicated patrol aircraft. It carried more fuel, but the big change was the installation of ASV Mk II radar. The Whitley with its long slab-sided fuselage was ideal for the dipole arrays of Long-Range ASV, which were installed on the sides and on top of the fuselage. Nearly 150 Mk VIIs were built, and they equipped four squadrons of Coastal Command. In November 1941 a Whitley sank U-206 in the Bay of Biscay, after codebreakers had revealed the submarine’s approximate position. It was the first success of ASV Mk II and a further five U-boats were destroyed before the end of 1943. But even in Coastal Command the Whitley was quickly overshadowed by more capable aircraft. Whitleys flew a total of 8,996 operations with Bomber Command and dropped 9,845 tons of bombs. Some 269 were lost in action. No fewer than 24 squadrons and several other units operated the Whitley at one time or another. Of the 1,814 aircraft built, there are no survivors.

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ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH WHITLEY

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HEAVY BOMBER

Above: The Whitley was developed from the Armstrong Whitworth AW 23, a proposed bomber/transport. A prototype, K3585, was built first flying on 4 June 1935. Owing to its unreliable Tiger engines, its delivery to the RAF for testing was delayed, and eventually it lost out to the Bristol Bombay. The prototype was given the civil registration G-AFRX in May 1939 and was used for in-flight refuelling experiments. It was destroyed in a German bombing raid on Ford airfield in June 1940. Top right: Fitting out of the front fuselage sections of Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys, revealing the compact nature of the cockpit area. Right: The height of production on the final assembly line of the Whitley V at Baginton in December 1940.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley RAF squadrons

Above: The turretless Armstrong Whitworth Whitley K7200 pictured with one of the manufacturer’s other products of the era, the Atalanta Seventeen car.

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No 7 Squadron No 10 Squadron No 51 Squadron No 53 Squadron No 58 Squadron No 76 Squadron

No 77 Squadron No 78 Squadron No 97 Squadron No 102 Squadron No 103 Squadron No 109 Squadron

No 115 Squadron No 138 Squadron No 161 Squadron No 166 Squadron No 295 Squadron No 296 Squadron

No 297 Squadron No 298 Squadron No 299 Squadron No 502 Squadron No 612 Squadron No 619 Squadron

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ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH WHITLEY

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10 HEAVY BOMBER

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This page: Profiles of Armstrong Whitworth Whitley GRVII, Z6633 WL-G of No 612 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command in 1942, showing the array of radar aerials fitted to this mark. Top left: Paint it black. Displaying the type’s characteristic nose-down attitude in flight, Whitley V Z6640 EY-Y of No 78 Squadron was a veteran of 29 bombing missions, the last one a raid on Emden on 10 January 1942. Left: Groundcrew sensibly taking great care as they load a Whitley of No 10 Squadron with its deadly payload in 1937.

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LIGHT BOMBER

Fairey Battle A victim of a misguided specification rather than bad design, the muchmaligned Fairey Battle light bomber suffered the highest loss rate of any aircraft in the RAF’s history. The singleengined Battle lacked performance and was effectively obsolescent even before it entered service. However, it did achieve one great claim to fame – it was the first RAF aircraft to shoot down a German fighter in the war. In 1933 the Air Ministry wanted to replace its Hawker Hart light bomber and issued a specification for an aircraft that could carry three crew and a 1,000lb bomb load for 1,000 miles at 200mph. Crucially, they wanted all this from a single-engined machine. The aircraft that emerged from this challenging specification was the Fairey Battle, powered by the new Rolls-Royce Merlin, the only engine that was

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deemed powerful enough to provide the performance required. Compared to the aircraft it was replacing, the Fairey Battle was of ‘modern’ construction, a stressed skin all-metal aircraft, which adopted a low-mounted cantilever monoplane wing and was equipped with a retractable tail wheel undercarriage. It had an aerodynamic long and slim fuselage design. The cockpit was built for three crew members; the pilot, navigator and gunner. They were seated in tandem under a continuous glazed canopy. It looked like a large fighter rather than a bomber, which in part was its downfall. The Battle was lightly armed only with a single Browning 0.303in (7.7mm) machine gun fixed ahead and with a trainable Vickers K in the back. It lacked an armoured cockpit and did not have self-sealing fuel tanks. The Battle’s standard payload of four 250lb (110kg) bombs was carried in cells inside

the wings and an additional 500lb (230kg) of bombs could be carried on underwing racks. Even before the prototype (K4303) took to the air on 10 March 1936, the Air Ministry contracted for 155 to offset its outclassed interwar biplanes. The first Battle was constructed at Hayes, Middlesex in June 1937, but all subsequent aircraft were built at Fairey’s new factory at Heaton Chapel, Stockport and tested at its Manchester Ringway facility. Austin Motors’ ‘Shadow Factory’ at Longbridge manufactured 1,029 aircraft of the total Below: A Battle pilot makes final checks with his groundcrew prior to a mission. The Battle was a robust aircraft that was frequently described as being easy to fly, even for relatively inexperienced pilots. Sadly many of its experienced crew did not survive the early days of World War 2 before it was hastily withdrawn from front-line service.

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FAIREY BATTLE production figure of 2,185 machines. Fairey Battles were powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin I, II, III and V, and took their Mark numbers from the powerplant.

In service When introduced into service in 1937 with No 63 Squadron, the future looked bright. The Battle could carry twice as many bombs over twice the distance as the Hawker Hart and Hind bombers it replaced. Indeed, by 1939 some 1,000 Battles were in the RAF’s inventory in preparation for war. The harsh truth was that it was already out-dated, but due to the lack of more modern types it remained in front-line service. Nevertheless, at the outbreak of war ten RAF squadrons were sent to Northern France as part of the Advanced Air Striking Force. For the first eight months engagements were limited, but the Battle did claim the RAF’s first victory of the war when a Luftwaffe Bf109 fighter was shot down on 20 September 1939 by Sgt F. Letchard during a patrol over France. However, when the Wehrmacht swept into France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940,

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the Battle’s flaws were horribly exposed. Its armament of two rifle calibre machine guns was hopeless against modern fighters, and its slow speed made it an easy target for AA gunners. In an attempt to halt the German advance towards Brussels, Battles were sent to bomb two road bridges over the Albert Canal near Maastricht. Six Battles of No 12 Squadron were split into two groups of three and attacked through a withering barrage of anti-aircraft and small arms fire. Led by Flg Off Donald Garland, the volunteer crews pressed home their unescorted daylight attack against terrifying odds. One span of the bridge was hit and briefly knocked out, but at the cost of the loss of all six aircraft. For their part in the action, Flg Off Garland and his navigator, Sgt Gray, were posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross; the RAF’s first of World War 2. After suffering more crippling losses (on 14 May, 35 Battles were shot down by Bf109s), the type was withdrawn from France but continued their attacks against enemy occupied Channel ports. In just one week, 99 Battles had been destroyed, taking with them large numbers of highly experienced aircrew,

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Fairey Battle II Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Light bomber 3 42ft 4in (12.9m) 54ft 0in (16.45m) 15ft 6in (4.72m) 1 x Merlin II of 1,030hp 257mph (413km/h) 10,792lb (4,895kg) Guns: 1 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine gun (starboard wing); 1 x Vickers K machine gun Bombs: 4 x 250lb (110kg) internally, 500lb (230kg) externally

and failing to delay the German advance by a single hour. This was, effectively, the end of the Battle’s front-line career and the type was removed from operations in September 1940 and subsequently used for training.

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LIGHT BOMBER

Fairey Battle RAF squadrons No 12 Squadron No 15 Squadron No 35 Squadron No 40 Squadron No 52 Squadron No 63 Squadron No 88 Squadron

No 98 Squadron No 103 Squadron No 105 Squadron No 106 Squadron No 141 Squadron No 142 Squadron No 150 Squadron

No 185 Squadron No 207 Squadron No 218 Squadron No 226 Squadron No 234 Squadron No 235 Squadron No 239 Squadron

No 242 Squadron No 245 Squadron No 253 Squadron No 266 Squadron No 616 Squadron

Top: The prototype P.27/32 (later named Battle), being flown by Fairey test pilot Chris Staniland in April 1936. Above left: Groundcrew carrying out checks on the Battle’s Rolls-Royce Merlin powerplant. Left: A trio of No 226 Squadron Battles fly a prewar training mission. Despite the Battle’s 1,000 mile range while under a full bomb load, its slow speed and light armament made it particulalry vulnerable for the daylight missions it was designed to perform. Right: France 1939-40. Three Fairey Battles of No 103 Squadron RAF overfly Betheniville, watched by groundcrew servicing K9408 ‘PM-N’, another aircraft of the unit. During the so-called ‘phoney war’, the Fairey Battle was used to fly reconnaissance missions over the German front line. It was during one of these sorties, on 20 September 1939, that a Battle shot down a Messerschmitt Bf109, giving the type the honour of having achieved the first RAF kill of the war.

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FAIREY BATTLE

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FIGHTER

Hawker Hurricane T he Hawker Hurricane heralded a new era when it entered RAF service in 1937. It might have been the world’s most advanced fighter at the time, but its genetics were inherited from the Fury, giving it a simple robust character that served it well for what was to follow. In the darkest early days of war and through the fateful summer of 1940, it was the Hawker Hurricane that was the mainstay of Fighter Command. If it lacked the out-and-out performance of the Spitfire, the Hurricane proved itself manoeuvrable, dependable and, most importantly, easy to repair. Hawker’s visionary chief designer, Sydney Camm, knew that the Fury represented the pinnacle of the biplane era and that a monoplane design with retractable undercarriage and much heavier armament would be needed to meet the RAF’s future

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fighter needs. Camm rejected the proven Goshawk engine in favour of an all-new powerplant being developed by Rolls-Royce. Known at the time as the PV12 (it would later become the Merlin), the powerplant was 12-cylindered and liquid-cooled, and offered far more development potential. In its construction, the new ‘Interceptor Fighter’ would be conventional with fuselage and centre section of ‘girder construction’ in steel tube with fabric covering to the rear fuselage and wings. Prototype K5083 was built at Kingston and made its first flight from Brooklands in the hands of Flt Lt ‘George’ Bulman on 6 November 1935. Within months the aircraft had completed its service evaluation and testing at Martlesham Heath. With German expansionism now evident to all, a contract for an initial batch of 600 of the new aircraft was awarded to Hawker on 3 June 1936; its new fighter was named as the

Above: Battle weary Hurricanes on the prowl. No 1 Squadron Mk IIcs from Tangmere, headed by Z3778 JX-Y in 1942.

Hurricane 24 days later. The first production Hurricane I, L1547, took to the air on 12 October 1937 and differed very little from the solitary prototype, but was fitted with the more powerful, and reliable, 1,030hp Merlin II engine. The production aeroplane also had a revised canopy with internal strengthening, a bulletproof windscreen (added in early 1939), simplified undercarriage doors and enlarged rudder. The first 60 Hurricane Is also lacked the small ventral strake beneath the rear fuselage that subsequently became standard for all Hurricanes built from February 1938 to improve the type’s spin recovery. The original two-blade fixed-pitch wooden airscrew (as a propeller was then known) was also replaced by a three-

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HAWKER HURRICANE

blade variable-pitch unit. The latter change gave a huge improvement in performance, particularly in climb, and was introduced on production aircraft from early 1939.

In service The first RAF squadron to receive the new type was No 111 Squadron at Northolt, which took delivery of its complement of 16 Hurricanes from December 1937. When war was declared on 1 September 1939, the RAF had 16 operational squadrons of Hurricanes and the type was by far the most numerous in RAF Fighter Command. Hurricanes were chosen to accompany the RAF bomber units sent to France, equipping Nos 1 and 73 Squadrons of the Advanced Air Striking Force and Nos 85 and 87 Squadrons of the Air Component. The first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF fighters on the

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Western Front was by a Hurricane of No 1 Squadron on 30 October 1939, while No 73 Squadron’s Flg Off E. J. ‘Cobber’ Kain became the RAF’s first ace of the war. From 10 May to 3 June 1940, Hurricane units fought valiantly to stem the Luftwaffe onslaught in support of the Blitzkrieg in the West, suffering terrible losses in the process – between 19 May and 1 June 119 Hurricanes were destroyed. An early problem was one of identification, with several Hurricanes being mistaken as enemy aircraft and shot at by itchy French anti-aircraft gunners. To reduce the likelihood of these embarrassing incidents, RAF Hurricanes in France received full height red/white/blue flashes covering the whole rudder, while the undersurface of one wing was painted white and the other black. When the real German onslaught on France commenced on 10 May 1940, the fighter forces – RAF and Armée de l’Air – were totally insufficient to stem the advance. More than 50 German aircraft fell to the guns of Hurricanes, but after 10 days of fighting the situation was untenable and a return to the UK was the only option. At the start of the Battle of Britain in July 1940, the Hurricane outnumbered the Spitfire by nearly two to one. Nothing could disguise the fact, though, that the Hurricane was half a generation older in design than the Spitfire. Despite this, its ruggedness and ability to be repaired and returned to the air proved invaluable in the relentless months of combat. Almost all aircraft in service at this time were Mk Is, although Hurricane production had gone over to all-metal wings from March 1939 and earlier aircraft were in many cases retrofitted. With its thick wing a hallmark of the Hurricane’s design, Sydney Camm’s team knew that any significant improvement in performance could only come from getting Rolls-Royce to develop a more powerful variant of the Merlin. The Merlin XX developed 1,260hp and this engine, fitted in the Hurricane IIa, gave

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Above: Hurricane I P2961, LE-A of No 242 Squadron flown by Plt Off W. L. McKnight. McKnight was the first Canadian ace and scored 17 victories, as well as two shared and three unconfirmed kills. He served in No 242 Squadron RAF during the final phase of the Battle of France and during the Battle of Britain. McKnight was shot down and killed on 12 January 1941 during a fighter sweep over Calais.

a maximum speed of 340mph at 17,000ft, an improvement of some 20mph. The first Mk IIs delivered to the RAF from September 1940 retained an armament of eight 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns, but the Mk IIb which arrived on the squadrons from spring 1942, offered both the uprated engine and a wing equipped for 12 Brownings. While the Hurricane’s days as a front-line fighter were clearly numbered, it did still have a future as a fighter-bomber, and additional wiring was fitted to new aircraft on the production lines to allow underwing bomb racks to be mounted. Thus was born the ‘Hurribomber’. The Hurricane IIc was fitted with four 20mm Oerlikon or Hispano cannons in the wing and, like the Mk IIb, was capable of carrying bombs or fuel tanks on under-wing hardpoints, while many Mk IIs were tropicalised with a large Vokes air filter fitted in a fairing under the nose. The Mk IId was developed as a ‘tank buster’ and featured a pair of under-wing Vickers 40mm cannon while retaining two 0.303in Brownings for sighting. The final production Hurricane was the Mk IV, which featured a ‘universal’ wing able to carry a variety of fixed gun armament and underwing stores, including eight 60lb unguided rocket projectiles. Mk IVs were constructed on the Langley production line and service clearance was issued in June 1943. The Mk X, XI and XII were Canadian-built versions; many were delivered to the RAF but some served in Canada with the Royal Canadian Air Force. In total, a remarkable 14,533 of all marks was built.

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FIGHTER

Above: Camm’s team aimed to keep things simple so that the Hurricane would not introduce too many new ways of working in the factory and would require the minimum of man-hours for production. Much of the Hurricane’s structure was thus very similar to that on the company’s Hart and Fury biplanes, particularly the construction of the fuselage. Below: The Hurricane prototype, K5083, clearly indicating the demarcation between the metal-clad and fabric covering of the fuselage and wings.

Hawker Hurricane IIb Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Fighter 1 32ft 0in (9.75m) 40ft 0in (12.19m) 13ft 1in (3.99m) Rolls-Royce Merlin XX of 1,260hp 340mph (547km/h) 7,900lb (3,591kg) 12 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns

Hawker Hurricane RAF squadrons No 1 Squadron No 3 Squadron No 5 Squadron No 6 Squadron No 11 Squadron No 17 Squadron No 20 Squadron No 27 Squadron No 28 Squadron No 29 Squadron No 30 Squadron No 32 Squadron No 33 Squadron No 34 Squadron No 42 Squadron No 43 Squadron No 46 Squadron No 56 Squadron No 60 Squadron No 63 Squadron No 67 Squadron No 69 Squadron No 71 Squadron No 73 Squadron No 74 Squadron No 79 Squadron No 80 Squadron No 81 Squadron No 85 Squadron No 87 Squadron No 91 Squadron No 92 Squadron No 94 Squadron No 95 Squadron No 96 Squadron

No 98 Squadron No 111 Squadron No 113 Squadron No 116 Squadron No 121 Squadron No 123 Squadron No 126 Squadron No 127 Squadron No 128 Squadron No 131 Squadron No 133 Squadron No 134 Squadron No 135 Squadron No 136 Squadron No 137 Squadron No 145 Squadron No 146 Squadron No 151 Squadron No 164 Squadron No 173 Squadron No 174 Squadron No 175 Squadron No 176 Squadron No 181 Squadron No 182 Squadron No 183 Squadron No 184 Squadron No 185 Squadron No 186 Squadron No 193 Squadron No 195 Squadron No 198 Squadron No 208 Squadron No 213 Squadron No 225 Squadron

No 229 Squadron No 232 Squadron No 237 Squadron No 238 Squadron No 239 Squadron No 241 Squadron No 242 Squadron No 245 Squadron No 247 Squadron No 249 Squadron No 250 Squadron No 253 Squadron No 255 Squadron No 256 Squadron No 257 Squadron No 258 Squadron No 260 Squadron No 261 Squadron No 263 Squadron No 273 Squadron No 274 Squadron No 276 Squadron No 279 Squadron No 283 Squadron No 284 Squadron No 285 Squadron No 286 Squadron No 287 Squadron No 288 Squadron No 289 Squadron No 290 Squadron No 291 Squadron No 501 Squadron No 504 Squadron No 516 Squadron

No 518 Squadron No 520 Squadron No 521 Squadron No 527 Squadron No 530 Squadron No 531 Squadron No 532 Squadron No 533 Squadron No 534 Squadron No 535 Squadron No 536 Squadron No 537 Squadron No 538 Squadron No 539 Squadron No 567 Squadron No 577 Squadron No 587 Squadron No 595 Squadron No 598 Squadron No 601 Squadron No 605 Squadron No 607 Squadron No 610 Squadron No 615 Squadron No 624 Squadron No 631 Squadron No 639 Squadron No 650 Squadron No 667 Squadron No 679 Squadron No 691 Squadron No 695 Squadron No 680 Squadron No 681 Squadron

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SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE 21

Supermarine Spitfire N

‘

ever was a ‘plane so loved by pilots, combining as it did sensitive yet docile handling characteristics with deadly qualities as a fighting machine. Americans raved about her, Poles were seduced by her, the Free French undoubtedly wrote love songs about her. And the Germans were envious of her.’ This is how Battle of Britain pilot Grp Capt Hugh ‘Cocky’ Dundas eloquently summed up the Supermarine Spitfire, the RAF’s most famous aircraft. Built to a 1934 Air Ministry specification that called for an eight-gun fighter that could fly at over 275mph and have a good rate of climb, the Supermarine Spitfire was the brainchild of aircraft engineer Reginald J. Mitchell. He incorporated into his new monoplane fighter experience gained in the design of a series of high-speed seaplanes that commenced in 1925. The resulting Type 300 fighter showed the distinctive lines of the Schneider racers in its fuselage, but now had a new ellipticalshaped wing. However, it was the emergence of the Rolls-Royce PV12 engine – later named Merlin – that was to be the most important catalyst in the new fighter’s development. Prototype Spitfire K5054 first took to the skies on 5 March 1936 with Capt J. ‘Mutt’ Summers, the Vickers (Aviation) Group’s chief test pilot, at the controls. Remarkably, this was the only prototype Spitfire to be built, this aircraft conducting all the pre-production development work associated with the aircraft between 5 March 1936 and the first flight of the first production Spitfire I (K9787) on 15 May 1938. The first order for 310 production Spitfire Is was placed on 3 June 1936 and exactly two years later the first deliveries were made to the RAF, entering service in July 1938. Sadly, R. J. Mitchell had died of cancer a year previously, aged just 42, not knowing that his last aircraft design was to play such a critical part in history. The first 64 airframes were fitted with the Merlin II engine, whilst the remaining Spitfire I/IAs were powered by the 1,030hp

Merlin III. From the 78th airframe onwards, the Rolls-Royce engine would drive a three-bladed de Havilland or Rotol two-pitch or constant speed propeller, rather than the Watts twobladed fixed-pitch wooden airscrew. The high performance of the Spitfire came from the low drag of the thin elliptical wing, the slender form of its fuselage and the complete harmony of the parts that made up the whole aircraft. Throughout its production life it was possible to step up the performance by adding more and more powerful engines, because the basic structural design was capable of continuous development.

In service The first Spitfire Is reached No 19 Squadron in August 1938, and further modifications were brought in following early months of service flying, including a bulged canopy to provide the extra headroom that was needed to allow taller pilots to fly the aircraft in comfort. At the outbreak of World War 2, 10 RAF fighter squadrons (Nos 19, 41, 54, 65, 66, 72, 74, 602, 603 and 609) had been equipped with Spitfire Is. On 16 October 1939, Spitfires of Nos 602 and 603 Squadrons shot down a pair of Junkers Ju88s off the coast of Scotland, and, on

28 October, Flg Off Archie McKellar of No 602 Squadron shot down a Heinkel He111, the first Luftwaffe aircraft to be downed on British soil. Through the war years the Spitfire was at the forefront of battle, but it was certainly not alone and was not, as the statistics show, always an overwhelming success. The Spitfire achieved legendary status during the Battle of Britain, a reputation aided by the famous ‘Spitfire Fund’ organised and run by Lord Beaverbrook. During the Battle of Britain, the early marks of Spitfire could be outflown by the Luftwaffe’s

Supermarine Spitfire Vb Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Fighter 1 29ft 11in (9.12m) 36ft 10in (11.23m) 11ft 5in (3.86m) Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 of 1,470hp 370mph (595km/h) 6,700lb (3,039kg) A wing – 8 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns. B wing – 2 x 20mm Hispano cannon, 4 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns. C wing – 4 x 20mm Hispano cannon

Left: Purity and power, a trio of Spitfire Vbs of No 243 Squadron looking for ‘business’ during 1942, headed by EN821, SN-M. Right: Supermarine workers tend the Spitfire prototype, K5054, unaware that the type was destined to become the most famous fighter of World War 2.

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FIGHTER

Messerschmitt Bf109Es, particularly in a dive. However, developments of the basic airframe and engine soon followed. Performance was greatly improved with the introduction of the more powerful Merlin XII engine resulting in the Spitfire IIA, delivered to No 611 Squadron in August 1940, followed by Nos 19, 74 and 266 Squadrons. The later Spitfire V, VIII, IX and XVI were fighters or fighter-bombers powered by the Merlin 45 series (Mk V), Merlin 60 series (Mk VIII and IX) or the Packard Motors-built

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Above: Spitfire I, L1204, XT-R of No 603 Squadron, flown by Sqn Ldr Basil ‘Stapme’ Stapleton. During the Battle of Britain, he claimed six enemy aircraft destroyed, two shared destroyed, eight probably destroyed and two damaged, all achieved on Spitfires.

Merlin 266 (Mk XVI) and fitted with re-designed wings. In the case of the ‘B’ wing, this allowed the carriage of more fuel and 20mm cannon in place of the Browning machine guns on the ‘A’ wing, while the universal ‘C’ wing could be

adapted to take any combination of cannon/ machine guns. The subsequent ‘E’ wing fitted to the Mk IX in 1944 had the bigger 0.50in US Brownings. Other improvements included a larger rudder and, for the Mk XVI, a teardrop canopy with a cut-down rear fuselage. When used for low-level fighter-bomber duties, denoted by the prefix LF before the mark number, a clipped wing was standard. The Spitfire VI and VII were high-altitude fighters powered by the Merlin 47 (Mk VI) and Merlin 60

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SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE

series (Mk VII), both with pressurised cockpits, retractable tailwheel and ‘C’ wing. Over 18,300 Merlin-engined Spitfires were built. Unfortunately, the speed at which the enemy progressed with its alternative fighter designs, such as the Focke-Wulf FW190, could not be matched by the overstretched Supermarine team. Thus a period came in Below: Preparing for war. Pilots of No 19 Squadron ‘scramble’ to their waiting Spitfire Is.

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25

1941-42 when the enemy’s fighters had the edge – at least until the Spitfire IXb entered service. Now it became a versatile, fast, wellarmed fighter, demonstrating its flexibility in the low-level fighter, ground attack and fighter reconnaissance roles in particular. In 1943, the Rolls-Royce Griffon-engined Spitfire XII entered service with Nos 41 and 91 Squadrons at RAF Hawkinge. The new powerplant increased the aircraft’s power, speed and rate of climb, particularly at low level. This was applied to good effect in the Mk XIV, basically a re-engined Mk VIII with a five-blade Rotol propeller and enlarged fin and rudder, 1,055 being built in 1943-44. Other Griffon-engined Spitfires were the Mk 21, 22 and 24 fighters/fighter-bombers and the Mk XIX unarmed photo-reconnaissance aircraft. The PRXIX had a top speed of 460mph and a ceiling of 43,000ft The Spitfire flew on every operational front, including Italy, Malta, the Middle East, India and Australia. Apart from being a standard fighter in the Royal Air Force and the Commonwealth air arms, it was also used by France, Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Portugal, Russia and the US. The last of 22,758 Spitfires was built in October 1947, and the famous fighter remained in active RAF service until 1951.

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FIGHTER

Supermarine Spitfire RAF squadrons No 1 Squadron No 2 Squadron No 4 Squadron No 5 Squadron No 6 Squadron No 11 Squadron No 16 Squadron No 17 Squadron No 19 Squadron No 20 Squadron No 26 Squadron No 28 Squadron No 32 Squadron No 33 Squadron No 34 Squadron No 41 Squadron No 43 Squadron No 54 Squadron No 56 Squadron No 58 Squadron No 60 Squadron No 63 Squadron No 64 Squadron No 65 Squadron No 66 Squadron No 67 Squadron No 69 Squadron No 71 Squadron No 72 Squadron No 73 Squadron No 74 Squadron No 80 Squadron No 81 Squadron No 82 Squadron No 87 Squadron No 91 Squadron

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No 92 Squadron No 93 Squadron No 94 Squadron No 111 Squadron No 118 Squadron No 121 Squadron No 122 Squadron No 123 Squadron No 124 Squadron No 126 Squadron No 127 Squadron No 129 Squadron No 130 Squadron No 131 Squadron No 132 Squadron No 133 Squadron No 134 Squadron No 136 Squadron No 137 Squadron No 140 Squadron No 145 Squadron No 152 Squadron No 153 Squadron No 154 Squadron No 155 Squadron No 164 Squadron No 165 Squadron No 167 Squadron No 183 Squadron No 184 Squadron No 185 Squadron No 186 Squadron No 208 Squadron No 213 Squadron No 222 Squadron No 225 Squadron

No 229 Squadron No 232 Squadron No 234 Squadron No 237 Squadron No 238 Squadron No 241 Squadron No 242 Squadron No 243 Squadron No 249 Squadron No 253 Squadron No 256 Squadron No 257 Squadron No 266 Squadron No 268 Squadron No 269 Squadron No 273 Squadron No 274 Squadron No 275 Squadron No 276 Squadron No 277 Squadron No 278 Squadron No 283 Squadron No 287 Squadron No 288 Squadron No 289 Squadron No 290 Squadron No 501 Squadron No 502 Squadron No 504 Squadron No 518 Squadron No 519 Squadron No 520 Squadron No 521 Squadron No 527 Squadron No 541 Squadron

No 542 Squadron No 543 Squadron No 544 Squadron No 545 Squadron No 548 Squadron No 549 Squadron No 567 Squadron No 577 Squadron No 587 Squadron No 595 Squadron No 600 Squadron No 601 Squadron No 602 Squadron No 603 Squadron No 604 Squadron No 607 Squadron No 608 Squadron No 609 Squadron No 610 Squadron No 611 Squadron No 612 Squadron No 613 Squadron No 614 Squadron No 615 Squadron No 616 Squadron No 631 Squadron No 667 Squadron No 680 Squadron No 681 Squadron No 682 Squadron No 683 Squadron No 684 Squadron No 691 Squadron No 695 Squadron

Top: Supermarine Spitfire XIV, which used the Mk VIII airframe fitted with the 2,050hp Griffon 65 engine driving a five-blade Rotol propeller. Later aircraft in the series had the cut-down rear fuselage and clear-view hood of the Mk XVI, as depicted here. Above: Rearming a No 19 Squadron Spitfire IIA at Fowlmere in 1940. Right: Wg Cdr ‘Johnnie’ Johnson at Bazenville landing ground, Normandy, July 1944. Johnson was credited with 34 individual victories, as well as seven shared victories, three shared probable, 10 damaged, three shared damaged and one destroyed on the ground. This made him the highest scoring Western Allied fighter ace against the German Luftwaffe.

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SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE

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MEDIUM BOMBER

Handley Page Hampden T he Handley Page Hampden was commonly referred to as the ‘Flying Panhandle’, for obvious reasons. Its disproportionate shape was at odds with its more conventional peers, the Whitley and Wellington, so it was not surprising that it would be the least successful of the trio. The Hampden owes its origins to Air Ministry Specification B9/32 that called for a twinengined day bomber of high performance.

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Somewhat controversially, Handley Page opted to house all the crew, payload and defensive armament together in the forward fuselage, an idea that made sense on paper, but in reality, proved deeply flawed. Nevertheless, the aircraft that emerged was promising. A modern stressed-skin mid-wing monoplane, the Hampden, as it was now called, featured a slim, though deep, fuselage with stepped singleseat cockpit and heavily glazed nose section.

The total crew complement numbered four and included the pilot, navigator/bombardier, and dedicated gunners (one of whom doubled as the radio operator). The cockpit held a greenhouse-style canopy while additional glazed positions were found at the dorsal and ventral sections of the rear fuselage for the defensive machine gun emplacements. Its thin tail unit extended aft to which was seated a twin vertical tail assembly at the extreme rear

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HANDLEY PAGE HAMPDEN

29

Left: Although it was advanced for its age, the Hampden prototype looked obsolescent right from the start. Powered by a pair of Bristol Pegasus PE.5S(A) engines, it was given the serial K4240. It made its maiden flight on 21 June 1936 from Radlett Aerodrome, Herts, piloted by Maj J. L. H. B. Cordes. Below: During daylight missions, the Hampden proved easy prey for German fighters. To avoid the weight penalties of powered turrets, the Hampden had a curved Perspex nose fitted with a manual 0.303in Vickers K and 0.303in machine guns in the rear upper and lower positions. Wartime experience would show that the aircraft was truly under-gunned. However, under the cover of night it fared better and was among the first bombers to raid Berlin.

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MEDIUM BOMBER

WHERE IT ALL GOES: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48)

Bomb-selector switch panel. Pilot’s instrument panel. Bomb door control panel. Sliding canopy over pilot’s seat. Maps. Handley Page slotted flap. Oxygen regulator for navigator. Hinged footrest for navigator. Sextant stowage. Parachute storage. Heating system. Navigator’s seat at sextant hatch. Elsan lavatory. Upward identification light. Main electrical panel. Reserve machine gun ammunition drum storage. Direction-finding loop. Oxygen regulator for radio operator and rear gunner. Oxygen bottles. Fire steps for rear upper gun. Aft upper gun position. Gun trough. Radio on sliding crate to give freedom of action in upper gun position. Fixed radio aerial. Pilot’s fixed forward-firing gun. Bombing instruments. Camera electrical control. Bomb sight. Station light. Downward-firing forward gun. Folding seat for gunner, bomb-aimer or navigator. Folding navigator’s table. Rudder bar and brake control. Flame-float storage. Throttle box. Accumulator (starting and ignition). Elevator tab control. Gill control and air conditioning. Forced landing flare release. Bomb stowage. Three-bladed constant-speed airscrew. Exhaust collector ring. Main spar through fuselage (auto pilot within). Controllable gills. Door in bulkhead. Aerial tube and winch. Landing lights. Aft lower gunner’s position.

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of the design. It had the most advanced wings available at the time, giving it a remarkably low landing speed of 73mph for an aircraft of its size, with a top speed of 265mph. Powered by a pair of 980hp Bristol Pegasus XVIII nine-cylinder radial engines, the Hampden was armed with a fixed 0.303in (7.7mm) Vickers K machine gun in the nose and one or two in each of the rear dorsal and ventral positions, all hand operated. Internally, the bomb bay could store up to 4,000lb of conventional drop bombs or a single 18in torpedo for the anti-shipping role. A single HP2 prototype took to the air for the first time on 21 June 1936 and an initial order for 180 Hampdens was placed shortly thereafter and the first production machine flew on 24 May 1938.

In service The Hampden entered RAF service in September 1938 with No 49 Squadron. Production was rapid, and by the outbreak of war, Bomber Command had ten squadrons of the twin-engined bomber, making up No 5 Group (six operational, two reserve and two pool squadrons). Conceived as a daylight bomber, the Hampden’s limited defensive armament was quickly found to be sorely lacking resulting in heavy casualties. The Hampden’s worst day came on 29 September 1939, off Heligoland Bight, when five out of an 11 aircraft raid fell to the guns of German

Right: The narrow cockpit of the Hampden was more akin to a fighter than a bomber and reveals the cramped nature of the crew quarters compared to its contemporaries. The navigator sat behind the pilot and access in the cockpit required folding down the seats. Once in place, the crew had almost no room to move and were typically uncomfortable during long missions.

fighters. The fixed forward firing gun proved almost useless and the single guns in the nose, dorsal and ventral positions had limited transverse, leaving a number of blind spots. In addition, the cramped conditions led to crew fatigue on long flights. The design of the Hampden made it difficult to rectify the shortcomings, so daylight operations were abandoned. When Bomber Command launched its night offensive in the spring of 1940, the Hampden was at the forefront, taking part in the first attack on German soil, on 19/20 March (an attack on the island of Sylt), the first attack on the German mainland (against Munchen Gladback on 11/12 May) and the first raid on Berlin (25/26 August 1940). The Hampden remained in service long enough to take part in the 1,000 bomber raids of 1942, making up 79 of the 1,047 aircraft involved. By this point the Hampden was well past its peak as a front-line bomber, only equipping two squadrons. With the advent of the new breed of heavy fourengined bombers, the Hampden was retired from Bomber Command in late 1942. The

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32 MEDIUM BOMBER Hampden had a second career as a torpedo bomber, needing only minor modifications for its new role – the bomb bay had to be made deeper in order to carry the torpedo, while 500lb bomb racks were added under each wing. In all four squadrons flew the Hampden as a torpedo bomber, with the last retaining it until December 1943. In all, 1,432 Hampdens were built, 502 of them by Handley Page, 770 by English Electric and 160 in Canada by the Victory Aircraft consortium. Nearly half were lost on operations. Left: The wing of the Hampden was highly advanced, giving it a remarkably low landing speed of 73mph, combined with a top speed of 265mph. For its size, it was also very agile. Right: Check six! How a formation of Hampdens would look from a fighter pilot’s perspective. Luckily on this occasion, they are being viewed from a fellow Hampden. Below right: To protect it from fighter attack, the Hampden was designed to be fast and manoeuvrable, thus its defensive armament was kept light. By the outbreak of hostilities, German fighter technology had already outpaced the Hampden’s speed advantage, leaving it extremely vulnerable to attack. Over 720 were lost during operations. Below: Relieved to have returned from another mission, a Hampden crew clamber down from their aircraft. Pilots regarded the Handley Page bomber as ‘a beautiful aeroplane to fly, terrible to fly in’.

Handley Page Hampden RAF squadrons No 7 Squadron No 44 Squadron No 49 Squadron No 50 Squadron

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No 61 Squadron No 76 Squadron No 83 Squadron No 97 Squadron

No 106 Squadron No 144 Squadron No 185 Squadron No 207 Squadron

No 517 Squadron No 519 Squadron No 521 Squadron

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HANDLEY PAGE HAMPDEN 33

Handley Page Hampden I Type: Crew:

Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Medium bomber 4 (pilot, navigator/ bomb aimer, radio operator/dorsal gunner, ventral gunner) 53ft 7in (16.32m) 69ft 2in (21.09m) 14ft 11in (4.55m) Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 of 1,470hp 247mph (397km/h) 22,500lb (10,206kg) Guns: 1 x 0.303in M1919 Browning machine gun in nose, 3-5 x 0.303in Vickers K machine guns, one mounted in nose, 1-2 x each in dorsal and ventral positions Bombs: 4,000lb (1,814kg) or 1 x 18in torpedo

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MEDIUM BOMBER

Vickers Wellington

T

he ‘Wimpy’, as the Vickers Wellington was affectionately known to its crews, has an assured place in history being the only bomber that was in production for the RAF both on the first day of World War 2 and on the last. If it had one feature above all others that endeared itself to its crews, it was its ability to get home with an amount of damage that might well have proved catastrophic to other RAF bombers of the era. The strength of the Wellington was, indeed, its strength. While conventional in layout, it featured a novel geodetic construction method for its fuselage. This system, developed by Barnes Wallis (and used in the earlier Wellesley), utilised a ‘basket weave’ of metal sections joined to form a framework for the fuselage, which was ultimately covered in fabric for its outer surface. This method produced a strong structure that could incorporate sharp curvature and, most importantly, absorb a lot of damage while still holding its structural integrity. Born out

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of the same specification as the Whitley and Hampden, the twin-engined Wellington proved eminently more robust and versatile, which accounted for its longevity. Prototype B.9/32 K4049 took to the air for the first time on 15 June 1936, piloted by chief test pilot Mutt Summers. Testing revealed the aircraft to have good flying characteristics. The Wellington, as it went into production, was a somewhat different aircraft from the prototype. The Mk Is had 1,050hp Bristol Pegasus XVIIIs and featured Vickers twin-gun turrets in the nose and tail, a retractable ventral gun position and a retractable tail wheel. A redesigned fuselage shape could accommodate a decent-sized bomb bay divided into three compartments with attachment points for bombs of 500lb, 1,000lb, 2,000lb or a single 4,000lb ‘cookie’. The Wellington Mk Ic incorporated several improvements including new hydraulic and electrical systems and the replacement of the ventral turret by beam guns in the rear fuselage.

The Mk X was the most-produced variant, with 3,803 aircraft coming off the Broughton and Squires Gate lines, Wellington production finally ending when the final Mk X was completed on 13 October 1945. This variant was powered by 1,675hp Hercules VI or XVI engines which gave an improved performance.

In service Deliveries to the front line commenced to No 99 Squadron at RAF Mildenhall in October 1938. RAF Bomber Command was ill equipped when war was declared on 3 September 1939 but the Wellington, then in service with six squadrons of No 3 Group in East Anglia, provided the RAF’s most viable medium bomber. RAF Wellingtons were launched on the first tentative raids on Germany within hours of the declaration of war on 3 September 1939. The results were less than spectacular; the attack against German warships on 4 September saw two Wellingtons lost, with Mk Is L4275 and L4268 of No 9

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VICKERS WELLINGTON

Squadron becoming the first RAF bomber casualties to enemy action of the war. Criticism was rightly aimed at the poor defensive armament of the Wellington I with its ungainly ventral turret. This was deleted on later aircraft, to be replaced by 0.303in beam guns, while improved Frazer-Nash front and rear turrets would replace the ineffective Vickers-designed units. Those squadrons that were operating the Wellington I converted to the better-armed Mk Ia or Ic from late 1939. Fortunately, this was a period during which Bomber Command made few bombing raids, becoming known as the ‘Phoney War’. With the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, Bomber Command was hard pressed to offer much in the way of support because any meaningful targets were at the limit of the Wellington’s combat range. Two Wellington squadrons, Nos 9 and 115, were detached to RAF bases in Scotland, to operate from Lossiemouth and Kinloss respectively. The

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Above: A fine study of Wellington Ic, P9249, prior to delivery to No 38 Squadron in January 1940. The unique Vickers Wellington was the only bomber to remain in production throughout World War 2. Below: Prototype B.9/32 K4049 looks a far cry from the battle-hardened war machine it was to become. In April 1937 it was destroyed during a service test flight when the elevator’s horn balance failed due to excessive slipstream exposure.

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MEDIUM BOMBER

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VICKERS WELLINGTON

37

Vickers Wellington RAF squadrons No 7 Squadron No 8 Squadron No 9 Squadron No 12 Squadron No 14 Squadron No 15 Squadron No 24 Squadron No 36 Squadron No 37 Squadron No 38 Squadron No 39 Squadron No 40 Squadron No 57 Squadron No 69 Squadron

No 70 Squadron No 75 Squadron No 93 Squadron No 99 Squadron No 101 Squadron No 103 Squadron No 104 Squadron No 108 Squadron No 109 Squadron No 115 Squadron No 138 Squadron No 142 Squadron No 148 Squadron No 149 Squadron

missions mounted generally involved only small numbers of aircraft, but a larger daylight raid on 12 April included 36 Wellingtons in a total force of over 80 bombers. This was the largest RAF bomber raid so far; their target was enemy shipping in the area of Stavanger, but the results were mixed, with nine bombers (including three Wellingtons) shot down. On 15 May, RAF bombers were authorised to attack industrial targets in the Ruhr. This was the start of the strategic bomber offensive, which commenced on the night of 15/16 May when a force of 99 bombers including 36 Wellingtons was launched against various targets including power stations and oil refineries in the Ruhr. Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, AOC-in-C of Bomber Command had long harboured the idea of

No 150 Squadron No 156 Squadron No 158 Squadron No 161 Squadron No 162 Squadron No 166 Squadron No 172 Squadron No 179 Squadron No 192 Squadron No 196 Squadron No 199 Squadron No 203 Squadron No 214 Squadron No 215 Squadron

No 218 Squadron No 221 Squadron No 232 Squadron No 242 Squadron No 244 Squadron No 281 Squadron No 294 Squadron No 524 Squadron No 527 Squadron No 544 Squadron No 547 Squadron No 612 Squadron No 621 Squadron

assembling a huge force of RAF bombers for a massive ‘thousand bomber raid’ on Germany. Plans were prepared for such an attack in late May 1942, the first choice of target being Hamburg with its port and U-boat yard. Weather conditions were bad for a number of days over Germany towards the end of the month, but Harris eventually decided to launch the raid on the night of 30/31 May to take advantage of the full moon, and that the target would be the city of Cologne since Hamburg was covered by a layer of cloud. A force of 1,047 bombers was dispatched that night, including 602 Wellingtons. This operation thus represented the peak of Bomber Command’s Wellington strength, though 29 were tragically lost in the raid.

Above: Pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit of their No 149 Squadron Wellington, probably at RAF Mildenhall in 1941. The pilot is David Donaldson, who was promoted to Wing Commander in 1943 at the age of 28.

The Wellington was supplanted in Bomber Command from 1942 by the four-engined ‘heavies’, but it went on to have a second career with RAF Coastal Command. It proved a good platform for both maritime reconnaissance and the torpedo bomber roles, these often involving long sorties at low level over the sea. The combination of radar and searchlight with depth charge, torpedo or rocket armament proved formidable and Coastal Command Wellingtons are credited with sinking or seriously damaging 51 enemy submarines.

Above and right: The Wellington’s famous geodetic structure laid bare in all its sculptural glory. Left: A formation of Wellington Is of No 149 (East India) Squadron drone over Les Invalides in Paris in 1939.

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40 MEDIUM BOMBER

Vickers Wellington Mk X Type: Crew:

Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Cruise speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Medium bomber 5-6 (pilot, navigator/ bomb aimer, radio operator, nose gunner, tail gunner plus waist gunner) 64ft 7in (19.68m) 86ft 2in (26.26m) 17ft 6in (5.33m) 2 x 1,675hp Bristol Hercules VI or XVI radials 180mph (290km/h) 31,500lb (14,288kg) Guns: Two 0.303in (7.7mm) machine guns in forward turret, four 0.303in machine guns in rear turret plus one 0.303in machine gun in each beam position Bombs: up to 4,500lb (2,040kg)

Above: After the Wellington was replaced on the front-line by the four-engined heavies in 1942, many were relegated to support roles. Here Wellington IA N2887 of the CGS (Central Gunnery School) based at Sutton Bridge, is ‘attacked’ by a Spitfire in 1943. N2887 started out with No 99 Squadron based at Mildenhall. Retired from ops it later served with Nos 11 and 15 OTUs, then the AAS (Air Armament School), then with the CGS from 6 April 1942 to 23 February 1944. It was then despatched to the Far East, where it finished its days and was struck off charge on 26 April 1945. Below and Right: With the advent of heavier more efficient bombers, the Wellington took on a new combat career with Coastal Command. This Mk XIV, MP714, is the only known example to be fitted with rockets to test their effectiveness for anti-shipping missions.

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BOULTON PAUL DEFIANT 43

Boulton Paul Defiant I Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

I

t was the concept of the Defiant that was flawed rather than the aircraft itself. Built to combine the strengths of new monoplane fighter design with the latest in turret weaponry, the Defiant struggled against single-seat opposition both in terms of speed and agility. As such it became easy prey for experienced Luftwaffe fighter pilots. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Why not unite the impressive firepower of a fourgun power-operated turret, with a small, fast single-engined aircraft? The RAF duly created the specification, and Boulton Paul created its P82, the aircraft that became the Defiant. Introducing a new tactical concept in two-seat fighters, the Defiant had no fixed, forwardfiring armament but featured a Boulton Paul

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(SAMM) turret with four Colt-Browning machine guns. Power was to be provided by the exciting new 1,030hp Merlin II engine. The prototype made its maiden flight on 11 August 1937, by which time Boulton Paul had already received a contract for the construction of 87 Defiant Is. Delays in production, to some extent caused by the enormous demand for the Merlin engine in other fighters, meant that only three Defiants had reached the RAF by the outbreak of war.

In service Entering squadron service in December 1939, the first unit to receive the Defiant was No 264 Squadron. However, owing to engine and hydraulic problems, it was not declared operational until 20 March 1940. No 264 Squadron immediately commenced flying convoy patrols over the North Sea from its fighter station at Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, the unit graduating to patrolling the coast of France following the launching of the Blitzkrieg on 10 May 1940. The Defiant initially proved to be very successful in its designated role of

Two-seat fighter Pilot and turret gunner 35ft 4in (10.77m) 39ft 4in (12.00m) 12ft 2in (3.70m) Rolls-Royce Merlin III of 1,030hp (768kW) 304mph (489km/h) 8,318lb (3,773kg) 4 x 0.303in (7.7mm) machine guns in dorsal turret

bomber destroyer, especially when deployed in mixed formations with single-seat fighters in support. The aeroplane was less effective against enemy fighters, except when mistaken for a Spitfire or Hurricane in the heat of battle and attacked from above and behind. Once the German fighter pilots learned that the aircraft had no forward-firing guns, they tailored their tactics accordingly and inflicted such heavy losses on the Defiant units that they were removed from Fighter Command’s frontline strength by the end of August 1940. Although the Defiant went on to enjoy some success as a nightfighter, it was never committed to daylight operations within range of enemy fighters again. Below: Boulton Paul Defiant I, T4037 JT-T, of No 256 Squadron RAF, on the ground at Squires Gate, Blackpool, October 1941. Against bombers, the Defiant’s turret armament was very effective and by operating mixed formations of Defiants and Hurricanes the RAF could make use of the superficial resemblance between the two types to confuse and trap German fighters. However, when the Messerschmitts caught Defiants on their own and recognised them for what they were, they inflicted appalling casualties.

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44

TORPEDO BOMBER

Bristol Beaufort

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BRISTOL BEAUFORT

45

T

he pugnacious Bristol Beaufort could certainly deliver a punch. Designed as a torpedo-bomber, the Beaufort was also used as a medium day bomber and proved particularly effective in the Mediterranean theatre. It also represented the genealogical link between the Bristol Blenheim and the Beaufighter. The Bristol Beaufort was one of a series of aircraft derived from the earlier Bristol Blenheim. It was designed in response to two Air Ministry specifications issued in 1935. M.15/35 called for a torpedo-bomber and G.24/35 for a general reconnaissance and bomber aircraft. By comparison with the Blenheim IV, the new design was increased slightly in length to allow for the carriage of a torpedo in a semi-recessed position. The nose assembly was of a greenhouse style design with the cockpit mounted behind the Left: The muscular shape of Bristol Beaufort I L9878 MW-R of No 217 Squadron, which became operational with the type in 1941. On 15 June 1942, nine Beauforts of No 217 Squadron took off from RAF Luqa, Malta, in search of the Italian fleet that had sailed from Taranto. Flg Off Arthur Aldridge spotted the ships some 200 miles (320km) to the east of Malta and attacked. Italian lookouts initially mistook the Beaufort for a friendly aircraft and he was able to torpedo and cripple the heavy cruiser Trento. Below: Beaufort first prototype L4441. Problems immediately arose with the Taurus engines continually overheating during ground testing. New, more conventional engine cowlings, with circumferential cooling gills had to be designed and installed, delaying the first flight which took place on 15 October 1938. As flight testing progressed it was found that the large aprontype undercarriage doors, similar to those on the Blenheim, were causing the aircraft to yaw on landing. These doors were taken off for subsequent flights. 

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TORPEDO BOMBER

Bristol Beaufort I Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Torpedo bomber 4 44ft 2in (13.46m) 57ft 10in (17.63m) 14ft 3in (4.34m) 2 x Bristol Taurus of 1,130hp each 271mph (420km/h) 21,230lb (9,629kg) Guns: 3 x 0.303in (7.7 mm) Vickers GO machine guns (two in Bristol Mk IV dorsal turret, one in port wing), or 6 x 0.303in Vickers GO machine guns (two fixed in nose, two in turret, one in port wing and one firing laterally from entry hatch). Bombs: 1 x 1,605lb (728kg) 18in Mk XII torpedo, or 2,000lb (907kg) of bombs or mines

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BRISTOL BEAUFORT nose area and above. Accommodating a crew of four, the resulting high roof-line of the fuselage continued unbroken to the dorsal turret, a distinguishing feature of the type. The wings were of monoplane layout and lowmounted on the fuselage. Instead of a torpedo, a respectable bombload of 2,000lb could be carried. The development of the Beaufort was delayed by engine issues. The existing Bristol Perseus engines could not provide enough power for the new aircraft, while the more powerful Bristol Taurus engines were not yet ready. As a result, it would take two years to get from the first contract, issued in August 1936, to the roll-out of the first prototype at Filton in mid-1938. The first flight took place on 15 October 1938. A total of 1,013 Taurus powered Mk Is was produced and a number of changes were introduced into the line. The original curved Perspex bomb aimer’s nose panels were replaced by flat, non-distorting panels from the tenth production aircraft. Successive marks of the Bristol Taurus engine were installed, but it was also decided to re-engine the aircraft with the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin-Wasp radial. Designated Beaufort IIs, 165 Below: A line-up of Bristol Beauforts of No 22 Squadron, the first unit to fly the type. Early operations were interrupted by problems with the Taurus powerplant.

Above: Torpedo missions were notoriously difficult and dangerous. Using the 18in (450mm) Mk XII aerial torpedo, the average drop-height from a Beaufort was 68ft (21m) and the average range of release was 670yds (610m). During the run-in, the aircraft could not make evasive manoeuvres and was thus extremely vulnerable to defensive anti-aircraft fire.

of this variant were built, but as the continued supply of Wasp engines was not guaranteed, production was eventually switched back to the Taurus.

In service The Beaufort entered service in January 1940, when No 22 Squadron equipped with the type. The aircraft flew its first operation on 15/16 April 1940, when nine Beauforts laid mines in the Schillig Roads (north of Wilhelmshaven). A second unit, No 42 Squadron began to re-equip with Beauforts, but the type was grounded for a month following problems with the Taurus engines. As the best

47

land-based torpedo bomber available, the two Beaufort squadrons were in constant demand, frequently operated in small detachments from points all around the coast. The Beaufort was used in many of the dangerous attacks on the main elements of the German surface fleet, prominent amongst them the Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen. During one attack on the Gneisenau, Flg Off Kenneth Campbell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross after making a very low-level attack against the enemy ship. The Beaufort continued to operate very successfully as a torpedo bomber, but also carried out the essential role of mine layer, as well as conventional bombing. In 1942, all Beaufort squadrons were deployed to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean to meet a changing enemy threat. Malta-based aircraft were particularly successful in attacks on Axis shipping at a critical time in the war in North Africa. However, even as the first Beaufort was being tested, Bristol began work on converting the torpedo bomber into a fighter. This would combine the engines, wing and tail of the Beaufort with a new slim fuselage and result in the Bristol Beaufighter. Somewhat ironically, this two-seat aircraft would later be adapted to act as a torpedo bomber, and in June 1943, No 39 Squadron, the last operational Beaufort unit, converted to the Beaufighter.

Bristol Beaufort RAF squadrons No 22 Squadron No 39 Squadron No 42 Squadron

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No 47 Squadron No 48 Squadron No 69 Squadron

No 86 Squadron No 100 Squadron No 217 Squadron

No 235 Squadron No 511 Squadron

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HEAVY FIGHTER

Westland Whirlwind

W

hen it first flew in 1938, the Westland Whirlwind was one of the fastest and most heavily-armed combat aircraft in the world. It should have gone on to greater things, but sadly it had an Achilles heel – it was powered by the less than reliable Rolls-Royce Peregrine engine. The sleek Westland Whirlwind was a twoseat fighter designed under the leadership of W. E. ‘Teddy’ Petter in response to Specification F.37/35 for a ‘cannon fighter’ armed with four 20mm guns. Westland came up with a radical solution featuring a low-wing monoplane with two Rolls-Royce Peregrine I 12-cylinder liquidcooled Vee engines, each rated at 885hp. The four Hispano Mk I guns were grouped in the

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nose, while the pilot enjoyed a good all-round view from a fully-enclosed cockpit in line with the wing trailing edge. Construction was of metal throughout, a novelty being the use of magnesium rather than aluminium sheet to cover the monocoque fuselage aft of the cockpit. The first of two prototypes flew on 11 October 1938, demonstrating a low-altitude performance that was better than that of any contemporary single-seat fighter.

In service Problems in the supply of Peregrine engines caused the first deliveries of Whirlwind I fighters (to No 263 Squadron), to be delayed until July

1940 and even then it only received eight examples by year’s end. It was to be another 11 months before the second (and only other) squadron to be equipped with the Whirlwind (No 137) became operational at Charmy Down. The Whirlwind proved a match for German fighters at low level, as demonstrated on 6 August 1941, when four Whirlwinds on an anti-shipping strike were intercepted by a large formation of Messerschmitt Bf109s, and claimed three destroyed for no losses. However, as the performance of the Peregrine engines fell off at altitude, the Whirlwind was most often used in ground-attack (‘rhubarb’) missions over France, attacking German airfields, marshalling yards, and railway traffic. It was also successful in

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WESTLAND WHIRLWIND

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Westland Whirlwind Top: Streamlined and powerful, the Whirlwind promised great things and could achieve speeds in excess of 360mph. However, its performance dropped off at altitude, where it became no match for single-seat fighters. Above: Westland Whirlwind P7047 SF-J of No 137 Squadron.

Westland Whirlwind RAF squadrons hunting and destroying German E-boats which operated in the English Channel. Sadly, the unreliability of its engines became an ongoing problem. By late 1940, the Supermarine Spitfire fulfilled the ‘cannon-armed’ requirement and the Beaufighter could outperform it as a long-

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No 137 Squadron

No 263 Squadron

range twin-engine attack aircraft. Following the abandonment of the troubled Peregrine engine, manufacture of the Whirlwind also ceased. No 263 Squadron, the first and last squadron to operate the type, flew its final Whirlwind mission on 29 November 1943.

Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant:

Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Long-range fighter-bomber 1 32ft 9in (9.98m) 45ft (13.72m) 11ft 7in (3.53m) 2 x Rolls-Royce Peregrine inline piston engines of 885hp each 360mph (579km/h) 11,388lb (5,166kg) 4 x 20mm cannon in nose, plus up to 500lb (230kg) of bombs

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Short Stirling

THE GIANT BRITISH STIRLING 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Pilot Second pilot Bomb galleries Pitot heads Navigator and bomb aimer Wireless operator Fresh-water tank and bottles Flight engineer Astro-hatch Direction-finding loop aerial Oxygen bottles Emergency exit

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13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Gun-deflecting blisters Dorsal gunner Magazine and runway to rear turret Retracting twin tail-wheels Fin and rudder Trim tab Servo tab Rear gunner Tail plane and elevators Fuel tanks Wing bomb cells Dinghy stowage

25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

Electric drive for operating flaps Steam heater Flaps Ailerons Drive for operating undercarriage 1,400 h.p. Bristol Hercules motors De Havilland Hydromatic airscrews Flame-damping exhausts Semi-buoyant outer wing Armoured leading edge Retracting landing light Navigation lights

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52

HEAVY BOMBER

I

‘

f this is a Short Stirling, I hate to think what a long one looks like’. So commented a USAAF officer on first seeing a Stirling. On the ground, it presented a curious, almost gawky sight, but once in the air the Stirling proved highly manoeuvrable for an aircraft of its size and well able to defend itself. It was also able to absorb a lot of punishment from enemy fighters and flak and still make it back home to base – something its crews came to appreciate. The Short Stirling had its origins in Specification B.12/36 (Air Ministry bomber specification number 12 of 1936), which defined a requirement for a heavy bomber ‘for worldwide use’. Because it needed to be capable of maintaining height with one engine out of use, it would of necessity be fourengined, and heavy defensive armament was

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to be fitted. Several companies tendered for B.12/36, but Short Brothers won the day with its unlovely but practical S.29 Stirling design. The Stirling was an impressive beast. Powered by four Bristol Hercules radial engines, each giving 1,375hp, it had a crew of seven, good defensive armament of eight 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns in three turrets and a maximum bomb load of 14,000lb (6,350kg). As such, it was very much the first of the RAF’s four-engined heavy bombers of World War 2. Prototype L7600 made its first flight from Rochester on 14 May 1939. John Lankester Parker and a crew of three flew the aircraft for an uneventful 20 minutes, but disaster was to strike on landing. The main undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft ploughed along the runway on its belly. Nobody was injured, but the aircraft was a write-off. The need for

a strengthened undercarriage having been convincingly demonstrated, modifications were made to second prototype L7605, which took to the air on 3 December 1939. Meanwhile, ambitious plans to build aircraft for RAF Bomber Command had been instigated by the British government following the Munich crisis of September 1938, with orders placed for 3,500 bombers including 1,500 Stirlings. The Stirling I was the first production variant as well as being the RAF’s first four-engined bomber of World War 2. The Stirling was feted as a great step forward for RAF Bomber Command. Its range could take its crews all the way to Berlin, while its improved cruising speed and manoeuvrability would, it was hoped, give better survivability against enemy fighters. The Stirling III was to prove the major production variant and the last bomber version. Differing only in detail from

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SHORT STIRLING

53

Left: Although the Stirling was the RAF’s first four-engined heavy bomber, as the war progressed its operational ability became limited due to its poor altitude performance caused by its short wingspan (incredibly, designed to use standard RAF hangar door openings). Right: Short Stirlings on the production line in the Midlands Morris Motor Works in January 1942. Below: The imposing presence of the 25-ton Stirling. The lengthy and complicated undercarriage design was prone to failure on heavy landings

the late standard Mk I, it fitted Hercules VI or XVI powerplants giving 1,635hp per engine and featured increased fuel tankage.

In service No 7 Squadron was the first unit chosen to receive the Stirling from August 1940. By early the following year the squadron was operational, and the night of 10/11 February 1941 saw the first attack on enemy territory with a raid on oil storage facilities at Rotterdam. Within a couple of months, production deliveries of Stirlings allowed the formation of a second squadron, No 15 at Wyton under the command of Wg Cdr Herbert R. Dale. The squadron received its first Stirling on 11 April and undertook its first operation to Berlin on the night of 30 April/1 May. This was not without incident, though, as the CO’s aircraft N3654 (coded LS-B) was shot down

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by a German night fighter just over the Dutch coast with the loss of the whole crew. The first thousand bomber raid against Cologne on 30/31 May 1942 included 88 Stirlings from five front-line squadrons and from training units, the latter included to bolster numbers to the magic figure. Two were lost, which gave the Stirling a better loss rate than the 3.9% suffered overall. Luftwaffe fighters soon identified each bomber type’s vulnerable spots. In the case of the Stirling, a well-aimed burst of fire into the fuselage roundel was found effective in disabling the rear turret, which left the aircraft a ‘sitting duck’ to further attacks. The Stirling III with its uprated Hercules XVI engines promised a faster rate of climb and improved service ceiling when the variant reached the squadrons early in 1943. Some

improvement there certainly was, but nothing could hide the fact that the Halifax and Lancaster had better performance and offered their crews better odds of returning home unscathed from missions over Germany. While the spring of 1943 saw Stirling production at its peak with some 80 aircraft a month coming off the production lines, Bomber Command’s Stirlings were increasingly being tasked against less well-defended targets. This was far from the end for the Stirling, which would remain in front-line RAF use to the end of the war and beyond. A decision taken in 1943 saw the Stirling selected to serve with the RAF’s two Special Duties (SD) squadrons, Nos 138 and 161, at Tempsford. Modified Stirling IVs started their night-time clandestine operations into occupied Europe from summer 1944, delivering supplies, weapons and agents by parachute.

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54 HEAVY BOMBER

Above: Short Stirling III BK725, WP-M, of No 90 Squadron based at Ridgwell. The bomber was returning from a raid on the city of Mannheim when it was hit by flak above Laon and crash landed. The French Resistance gave assistance to the crew who were all alive but some of whom were badly injured. Because he was so seriously wounded, pilot Peter White was left at the scene of the crash, and was taken prisoner. After recovering from his injuries he was sent to a POW camp in Germany. Below: Flying the Stirling on long bombing missions over Germany highlighted very real differences in performance between individual aircraft and crews. While some pilots claimed to be able to reach 18,000ft in an aircraft with bomb load, others found themselves struggling at much lower altitudes. The large bomber was powered by four Bristol Hercules XI 14-cylinder, twin row radial engines giving 1,590hp at take-off driving de Havilland three-bladed variable pitch metal propellers.

Short Stirling I Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant:

Cruising Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Long-range heavy bomber 7 87ft 3in (26.59m) 99ft 1in (30.20m) 22ft 9in (6.93m) 4 x Bristol Hercules XI 14-cylinder double-row radial engines rated at 1,590hp each 215mph (346km/h) 70,000lb (31,751kg) Guns: 8 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns; two in nose turret, two in dorsal turret and four in rear turret. Bombs: Up to 14,000lb (6,350kg)

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SHORT STIRLING 55

Short Stirling RAF squadrons No 7 Squadron No 15 Squadron No 46 Squadron No 48 Squadron No 51 Squadron No 75 Squadron No 90 Squadron

No 138 Squadron No 148 Squadron No 149 Squadron No 158 Squadron No 161 Squadron No 171 Squadron No 190 Squadron

No 196 Squadron No 199 Squadron No 214 Squadron No 218 Squadron No 242 Squadron No 295 Squadron No 299 Squadron

No 513 Squadron No 525 Squadron No 570 Squadron No 620 Squadron No 622 Squadron No 623 Squadron No 624 Squadron

Inside the Stirling

The pilots sat some 22ft above ground level and enjoyed good all-round visibility. The crew complement was typically seven: two pilots, flight engineer, navigator/bomb aimer, front gunner/wireless operator and two air gunners. The bomb aimer’s position was in the extreme nose, under the floor of the cockpit cabin and the nose gunner’s position.

Above: The Stirling could carry up to 14,000lb of bombs (eg 7 x 2,000lb or 18 x 500lb) in the large (42ft 7in) fuselage bomb bay. Weapons were suspended from two beams running longitudinally. These divided the bomb bay into three sections and prevented the aircraft from carrying larger (over 2,000lb) weapons. Each wing also had three small bomb cells, inboard of the engines, each capable of carrying a 500lb bomb.

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MULTI-ROLE

Bristol Beaufighter P

‘

ugnacious’ is the adjective most commonly used to describe the Beaufighter. This variant of the Bristol Beaufort evolved into a highly capable multi-role aircraft used as a night fighter, maritime strike and torpedo bomber. Its crews called it the ‘Beau’, but to its enemies it was more prosaically referred to as ‘the Scourge of God’ or the ‘Whispering Death’. When the Bristol Aeroplane Co was tasked with fulfilling an urgent requirement for a heavily armed aircraft suitable for deployment in the long-range escort or night fighter roles, it looked at its recently completed Beaufort bomber and decided that improvisation was the answer. It took the wings, tail and landing gear of the bomber and married them to a sleek new fuselage that housed the pilot in a fighter-type cockpit and the navigator-radar operator in a small Perspex bubble where the Beaufort’s dorsal turret had been. To give the aircraft more power, it was fitted with

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a pair of the new Bristol Hercules engines mounted well ahead of the wing leading edges to alleviate vibration. This necessitated cutting down on other weight forward of the centre of gravity and resulted in the design’s characteristic stunted fuselage nose. It emerged as a mid-wing cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction with fabric-covered control surfaces. Not surprisingly, Bristol named its new aircraft the Beaufighter. Although it proved something of a ‘hot-ship’ to inexperienced pilots, with a tendency to swing right on take off, manoeuvrability was considered good for the aircraft’s size. But without doubt the most impressive feature of the Beaufighter was its armament. The weapon payload was the most lethal carried by a fighter at the time, comprising four 20mm cannons in the nose and six 0.303in wing-mounted machine guns. In the later Mk X variant, this firepower became even more deadly with added combinations of

Above: The Beaufighter looked aggressive and could pack a powerful punch, though as a ‘pure’ fighter it proved too unwieldy. This early Mk I features the original flat tailplane. Right: Beaufighter construction in full swing, with the aircraft’s big Hercules powerplants already fitted prior to final assembly. As the aircraft was based on the already-proven Beaufort, development was quick and relatively trouble-free.

eight 90lb rocket projectiles, two 250lb bombs or one torpedo. Within just eight months from initiation of design, the first prototype took to the air on 17 July 1939 and three production lines had been established (Filton, Weston-super-Mare and at the Fairey factory at Stockport). The first production Beaufighter made its maiden flight on 20 February 1941. As production continued, additional versions appeared differing in engines installed and in other ways. The Mk III and Mk IV were heavy

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BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER

fighters with more streamlining added and either Bristol or Rolls-Royce engines. The Mk VI then appeared during 1942 and added slightly revised tail units through some 1,000 production aircraft. For Coastal Command it was designated Mk VIC, while the Mk VIF became a night-fighter outfitted with AI Mark VIII series radar and Mk V (ITF) was a converted torpedo-carrying bomber. Finally the TK X served in the torpedo bomber role as well, with production reaching several thousand.

In service On 2 September 1940, Nos 25, 29, 219 and 604 Squadrons became the first operational units to receive production Beaufighters, each squadron

Above: The first Beaufighter to be delivered to a coastal fighter squadron was R2198/PN-B, which was issued to No 252 Squadron at Chivenor on 27 December 1940, although it was not fitted to full Mk IC standard and was therefore used for training only.

receiving a single example that day to begin the transition from their existing Blenheims. The type’s first confirmed kill, a Dornier Do 17, took place on 25 October 1940. But all was not well. As a fighter, it was far from a success due to its inferior performance compared to frontline enemy fighters of the day. It was, however, a very capable bomber-interceptor and was used as such when possible, though early aircraft were hampered by not having their full

57

operational equipment installed. Equipped with a very early Mk IV airborne intercept radar, the powerful and heavily armed night fighter version entered service just as the Luftwaffe began its night attacks against London in September 1940. Beaufighter crews accounted for over half of the Luftwaffe bombers shot down during the Blitz. The Beaufighter eventually turned itself into an effective nightfighting platform for the RAF. When outfitted to carry torpedoes, the Beaufighter (or Torbeau as it was unofficially called) was also a powerful anti-ship platform that served both the RAF and Coastal Command well during the war. Beaufighters were used in many theatres of war and for varied duties, performing

Bristol Beaufighter TF X Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant:

Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Multi-role 2 41ft 4in (12.6m) 57ft 10in (17.65m) 15ft 10in (4.84m) 2 x Bristol Hercules 14-cylinder radial engines rated at 1,600hp each 320mph (515km/h) 25,400lb (11,521kg) Guns: 4 x 20mm Hispano Mk II cannon in nose, 1 x manually operated 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning for observer. Bombs: 2 x 250lb bombs or 1 x Mk13 Torpedo. Rockets: 8 x RP-3 rockets

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60

MULTI-ROLE

particularly well in the Western Desert, where its long range, ruggedness and reliability quickly made the aircraft popular with crews. It arrived at squadrons in Asia and the Pacific in mid-1942, where legend has it that Japanese soldiers referred to the Beaufighter as ‘whispering death’, though this is widely regarded as apocryphal. In the South-East Asian theatre, the Beaufighter VIF operated from India as a night fighter and on operations against Japanese lines

of communication in Burma and Thailand. Beaufighters were also flown on long range daylight intruder missions over Burma. When the last Beaufighter (SR919) left the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s Westonsuper-Mare works on 21 September 1945, a total of 5,562 aircraft of this type had been produced. The Beaufighter may have been the product of improvisation, but it was a remarkably successful one.

Top right: The aircraft was well-liked by its pilots for its rugged construction and ability to ‘get them home’. However, on landing, the Beaufighter’s large flap area pulled the aircraft up rapidly and there was a tendency to veer from the straight which, if unchecked, resulted in a ground loop. Above: Resplendent in D-Day invasion stripes, Beaufighter TF X, UB-E, NE543, of No 455 Squadron, fires a deadly salvo of eight rockets. This variant was powered by a modified version of the Hercules VI engine, designed to give peak output at low levels. Right: Beaufighter pilots of Coastal Command were the bane of any German shipping that strayed out of protective waters, often pressing home their deadly attacks at mast height.

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AVRO MANCHESTER 63

Avro Manchester U nderpowered, unreliable and unwanted. It is of little surprise that the Manchester became the ‘forgotten’ bomber of World War 2, but without it there would not have been the Lancaster. And for this reason alone, the much-maligned bomber deserves to be treated with respect. Intended to replace the RAF’s existing twinengined medium bombers, such as the Whitley, Hampden and Wellington, the Avro 679 was designed against Air Ministry Specification P13/36. It was the choice of engine that was to prove its downfall. The Avro design used the Rolls-Royce Vulture 24-cylinder X-block engine, which was effectively two Rolls-Royce Peregrine Vee cylinder blocks mounted one on top of the other. Otherwise, the construction of the Manchester was of relatively conventional

Left: Evolution is a wonderful thing. The Avro Manchester was an unmitigated failure, mainly owing to the unreliability of its engines. But lengthen the wing and replace the two RollsRoyce Vultures with four Rolls-Royce Merlins and you essentially have the Lancaster, an aircraft that helped change the course of war. Below: Avro Manchester I L7483, EM-O Honson’s Choice of No 207 Squadron, RAF Waddington circa November 1941.

design, but to an ergonomic layout that was to contribute so much to the Lancaster’s success. The fuselage was of a mostly straight yet slender design from nose to tail. The wings were of a two-spar construction, the internal ribs being made of aluminium alloys. The empennage was dominated by the identifiable twin vertical fin arrangement common to other Avro designs, though the initial production Manchester sported a third vertical tail fin running along the rear portion of the upper fuselage. Accommodation for the seven-man crew was spacious compared to most other types of the era. The cockpit maintained a good all-around vantage point and was covered by an extensively framed canopy. The bomb aimer’s station was housed inside the aircraft’s nose, beneath the forward turret. The aircraft was defended by eight 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns in various strategic emplacements. Two were fitted to the nose turret while the tail turret mounted no fewer than four of these weapons. The remaining two were positioned in a dorsal turret mounted to the rearward portion of the fuselage. From an offensive standpoint, the Manchester could field up to 10,350lb of internally-held bombs or two torpedoes. The prototype made its maiden flight on 25 July 1939 and was given

Avro Manchester I Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Medium bomber 7 70ft 0in (21.34m) 90ft 1in (27.46m) 19ft 6in (5.94m) 2 x Rolls-Royce Vulture X-type of 1,760hp each 265mph (426km/h) 50,000lb (22,680kg) Guns: 8 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns; two in nose turret, two in dorsal turret and four in rear turret. Bombs: Up to 10,350lb (4,695kg)

the name Manchester. The first production machine was delivered on 5 August 1940 and the type officially entered service in November 1940. Avro constructed just 177 Manchesters, while Metropolitan-Vickers completed 32. On 9 January 1941, the Manchester III made its maiden flight, featuring a longer wing and four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. After it landed it was christened the Lancaster.

In service The first Manchesters were assigned to No 207 Squadron at RAF Waddington. Due to the complexity of the aircraft, experienced bomber crews were selected for the new type and after working up to operational status, the squadron was released for short range operations over France. The first operational mission was conducted on 24-25 February 1941 in a raid on the French port of Brest. However, it was not long before the complicated Vulture engines began to suffer from severe unreliability problems and with the impending arrival of the ‘four-engined heavies’, production of the Manchester was halted in November 1941. The 193 operational Manchesters flew 1,269 sorties with Bomber Command, dropping 1,826 tons (1,657 tonnes) of bombs. The last operation, against Bremen, was flown on 25 June 1942. In all, 77 Manchesters were lost in action, while a further 45 were non-operational losses of which 30 involved engine failure. The Manchester was withdrawn from operations in mid-1942.

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64

HEAVY BOMBER

Handley Page Halifax

A

lthough Avro’s mighty Lancaster frequently receives the plaudits as the British bomber that ‘won’ World War 2, Handley Page’s equally hardworking Halifax arguably offered greater versatility and bore the brunt of the RAF’s bombing campaign in the early, dark days of the war. The ‘Halibag’, as it came to be known, was conceived in 1936 in response to an RAF requirement for a twin-engined bomber with in-built potential for other roles. Handley Page’s chief designer George Volkert set to work on a design powered by two 24-cylinder Rolls-Royce Vulture engines. However, the Vulture encountered problems in development and the bomber was reworked in 1937 to take four Rolls-Royce Merlins. A production order was placed by the Air Ministry off the drawing board for 100 Halifax Is and assembly of the two prototypes began in March 1938. The first Halifax prototype, L7244, made its maiden flight from RAF Bicester in the hands

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of test pilot James Cordes on 25 October 1939, followed by the second on 17 August 1940. The Halifax BI was an all-metal, mid-wing monoplane. It had twin tailfins, of knotted triangular shape. A large bomb-bay in the fuselage was complemented by six small bays in the inner wing panels. Early versions of the Halifax were armed with a power-operated tail turret mounting four 0.303in (7.7mm) machine guns, powered turrets mounting two 0.303s on the upper fuselage and belly, and two 0.303s in the nose blister. The crew usually comprised seven, as was typical for RAF ‘heavies’ of the time, and included: pilot, flight engineer, navigator, wireless operator and three gunners. The pilot sat on the port side of a raised platform

situated well above the nose, beneath which was the wireless operator’s ‘office’. By late 1940, Halifaxes were coming off the production lines and were ready to join the fray at a time when RAF’s Bomber Command was in desperate need of an effective bomber force to take the war to the enemy. The Halifax offered a rugged design with exceptional

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HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX

Handley Page Halifax BIII Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Heavy bomber 7 71ft 7in (21.82m) 104ft 2in (31.75m) 20ft 9in (6.32m) 4 x Bristol Hercules XVI radials of 1,615hp each 282mph (454km/h) 65,000lb (29,484kg) Guns: 8 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns, arranged 1 x in nose, 4 x in dorsal turret and 4 x in rear turret. Bombs: Up to 13,000lb (5,897kg)

Left: The most numerous variant of the Halifax produced, and the most aesthetic, was the BIII, distinguished by its Bristol Hercules radial engines, rounded Perspex nose and squared-off fin tips.

by Bristol Hercules air-cooled radial engines. Also distinguished by its Perspex nose, this was the most numerous (2,091) variant produced. Although an improvement over Merlin-engined Halifaxes, they were still markedly inferior to the RAF’s principal four-engined bomber, the Avro Lancaster.

In service potential for further development, despite the ever-increasing amount of operational equipment it was expected to carry placing a heavy burden on its Merlin powerplants, which were upgraded to Merlin XXs on the BI Series 3 that also featured modified squaredoff tail fins. Shortages of Merlin engines led to the production of the Halifax BIII powered

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No 35 Squadron at RAF Linton-on-Ouse was the first unit to receive the Halifax. The bomber received its baptism of war when six Mk Is undertook a raid on Le Havre on the night of 10/11 March 1941. Two nights later the unit’s Halifaxes earned the distinction of being the first four-engined RAF bombers to drop bombs on Germany, during a raid on Hamburg. No 76 Squadron became the second unit to receive the Halifax, and by the end of June 1941 the

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bomber was deployed during daylight for the first time in an attack on Kiel. The following month Halifaxes of Nos 35 and 76 Squadrons successfully attacked the German battleship Scharnhorst at La Pallice, but the cost had been high – five were lost and most of the rest suffered extensive damage. With more Halifax units formed – Nos 10 and 102 Squadrons – both night and daylight operations continued throughout 1941. However, it quickly became apparent that the aircraft’s defensive armament was inadequate for daylight use and by the end of 1941, the Halifax was used only by night in the bombing role. Losses continued to mount during raids over Germany and from September 1943 the bomber was restricted to secondary targets that were not heavily defended. In service with RAF Bomber Command the Halifax flew 82,773 operations, delivered 224,207 tons of bombs (more than a quarter of the total dropped on Germany by the RAF) with a loss of 1,833 aircraft. At the peak of its service some 34 squadrons operated the aircraft in Europe and four more in the Middle East. The Halifax was also operated by nine squadrons of the RAF’s Coastal Command for anti-submarine, meteorological, and shipping patrols. RAF Transport Command used the aircraft as casualty, freight, and personnel transports. Two ‘special duty’ squadrons also used the Halifax for dropping special agents and supplies into enemy territory. The ‘Halibag’ was a sturdy and reliable aircraft and was generally well liked by its crews. It proved to be a rugged and reliable workhorse in the bomber role throughout Bomber Command’s brutal wartime campaign. Below: Handley Page Halifax BI, HX167, TL-C of No 35 Squadron. This aircraft was lost on a raid over Berlin.

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Handley Page Halifax RAF squadrons No 10 Squadron No 35 Squadron No 47 Squadron No 51 Squadron No 58 Squadron No 76 Squadron No 77 Squadron No 78 Squadron No 96 Squadron No 102 Squadron No 103 Squadron

No 108 Squadron No 113 Squadron No 138 Squadron No 148 Squadron No 158 Squadron No 161 Squadron No 171 Squadron No 178 Squadron No 187 Squadron No 190 Squadron No 192 Squadron

No 199 Squadron No 202 Squadron No 224 Squadron No 246 Squadron No 295 Squadron No 296 Squadron No 297 Squadron No 298 Squadron No 502 Squadron No 517 Squadron No 518 Squadron

No 519 Squadron No 520 Squadron No 521 Squadron No 578 Squadron No 614 Squadron No 620 Squadron No 624 Squadron No 640 Squadron No 644 Squadron

Below left: The distinctive double-bubble nose sections of the Halifax BI on the final assembly line at Handley Page’s Cricklewood factory in 1942. The Halifax was designed to be of modular construction, the big bomber’s 15 main components being subdivided to achieve a highly dispersed manufacturing base. The advantage of this system was increased protection from enemy air raids, but the downside was the type’s rather heavy airframe owing to the number of transport joints it had to incorporate. Below: Halifaxes of No 35 Squadron bombing the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in dry dock at Brest, France, 18 December 1941. As a result of the attack, the Scharnhorst was put out of action for four months.

Below left: The forward crew compartment, looking from the flight engineer’s position all the way through to the bomb aimer, via the pilot, radio operator and navigator. Below: The cockpit of the Halifax was dominated by the throttle and propeller pitch controls.

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Above: Perhaps the most famous Halifax of all was Friday the Thirteenth, a veteran of more than 100 wartime sorties. The insignia painted on the aircraft included an upside-down horseshoe, a scythe dripping with blood and a skull and crossbones surrounded by the quote ‘As ye sow, so shall ye reap’. As Friday the Thirteenth miraculously continued to survive each operation, the ‘bomb tally’ on the nose was extended. Below: A pair of Halifax BIIIs, sporting the underbelly H2S. The type was the first in RAF service to be fitted with H2S, the invaluable blind-bombing device, in March 1942. It was H2S that enabled Bomber Command to wreak devastation on German cities, including the near total destruction of Hamburg during a series of raids in July 1943, in which a large number of Halifaxes participated.

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FIGHTER

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HAWKER TYPHOON

Hawker Typhoon D esigned to replace the Hawker Hurricane, the Typhoon, or Tiffy in RAF parlance, never achieved the heights of its illustrious forebear. It was a brute of an aircraft and therein laid both its strength and weakness. Designed as a high-altitude interceptor, it was far better suited to the muscular ground-attack role, a mission in which it excelled. As strange as it might sound, it was the Focke-Wulf FW190 that was the saviour of the Hawker Typhoon. Originally designed to succeed the 1930’s-era Hawker Hurricane and first drawn up in 1937, the Typhoon was built to a British Air Ministry specification calling for a fighter capable of a top speed of at least 400mph (640km/h). The Typhoon was predicted to do just that thanks to the promising Napier 24-cylinder, liquid-cooled 2,000hp Sabre engine selected for the airframe. The basic design of the Typhoon was a combination of traditional and more modern construction techniques; the front fuselage structure, from the engine mountings to the rear of the cockpit, was made up of bolted and welded duralumin or steel tubes covered with skin panels, while the rear fuselage was a flush-riveted, semi-monocoque structure. The forward fuselage and cockpit skinning was made up of large, removable duralumin panels. The wing was designed with a small amount of inverted gull wing bend and was thick compared to other contemporary designs. The Typhoon was first produced with forward-opening ‘car’ style cockpit doors

(complete with wind-down windows), with a transparent roof hinged to open to the left. In later life it was fitted with a one-piece sliding ‘bubble’ canopy, which vastly improved visibility for the pilot. The fighter was plagued with problems from the beginning. The first flight of the prototype was delayed by development of the Sabre, but finally took to the air on 24 February 1940 in the hands of Hawker’s chief test pilot, Philip Lucas. Early on in the test flying, on 9 May 1940, the prototype had a mid-air structural failure between the forward and rear fuselage, but Lucas miraculously managed to save the aircraft. However, with valuable resources being prioritised on proven types, development of the Typhoon was slowed and test flying continued at a reduced rate. Gradual development on the Typhoon included the design of a modified wing containing two Hispano 20mm cannons. The first production Typhoon IA (R7082) was completed by Gloster and flown on 26 May 1941 and was armed with 12 Browning guns as per the original specification. The cannonarmed Typhoon IB was close behind it. By this time attitudes to the Typhoon had changed. The arrival of the fast and powerful Focke-Wulf FW190 had sent shockwaves through the RAF as it outclassed the Spitfires of the time. The Typhoon was the only RAF fighter capable of catching the FW190 at low-level, so it was rushed into service. Eventually, 3,317 Typhoons were built, almost all by Gloster. Hawker developed what was

Left: The profile of the Hawker Typhoon was not dissimilar to its greatest foe, the Focke Wulf FW190. Accordingly it was adorned with underwing black and white stripes and its propeller hub painted white in order to aid identification and help prevent friendly fire. Below: Hawker Typhoon IB, JP428, HF-N, of No 183 Squadron. This aircraft was shot down by flak over Cherbourg on 24 October 1943, with its pilot Flg Off P.W.B. Timms being taken prisoner of war.

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Hawker Typhoon Ib Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Ground attack 1 32ft 0in (9.73m) 41ft 7in (12.67m) 15ft 4in (4.66m) 1 x Napier Sabre IIC H-24 of 2,260hp 412mph (663km/h) 13,250lb (6,010kg) Guns: 4 x 20mm Hispano Mk II cannon. Bombs: 2 x 500lb (227kg). Rockets: 8 x RP-3 unguided air-to-ground

originally an improved Typhoon II, but the differences between it and the Mk I were so great that it was effectively a different aircraft, and was renamed the Hawker Tempest. 

In service To counter the FW190 threat, Nos 56 and 609 Squadrons based at Duxford began to receive Typhoons in September 1941, before the fighter was fully developed. Too quick, too soon, the unproven aircraft suffered from fatal flaws, notably in the tail section where severe flutter resulted in the loss of a number of aircraft. Although strengthening the structure helped alleviate the issue, the problem was never totally solved. The Sabre engine was also a constant source of problems, especially with carbon monoxide fumes seeping into the cockpit. Understandably this did not endear it to its pilots, but gradually the big Typhoon began to mature as an aircraft. In its low-level interceptor role it began to achieve some success and the first two Messerschmitt Me 210 fighter-bombers to be destroyed over the British Isles fell to the guns of Typhoons in August 1942. However, its passing resemblance to its rival FW190 resulted in some friendly fire incidents, so they were marked up with all white noses and with high visibility black and white stripes under the wings, predating the markings applied to all Allied aircraft on D-Day. By 1943 the RAF needed a ground attack fighter. The Typhoon was rugged, big and powerful, and it proved ideal for the role, blossoming into one of the most formidable weapons evolved during the conflict. As a closesupport fighter it was superior to the Spitfire IX: it had twice the amount of cannon, twice the bombload and over twice the range. From September 1943, Typhoons were also armed with four 60lb RP-3 rockets under each wing,

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FIGHTER Left: Brutish would be a kind way to describe the Typhoon, its large chin air intake being a distinctive feature.

with No 181 Squadron being the first to fire them in anger. A barrage from the Typhoon was equivalent in destructive power to a broadside from a Royal Navy destroyer. By the end of 1943, 18 rocket-equipped Typhoon squadrons formed the basis of the RAF’s Second Tactical Air Force (2nd TAF) ground attack arm. It was in support of the D-Day operations that the Typhoon would cement its place in history, proving itself to be the most effective RAF tactical strike aircraft, performing interdiction raids against communications and transport targets deep in North Western Europe prior to the invasion and in direct support of the Allied ground forces. As a tank killer it reigned supreme, wreaking havoc on German ground troops and infrastructure. The Typhoon had truly found its niche. It marauded throughout Europe until there were no more tanks to destroy, but by this time, it was being superseded by the more agile Tempest. The aircraft that so nearly wasn’t, had come good in the end and deserves its place in RAF history.

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Hawker Typhoon RAF squadrons No 1 Squadron No 3 Squadron No 4 Squadron No 56 Squadron No 137 Squadron No 164 Squadron No 168 Squadron

No 174 Squadron No 175 Squadron No 181 Squadron No 182 Squadron No 183 Squadron No 184 Squadron No 186 Squadron

No 193 Squadron No 195 Squadron No 197 Squadron No 198 Squadron No 245 Squadron No 247 Squadron No 257 Squadron

No 263 Squadron No 266 Squadron No 268 Squadron No 349 Squadron No 350 Squadron No 534 Squadron No 609 Squadron

Above: A pilot of No 175 Squadron scrambles to his waiting Typhoon IB at B5/Le Fresne-Camilly, following a call from the Group Control Centre ordering an air strike. Left: Typhoons were rushed into service to counter the FW190 threat. No 56 Squadron was one of the first two units to receive the type and carried out much of the development work to iron out the aircraft’s many problems.

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De Havilland Mosquito W hen the Mosquito first entered service with the RAF it was not greeted with much enthusiasm, its non-metal construction being viewed as a retrograde step by many. However, its aircrew soon discovered that it was not only blisteringly fast and nimble, but also had an enormous capacity to absorb punishment. Conceived as a bomber, the ‘Wooden Wonder’ evolved into a game-changing multi-role aircraft. De Havilland did not set out to build an icon. It knew that its controversial design would be fast, strong and adaptable, so it was confident enough to fund its development as a private venture. But even its most avid supporters did not envisage that it would go on to achieve near mythical status and become the most successful twin-engined aircraft of World War 2. The Mosquito design began life in the autumn of 1938 as a fast unarmed bomber or reconnaissance aircraft. Controversially, the

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streamlined twin-engined aircraft would be built extensively out of wooden ply, its fuselage being constructed in two halves. The cantilver wing, mounted in a mid-position, was to be a one-piece assembly that would carry powerful Merlin engines in underslung nacelles, into which the undercarriage also retracted. The two-man crew would sit side-by-side in a cockpit that offered good visibility all round. The construction of the prototype was begun in March 1940 following an order for 50 DH98 bombers and the allocation of the name Mosquito to the project. Progress at Hatfield

was constantly interrupted while the ‘Battle of Britain’ was being fought overhead, but this did not prevent W4050 in prototype yellow making its maiden flight on 25 November 1940, with Geoffrey de Havilland Jr at the controls. The Air Ministry authorised mass production plans on 21 June 1941, by which time the Mosquito had achieved its promise and become one of the world’s fastest operational aircraft. There were three basic branches on the Mosquito tree: bombers, fighters and photo-reconnaissance types. Each had many variants, such as radarequipped night fighters and bombers modified

Below: Everything about the Mosquito just looked right, its streamlined form defining speed itself. No 105 Squadron became the first unit to fly the bomber variant of the Mosquito in 1942. Apart from the famous Oslo raid, No 105 Squadron undertook daylight low-level and shallow dive attacks mainly on industrial targets in occupied Netherlands, plus northern and western Germany. Mosquito BIV DZ353 (foreground) later served with Nos 139 and 627 Squadrons before it failed to return from a raid on a railway yard at Rennes, France on 8 June 1944. Both crewmembers, Flt Lt Bill Steere and FO Gale were killed. Behind it, DZ367 was also lost when it failed to return from a raid over Berlin on 30 January 1943, the aircraft crashing near Altengrabow, killing both Sqn Ldr Donald Darling and FO W. Wright.

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DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO

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Left: The yellow Mosquito prototype, W4050, demonstrating the perfect marriage between airframe and a pair of Merlins.

De Havilland Mosquito FII Type:

to carry 2-ton blockbusters. The bombers and photo variants were unarmed, while most of the fighters carried four 0.303in (7.7mm) machine guns in the nose and four 20mm cannons under the cockpit floor, their receivers and ammunition-feed mechanisms extending back into the bomb bay. The most-produced variant, designated the FBVI (Fighter-bomber Mark 6), was powered by two Merlin Mk 23 or Mk 25 engines driving three-bladed de Havilland hydromatic propellers. The typical fixed armament for an FBVI was four Browning 0.303in (7.7mm) machine guns and four 20mm Hispano cannon, while the offensive load consisted of up to 2,000lb (910kg) of bombs, or eight RP-3 unguided rockets.

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In service In July 1941, the first production Mosquito (W4051), was sent to 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU), at RAF Benson. Consequently, the secret reconnaissance flights of this aircraft were the first active service missions of the Mosquito. Four months later, on 15 November 1941, No 105 Squadron took delivery at RAF Swanton Morley of the first operational Mosquito BIV bomber. The Mosquito was first announced publicly on 26 September 1942 after the low level attack on the Gestapo Headquarters building in Oslo. Meanwhile, the first Mosquito NFII night fighters had entered service with No 157 Squadron and scored their first kill on 28-29 May 1942. Over the next three years, they

Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant:

Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Twin-engined long-range fighter/attack 2 41ft 2in (12.55m) 54ft 2in (16.52m) 17ft 5in (5.3m) 2 × Rolls-Royce Merlin 21 or 23 12-cylinder engines of 1,480hp each 366mph (589km/h) 18,649lb (8,549kg) 4 × 20mm Hispano MkV cannons, 4 x 0.303in Browning machine guns

racked up a score of approximately 600 enemy aircraft over the British Isles. They later operated in the bomber support role, their task being to defend the main heavy bomber streams over enemy territory. Of the 466 NFIIs produced, some of the later aircraft had day-fighter finish

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DH Mosquito RAF squadrons No 4 Squadron No 8 Squadron No 11 Squadron No 13 Squadron No 14 Squadron No 16 Squadron No 18 Squadron No 21 Squadron No 22 Squadron No 23 Squadron No 25 Squadron No 27 Squadron No 29 Squadron No 36 Squadron No 39 Squadron No 45 Squadron No 46 Squadron No 47 Squadron No 55 Squadron No 58 Squadron No 68 Squadron No 69 Squadron No 81 Squadron

No 82 Squadron No 84 Squadron No 85 Squadron No 89 Squadron No 96 Squadron No 98 Squadron No 105 Squadron No 107 Squadron No 108 Squadron No 109 Squadron No 110 Squadron No 114 Squadron No 125 Squadron No 128 Squadron No 139 Squadron No 140 Squadron No 141 Squadron No 142 Squadron No 143 Squadron No 151 Squadron No 157 Squadron No 162 Squadron No 163 Squadron

and, with the AI radar removed, operated over Malta, Italy, Sicily and North Africa from the end of 1942 onwards. Operational experience with the Mosquito in its day-fighter and intruder roles led to the

No 169 Squadron No 176 Squadron No 180 Squadron No 192 Squadron No 199 Squadron No 211 Squadron No 219 Squadron No 235 Squadron No 239 Squadron No 248 Squadron No 249 Squadron No 254 Squadron No 255 Squadron No 256 Squadron No 264 Squadron No 268 Squadron No 333 Squadron No 334 Squadron No 500 Squadron No 502 Squadron No 504 Squadron No 515 Squadron No 521 Squadron

No 527 Squadron No 540 Squadron No 544 Squadron No 571 Squadron No 600 Squadron No 604 Squadron No 605 Squadron No 608 Squadron No 609 Squadron No 613 Squadron No 614 Squadron No 616 Squadron No 617 Squadron No 618 Squadron No 627 Squadron No 680 Squadron No 681 Squadron No 683 Squadron No 684 Squadron No 692 Squadron

development of the FBVI, a potent fighterbomber that came into service during the early months of 1943. It had been discovered that the Mosquito was able to accommodate a much greater warload than that for which it

Above: A Mosquito undergoing the final stages of construction. The oval-section fuselage was a frameless monocoque shell built in two halves made of sheets of Ecuadorean balsawood sandwiched between sheets of Canadian birch. Once joined together, a covering of doped Madapolam (a fine plain woven cotton) fabric was stretched tightly over the shell and a coat of silver dope was applied, after which the exterior camouflage was applied. The all-wood wing was built as a one-piece structure and was made up of two main spars, spruce and plywood compression ribs, stringers, and a plywood covering. The outer skin was covered and doped like the fuselage.

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Right: Seen from the cockpit, a formation of Mosquitos speed their way towards a target. The Mosquito could fly almost unchallenged over Europe, day or night, and deliver attacks from rooftop height. It was behind some of the most stunning raids of the war – among them the precision operation to attack the Gestapo headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Below right: Rocket-equipped Mosquito FBVI, HR405/NE-A of No 143 Squadron based at RAF Banff and flown by Sqn Ldr David Pritchard DFC. The station was built for Coastal Command in 1942 in order to allow anti-shipping and anti-U boat operations over the North Sea and around the coast of Norway. From October 1944, the Banff Strike Wing operated mainly with the Mosquito and often ran the gauntlet of heavy anti-aircraft fire as they penetrated deep into heavily defended Norwegian Fjords to attack shipping targets at anchor. The Wing achieved outstanding success but at a heavy loss with over 80 crews lost during the last months of the war.

had been designed, and thus the Mk VI, with a strengthened wing for external loads, carried a full complement of cannon and machineguns, plus two 500lb bombs in the rear half of the bomb bay (the front half containing the cannon breeches) and two 500lb bombs under the wings. As a fighter-bomber the Mosquito took part in ‘special raids’, such as the attack on Amiens Prison in early 1944, and in precision attacks against Gestapo or German intelligence and security forces. Second Tactical Air Force Mosquitos also supported the British Army during the 1944 Normandy Campaign. From 1943, Mosquitos with RAF Coastal Command strike squadrons attacked Kriegsmarine U-boats, particularly in the Bay of Biscay in 1943, where significant numbers were sunk or damaged. From late 1943, Mosquito bombers were formed into the Light Night Strike Force and used as pathfinders for RAF Bomber Command’s heavy-bomber raids. They were also used as ‘nuisance’ bombers, often dropping Blockbuster bombs – 4,000lb (1,812kg) ‘cookies’ – in high-altitude, highspeed raids that German night fighters were almost powerless to intercept. No fewer than 27 different versions of the Mosquito went into service during the war years, but they all had one thing in common. They were all powered by the Merlin, from the early Mk21 to late Mk114 variants, including Packard-built versions. When the Mosquito production lines around the world (it was licence built in Canada and Australia) finally came to a halt, 7,781 examples had been built. De Havilland’s faith in the ‘Wooden Wonder’ had been more than vindicated.

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DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO

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76 MULTI-ROLE

Above: DH Mosquito BIV, DK333/HS-F Grim Reaper of No 109 Squadron. On 27 January 1943, DK333 was one of the first Mosquitos to carry and drop ground target indicators during a bombing raid. The aircraft later flew with Nos 105, 139 and 192 Squadrons and was discharged from service on 30 May 1945.

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Above: Mosquito BIV, DZ525/AZ-S of No 627 Squadron. The unit was formed on 12 November 1943 at RAF Oakington and flew operations as part of No 8 Group’s light bomber force. As well as normal bombing missions it also carried out Pathfinder duties and was involved in attacks on Berlin in early 1944. In April 1944 it was transferred to No 5 Group as a specialised target marking squadron.

De Havilland Mosquito FII

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Avro Lancaster I n December 1945, ACM Sir Arthur Harris, perhaps better known as ‘Bomber’ Harris, wrote to Sir Roy Dobson, managing director of A. V. Roe, to praise the company’s most famous product in glowing terms. The Lancaster had been, Harris declared, Bomber Command’s ‘shining sword.’ That would have seemed unthinkable just six years earlier when Avro’s Manchester, widely criticised as one of the RAF’s least successful aircraft, made its appearance. Yet it was from the Manchester that the Lancaster, undisputedly one of its most successful, was to be developed. Even before the Manchester’s first flight, Avro had been growing uneasy about its new bomber and was already working on a four-engined derivative known as the Type 683. Avro proposed that the 683 should replace the Manchester, with which it shared 70 per cent commonality. At the end of 1940, Manchester serial BT308 was taken from the production line and fitted with four Merlin Xs. The aircraft, initially known as the Manchester III, made its maiden flight in January 1941. As the development of the aircraft proceeded the airframe was progressively modified until there was little of the original Manchester structure left. The resulting Lancaster was of all-metal construction. The oval monocoque fuselage structure was built in five separately-assembled main sections. The cockpit was located over the bomb bay roof. The aircraft commander sat under a Perspex canopy with a sheet of

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armour plate behind his back. Beside him was the flight engineer’s folding seat and behind that the navigator’s station with a table facing to the port side. The wireless operator sat facing forward between the navigator and the wing spar. In the extreme nose was a transparent bubble having an optically-flat panel for the bomb sight. The bomb aimer also acted as the front gunner. The mid-upper turret was continuously manned, as was the rear turret. Flight trials started at Boscombe Down in June 1941 and were so successful that the Air Staff had little hesitation in ordering the bomber into immediate production. A second aircraft, embodying production modifications, appeared in May and the first production machine (L7527) was ready by the end of October 1941. Not all early versions of the Lancaster were driven by the Merlin. The Lancaster II was powered by Bristol Hercules radial engines and was developed in parallel to guarantee continuity of supply in case of an interruption in Merlin availability. However, the arrival of Packard-built Merlins eased these concerns. Packard-Merlin Lancasters were designated Mk III and produced concurrently with the Mk I. Below: From the time of its introduction into Bomber Command service in 1942, Lancasters equipped progressively more units until there were 56 front-line squadrons at the end of the war in Europe. Lancasters dropped 608,612 tonnes of bombs, almost two-thirds of the RAF total of 955,044 tonnes.

It was also decided that Lancasters would be built in Canada by the Crown-owned Victory Aircraft Ltd. Based on the Mk III, these aircraft were designated the Mk X and equipped RAF units as well as those of the Royal Canadian Air Force based in the UK. Not surprisingly, more Merlins were made for the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber than for any other aircraft. A total of 7,377 Lancasters was built in Britain between 1941 and 1946 and they flew 156,192 operational sorties over Germany and occupied Europe, nearly four times as many as the rival Halifax, but 3,836 were lost.

Avro Lancaster I Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant:

Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Heavy bomber 7 69ft 6in (21.4m) 102ft (31.9m) 19ft 6in (6.0m) 4 x Rolls-Royce Merlin XXs, Merlin 22s (1,390hp) or (from 1944) Merlin 24s (1,610hp) each 275mph (440km/h) 63,000lb (28,577kg) 8 x 0.303in (7.7mm) Browning machine guns in three poweroperated turrets Bomb load: 18,000lb (8,182kg)

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Left: The ergonomic cockpit helped pilot fatigue during the long sorties over Germany. On flying the Lancaster, wartime test pilot Capt Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown commented: ‘It exuded selfconfidence. It was viceless from an aerodynamic point of view. It had very docile stalling characteristics and good harmony of control: light ailerons, moderately light elevators and a moderately heavy rudder. If you have these three things as a pilot’, Brown said, ‘you feel it’s right’. Right: Close-up details of a Lancaster in flight, showing the business end of the legendary bomber. The aircraft commander sat under the extensive canopy, with the flight engineer sat on a folding seat beside him. In the extreme nose was a transparent bubble having an opticallyflat panel for the bomb sight. The bomb aimer also acted as the front gunner.

Above: Lancaster BI NN709/GI-H of No 622 Squadron. After converting from Stirlings, the unit briefly operated the Lancaster BI before upgrading to the BIII variant. The unit operated in Bomber Command’s Main Force as part of No 3 Group until April 1945 when it moved to humanitarian duties dropping food to the Dutch.

Above: Lancaster BII DS625/KO-W DS625 of No 115 Squadron based at RAF East Wretham. This Hercules-powered Lancaster was lost on a mission over Germany on the night of 29-30 March 1943.

Above: Lancaster BIII LL811/BQ-J Bad Penny II of No 550 Squadron. Flown by Flg Off K. Bowen-Bravery and crew, Bad Penny II performed an historic part in the D-Day landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944, dropping the first bomb of the campaign.

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84 HEAVY BOMBER

Above: Four Lancaster BIs of No 50 Squadron in August 1942. In the foreground R5689 VN-N runs up before departing on a mission. This aircraft was written off a month later at Thurlby, Lincolnshire, when both port engines failed as the crew prepared to land. The tail gunner was killed in the crash.

In service The first unit in Bomber Command to be wholly equipped with the Lancaster was No 44 Squadron when it was declared operational in late 1941, closely followed by No 97 Squadron. It was the former that gained the distinction of being the first to employ the new bomber

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operationally when it undertook a mine-laying mission in the Heligoland Bight on 3 March 1942. The first bombing raid came a week later. On the night of 10-11 March two No 44 Squadron Lancasters visited Essen, but a month was to pass before the aircraft’s existence was publicly revealed. That came on 17 April after a dozen Lancasters from Nos 44 and 97 Squadrons had made a long, unescorted and, as it turned out, costly daylight raid on the MAN plant at Augsburg, which was producing diesel engines for U-boats. Each Lancaster carried four 1,000lb bombs, of which 17 hit the target. Only 12 exploded and the factory was back in

production within weeks. The cost was high: only five Lancasters returned. The arrival in Bomber Command of the Lancaster coincided with the appointment of a new and energetic commander-in-chief. Arthur Harris increasingly regarded the bomber with its capacity to carry ever-increasing bomb loads as the key element in his drive to forge a formidable war-winning weapon. Lancasters participated in the first of Harris’ spectacular thousand-bomber raids, on the night of 30-31 May 1942 when Cologne was the target. From then on they were in the thick of the action. Particularly noteworthy were Operation

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AVRO LANCASTER 85

Avro Lancaster RAF squadrons

‘Chastise’, the imaginative raid on the Ruhr Valley dams in May 1943, and Operation ‘Gomorrah’, the devastating round-the-clock fire bombing raids on Hamburg two months later. Lancasters also carried the ‘Tallboys’, which in September 1944 the dam-busting No 617 Squadron used to finish off the German battleship Tirpitz off Tromsø, Norway. In March 1945, No 617 also dropped the 22,000lb ‘Grand Slam’ for the first time, demolishing the Bielefeld Viaduct. But Harris’ greatest victory hopes rested on his campaign against Berlin. Between 18 November 1943 and 31 March 1944 up to 800 bombers, at least half of them Lancasters, were despatched

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No 7 Squadron No 9 Squadron No 12 Squadron No 15 Squadron No 18 Squadron No 20 Squadron No 35 Squadron No 37 Squadron No 38 Squadron No 40 Squadron No 44 Squadron No 49 Squadron No 50 Squadron No 57 Squadron No 61 Squadron No 70 Squadron No 75 Squadron

No 82 Squadron No 83 Squadron No 90 Squadron No 97 Squadron No 100 Squadron No 101 Squadron No 103 Squadron No 104 Squadron No 106 Squadron No 109 Squadron No 115 Squadron No 120 Squadron No 138 Squadron No 148 Squadron No 149 Squadron No 150 Squadron No 153 Squadron

on raids to the German capital and other major cities. In a particularly intensive period between mid-January and the end of March 1944, there were 8,842 Lancaster sorties from which 443

No 156 Squadron No 160 Squadron No 166 Squadron No 170 Squadron No 178 Squadron No 179 Squadron No 186 Squadron No 189 Squadron No 195 Squadron No 203 Squadron No 207 Squadron No 210 Squadron No 214 Squadron No 218 Squadron No 224 Squadron No 227 Squadron No 231 Squadron

No 279 Squadron No 514 Squadron No 541 Squadron No 550 Squadron No 576 Squadron No 582 Squadron No 617 Squadron No 619 Squadron No 621 Squadron No 622 Squadron No 625 Squadron No 626 Squadron No 630 Squadron No 635 Squadron No 683 Squadron

aircraft failed to return, a loss rate of 4.9 per cent. The Lancaster played an instrumental role during World War 2, becoming one of the most iconic aircraft of the era.

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FIGHTER

Hawker Tempest

Above: One of the early units to receive the Tempest V was No 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron, which was thrown into action against V-1 flying bombs a matter of days after converting to the big fighter.

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Hawker Tempest RAF squadrons No 3 Squadron No 5 Squadron No 6 Squadron No 8 Squadron No 16 Squadron No 20 Squadron No 23 Squadron

No 26 Squadron No 30 Squadron No 33 Squadron No 39 Squadron No 54 Squadron No 56 Squadron No 80 Squadron

No 152 Squadron No 174 Squadron No 183 Squadron No 213 Squadron No 222 Squadron No 247 Squadron No 249 Squadron

No 266 Squadron No 274 Squadron No 287 Squadron No 349 Squadron No 501 Squadron

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HAWKER TEMPEST

A

fter the Typhoon came the Tempest. Developed from Hawker’s stormraising fighter-bomber, the brutishly graceful Tempest went on to become one of the most effective Allied fighters in Europe during World War 2. The Tempest began life as the Typhoon II, a development of the Hawker fighter that was designed to counter the fall-off of performance at high altitude, primarily by replacing its thick wing with a thinner laminar flow design, inspired by that used on the P-51 Mustang. Accordingly, the wing planform was changed to a near-elliptical shape to accommodate the 800 rounds of ammunition for the four 20mm Hispano cannons, which were moved back further into the wing. By now renamed the Tempest, a contract was issued on 18 November 1941 for six prototypes, utilising a range of engines: A single Mk I, HM599, powered by a Sabre IV; two Mk IIs (LA602 and LA607) equipped with the Centaurus IV; a Mk III (LA610) with a Griffon IIB; a Mk IV (LA614) with a Griffon 61; and a Mk V (HM595) with the Sabre II. The Tempest I featured other new features, such as a clean single-piece sliding canopy in place of the car-door framed canopy, and it used wing radiators instead of the ‘chin’ radiator. In the event, due to development difficulties with the Sabre IV engine and its wing radiators, it was the Mk V prototype that would fly first, taking to the air on 2 September 1942. It was soon fitted with a bubble canopy, and a modified fin that almost doubled the vertical tail surface area. The Tempest I eventually took to the air on 24 September 1943 and because of its clean ‘chinless’ aerodynamic shape, it became the fastest aircraft that Hawker had built at the time. However, continued issues with the Sabre IV meant that this variant was abandoned. Development of the Tempest II was the only other mark that was continued, but repeated delays due to its Centaurus powerplant, meant that it did not reach production in time to see service during World War 2. Thus, it was the Tempest V that entered production and entered service in April 1944, widely regarded as being the RAF’s best lowto medium-altitude fighter. A total of 801 Tempest Vs was produced.

landings in Normandy the Tempests were held in reserve to defend the beachheads against large-scale Luftwaffe strafing attacks, which in the event did not materialise. On 8 June 1944, two days after the first landings, nine Tempests of No 3 Squadron ventured over the French beaches, the unit bagging three Messerschmitt Bf109s for no loss. It was an auspicious combat debut for the big fighter. The Tempests equipping the Newchurch Wing were known as Tempest V srs I, and were identifiable by the four Hispano Mk II cannons protruding from the wings. The Tempest V srs II, equipped with the shortbarrelled Hispano Mk V cannon and capable of carrying long range drop tanks, began reaching the squadrons during June. During July and August three more squadrons were equipped with Tempests; Nos 80, 274, and 501 comprising the Manston Wing. The Tempest V was routinely used to conduct long-range sorties inside enemy territory and penetrate into Northern France and the Low Countries, using a combination of cannons and bombs to attack airfields, radar installations, ground vehicles and coastal shipping. In June 1944, a new threat appeared when the first of the German V-1 flying bombs Below: It’s a Tempest, but not as we know it. The Tempest I, HM599, was powered by the Sabre IV and featured wing radiators instead of the large chin. Because of its streamlined profile it was faster than the Tempest V, but engine problems meant that only one example ever flew.

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were launched against London. The excellent low-altitude performance of the Tempest made it ideal for handling the small fastflying unmanned missiles. Between June and September of 1944 alone, Tempest Vs were credited with the interception and downing of some 638 V-1s. As the war swept across Europe, the Tempest had the twin tasks of the systematic destruction of the North German rail network along with all related targets of opportunity, and the maintenance of air supremacy within the North German theatre, searching for and destroying any high performance fighter or bombers, whether in the air or on the ground. As such, Tempest Vs were credited with the destruction of no fewer than 20 of the new jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262 twin-engine fighters. Both the Tempest VI and Centaurus-engined Mk II arrived too late to see action in World War 2, but both had been introduced into RAF service by late 1945.

Hawker Tempest V Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

Fighter/ground attack 1 33ft 8in (10.26m) 41ft 0in (12.49m) 16ft 1in (4.9m) 1 x Napier Sabre IIC H-24 of 2,260hp 432mph (695km/h) 13,640lb (6,190kg) Guns: 4 x 20mm Hispano MkII/V Hispano cannon. Bombs: 2 x 500lb (227kg). Rockets: 8 x RP-3 unguided air-to-ground

In service In January 1944 the first 50 Tempest Mk Vs were delivered to the RAF’s newly-formed Tempest Wing at Newchurch in Kent. The unit, led by Wg Cdr Roland Beamont, comprised Nos 3 and 486 Squadrons, which were joined two months later by No 56 Squadron. For the D-Day

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FIGHTER Right: The Tempest V’s cockpit layout was standard for its day, with the RAF’s ‘basic six’ located on the central panel, with engine and undercarriage controls to the pilot’s left and fuel levers and electrics to the right.

Far right: A Tempest V rolls away from the camera aircraft to reveal its elegant elliptical wing. Note the special identity stripes applied to Typhoons and Tempests; these were different from the D-Day stripes. Bottom right: The Tempest II, fitted with a tightly-cowled Bristol Centaurus sleeve-valve engine, was too late to see wartime combat, but was sent in large numbers to Germany and the Far East in the immediate post-war period.

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FIGHTER

Gloster Meteor A s the RAF’s first operational jet aircraft, the Gloster Meteor holds a very special place in British aviation history. It may have been too late to play a major role in World War 2, as well as just being beaten into service by Germany’s Messerschmitt Me262, but the Meteor is one of those rare aircraft to which can be applied an old and over-used cliché – for, as far as the RAF was concerned, it truly ushered in a new era. During World War 2, the British Air Ministry was initially reluctant to divert valuable resources to unproven jet engine technology, but when intelligence was received that Germany was forging ahead with this potentially game-changing power source, it recognised that Britain had to enter the race. Given the close relationship with jet engine

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pioneer Frank Whittle and Power Jets, the Gloster Aircraft Company became the obvious choice to build such a machine. Specification F9/40 was raised and an official order for a first production batch of 300 examples of the new fighter was placed on 8 August 1941. The first F9/40 prototype was due to use two Power Jets W2Bs, built by Rover, but they were significantly delayed by technical maladies. Rolls-Royce took on the W2B development programme, and work on alternative powerplants was set in train by Frank Halford and Metropolitan Vickers. On 5 July 1942 the first F9/40, serial DG202, was delivered in great secrecy to the chosen testing airfield at RAF Newmarket Heath. Taxiing trials with this W2Bpowered machine commenced a few days later, in the hands of Gloster chief test pilot Gerry Sayer, and revealed major shortcomings

regarding lack of power. Accordingly Gerry Sayer recommended that the first flight should be postponed until units with a thrust of at least 1,200lb were available. So it was that the Halford H-1, delivering some 2,300lb st of thrust, assumed early prominence in the F9/40 programme. In so doing, it staved off the project’s complete cancellation even though it would play little part in the Meteor’s success. Thus engined, the fifth F9/40 aircraft, serial DG206, turned out to be the first to fly. It finally took to the air at Cranwell on 5 March 1943, with Michael Daunt at the controls. The next two examples to join the flight test programme, DG205 and then DG202, were both fitted with the originally intended powerplants in 1,600lb st W2B/23 form when they got airborne in June and July. Despite the superiority of both the H-1 and the Metrovick F2, the Whittle

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GLOSTER METEOR engine, now known as the Rolls-Royce Welland, was selected for production Meteor Is. Throughout its life, the Meteor remained a very conventional aircraft in terms of its construction, being a simple all-metal airframe typical of the period. It featured a conventional low-mounted straight wing, on which the engine nacelles were positioned about a third of the way across the span. That span was decreased quite early in the Meteor F4 production run, the revised wing now having more squared-off tips in the name of improving the aircraft’s roll rate. The early turbojet engines such as the W2B required large nacelles, and in the case of the Meteor this proved helpful as it rendered it easy to fit different units over the course of the type’s development. The nacelles themselves did alter, though, being extended from the Meteor III onwards to help reduce high-speed buffeting. The undercarriage was of a standard tricycle arrangement and was gradually beefed-up as the Meteor became heavier during the course of development. Typical for fighters of the day, the cockpit was fitted with all-analogue instrumentation. At the outset, the Meteor I had four 20mm Hispano cannon mounted in the nose, and this armament persisted throughout the type’s RAF service.

In service ‘Authority given for one flight of No 616 Squadron to be re-equipped from nine Spitfire VII to nine Meteor I’. So read the telegram despatched by the Air Ministry on 4 July 1944 that cleared the path for the RAF to receive its first jet aircraft. By the time the Meteor finally arrived in service, the tide of the war in Europe had turned so far in the Allies’ favour that it was hard even for this revolutionary new fighter to have much influence on the course of air fighting. Nonetheless, it did play its part in World War 2. From the end of July 1944, No 616 Squadron’s Meteor Is took part in the so-called ‘anti-Diver’ patrols, the RAF’s efforts to combat the menace of the V-1 flying bombs. The unit,

and the aircraft’s, first two V-1 ‘kills’ were scored on 4 August, one by tipping the ‘doodlebug’ out of control with the Meteor’s wing (a method used by other types as well, albeit employed on this occasion because the Meteor’s guns had jammed) and the second in a more conventional gun attack. In total, 13 V-1s were destroyed by No 616 Squadron’s Meteors before the campaign ended. This left something of a question mark over how best to employ the new jets. On 20 September 1944, Wg Cdr H. J. Wilson, who had been assigned to No 616 Squadron on liaison duties, wrote to the Director of Technical Development at the Ministry of Aircraft Production: ‘The cessation of the flying bomb activities leave the Squadron, which is now fairly well trained, with nothing to do and therefore the Commanding Officer and ADGB [Air Defence of Great Britain] are trying to think out some other type of operation on which the Squadron could be usefully employed. As you are well aware any other type of operational activity will call for greater airworthiness and

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manoeuvrability than we have been able to give up to the present.’ No 616 Squadron converted to the Meteor III before part of the unit deployed to liberated Europe, initially Melsbroek near Brussels and then Gilze Rijen in the Netherlands. The aircraft were painted white to aid recognition by other Allied forces. But if there had been any hopes that, finally, the RAF’s new jets would be able to get to grips with the enemy, they were not to be realised. Initially they were forbidden from operating over territory still held by the Germans; then, the only Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed by the Meteors were claimed in the course of strafing runs, though not for want of trying once No 616 Squadron was allowed to fly fighter sweeps over Germany. Of course, the Meteor story did not end there. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades. Specialised variants of the Meteor were developed for use in photographic aerial reconnaissance and as night fighters.

Gloster Meteor RAF squadrons No 1 Squadron No 2 Squadron No 5 Squadron No 8 Squadron No 11 Squadron No 13 Squadron No 19 Squadron No 25 Squadron No 29 Squadron No 33 Squadron No 34 Squadron No 39 Squadron No 41 Squadron No 43 Squadron No 46 Squadron No 54 Squadron

No 56 Squadron No 60 Squadron No 63 Squadron No 64 Squadron No 65 Squadron No 66 Squadron No 68 Squadron No 72 Squadron No 74 Squadron No 79 Squadron No 81 Squadron No 85 Squadron No 87 Squadron No 91 Squadron No 92 Squadron No 96 Squadron

No 111 Squadron No 124 Squadron No 125 Squadron No 141 Squadron No 151 Squadron No 152 Squadron No 153 Squadron No 208 Squadron No 219 Squadron No 222 Squadron No 234 Squadron No 245 Squadron No 247 Squadron No 256 Squadron No 257 Squadron No 263 Squadron

No 264 Squadron No 266 Squadron No 500 Squadron No 501 Squadron No 504 Squadron No 527 Squadron No 541 Squadron No 600 Squadron No 601 Squadron No 604 Squadron No 609 Squadron No 610 Squadron No 611 Squadron No 615 Squadron No 616 Squadron

Left: The Allies’ first operational jet aircraft, the Meteor entered service with No 616 Squadron in July 1944, being employed against the V-1s. One of No 616’s flight commanders, Sqn Ldr Dennis Barry, is seen in the cockpit of EE227/YQ-Y on 4 January 1945. The other pilots are, left to right: Plt Off I. Wilson, WO F. Packer, WO T. Woodacre and Flg Off H. Moon. Right: Carrying the P for prototype on its fuselage, DG206/G was the first Meteor to take to the air in the hands of Michael Daunt on 5 March 1943. The Meteor I featured a side-opening canopy.

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FIGHTER

Above: The cockpit of the Meteor was typical for fighters of the day, though notable are the two large engine rpm indicators placed either side of the gunsight. Below: Meteor pilots revelled in the noise and speed of their aircraft and did not hesitate to demonstrate these attributes when the opportunity arose! A flypast below the top of the control tower shows complete faith in the machine. Below right: The arrival of the Gloster Meteor F3 heralded a new level of reliability and performance for the RAF’s first jet fighter. EE457 was one of the last production Meteor F3s and featured extended engine nacelles

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Above: After the war, many years of incremental improvements to the RAF’s Meteor force, would see the type being developed way beyond its original design specifications. However, as a front-line day fighter, the Meteor’s RAF career was over by April 1957, No 19 Squadron being one of the last to relinquish its F8s, as seen here.

Gloster Meteor III Type: Crew: Length: Wingspan: Height: Powerplant: Max Speed: Max T/O weight: Armament:

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Fighter 1 41ft 3in (12.57m) 43ft 0in (13.11m) 13ft 0in (3.96m) 2 x Rolls-Royce Derwent I turbojets 515mph (837km/h) 14,460lb (6,559kg) 4 x 20mm Hispano Type 404 cannon

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US TYPES

US types in RAF service F acing a shortage of combat aircraft in January 1940, the British government established the British Purchasing Commission to acquire US aircraft that would help supplement domestic production. The following selection of aircraft feature the most notable US types ordered.

BREWSTER BUFFALO One of the first US aircraft that caught the attention of the British Purchasing Commission was the stubby Brewster F2A-2 fighter. Although the RAF was critical of the design, citing inadequate armament, poor high-altitude performance, engine overheating, maintenance issues, and cockpit controls, there was a desperate need for British and Commonwealth air forces for a fighter aircraft in the Far East. Consequently, an order was placed for 170 aircraft under the type specification B-339E. The fighters were sent to Royal Australian Air Force, RAF and Royal New Zealand Air Force squadrons in Singapore, Malaya and Burma, shortly before the outbreak of war with Japan. The 339E, or Brewster Buffalo I as it was designated in British service, was distinctly inferior to the original aircraft. It featured a less-powerful export-approved Wright R-1820-G105 Cyclone engine of 1,100hp. Also, after a number of changes were made to bring it up to current European combat standards (including armour plate protection for the pilot and adding armoured glass to the windscreen), it was substantially heavier. Its manoeuvrability was severely impaired, so much so that it was unable to perform loops. Another problem was that the Buffalo I did not use the same fuel line pressurisation system as the F2A-2, and fuel starvation problems were often experienced above heights of 18,000ft.  The first three production Model 339Es were sent to Great Britain in April of 1941 for trials. The remaining Buffalos of the British order were shipped directly to the Far East to serve with units in Malaya, Singapore and Burma. Five Commonwealth

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units were formed around the Buffalo, including No 67 Squadron (based in Burma) and No 243 Squadron (Singapore). Many of the pilots in the Commonwealth Buffalo squadrons were relatively new and inexperienced, and some 20 fighters were lost in training accidents during the autumn of 1941. War in the Burma/Malaya theatre began on 8 December 1941 with a Japanese landing on the Malayan coast. The Buffalo did experience some initial successes against Japanese Army Air Force Ki-27s, but when superior types such as the Nakajima Ki-43 ‘Oscar’ appeared, it was hopelessly outclassed. In the end,

more than 60 Brewster Is were shot down in combat, 40 destroyed on the ground, and approximately 20 more destroyed in accidents. Only about 20 Buffalos survived to reach India or the Dutch East Indies. The Buffalo flew its last combat sortie with the RAF on 5 March 1942, escorting Hawker Hurricanes and Bristol Blenheims for an attack on a Japanese airbase in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Only six Buffalos remained when the squadron withdrew to Calcutta, India, six days later to re-equip with Hurricanes. Thus ended the short and unglamorous career of the Buffalo in RAF service.

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US TYPES

speed supercharger made it inferior to Luftwaffe fighters in high-altitude combat and it was rarely used in operations in northern Europe. However, between 1941 and 1944, the Tomahawk/ Kittyhawk played a critical role with Allied air forces in three major theatres: North Africa, the Southwest Pacific, and China. The P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and North African campaigns, during June

1941. No 112 Squadron was among the first to operate Tomahawks in North Africa and the unit was the first Allied military aviation unit to feature the ‘shark mouth’ logo, copying similar markings on some Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf110 twin-engine fighters. In an effort to increase performance, Curtiss fitted a more powerful Allison engine into a re-designed cowling and concentrated the gun armament in the wings; the resulting P-40D Warhawk was renamed Kittyhawk I by the British and provided the RAF with valuable reinforcements in the Middle East at a time when British resources were overstretched. The final production version, the P-40N, appeared after an extensive programme of structural weight saving to provide a higher performance. Known as the Kittyhawk IV in RAF service the aircraft also featured a lengthened fuselage and redesigned canopy. From 26 May 1942, Kittyhawk units operated primarily as fighter-bomber units, giving rise to the nickname ‘Kittybomber’. Gradually replaced by more modern fighters, the rugged P-40 nevertheless played an important role throughout much of World War 2.

the RAF as a light bomber. No 88 Squadron was the first to receive the type, replacing its Blenheims in October 1941. Gradually more Boston IIIs were delivered to squadrons in the UK and Middle East. The first proper Boston raid came on 8 March 1942, during an attack on the Matford Works at Poissy. The three Boston squadrons (Nos 88, 107 and 342) formed 137th Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force. In the first half of 1944 they concentrated on attacking invasion targets in northern France, amongst them coastal defences, German airfields and

communications. After D-Day the wing moved to France, supporting the Allied armies as they advanced towards Germany. The Boston light bomber was slowly phased out during this period. Meanwhile, the Boston III (Intruder) was used by three squadrons – Nos 23, 418 and 605 – operating over German occupied Europe at night in a role pioneered in part by the Havoc, the name given to earlier versions of the DB-7. Over the course of the war, 24 RAF squadrons operated the Boston.

CURTISS P-40 TOMAHAWK/KITTYHAWK It may not have been the most powerful or agile fighter, but the versatile Curtiss P-40 fulfilled an important role in the RAF during the early war years, both in its Tomahawk (P-40B and P-40C), and Kittyhawk (P-40D onwards) incarnations. Production of the Curtiss P-40 began in March 1940, and 140 of the type were ordered by the French. Following the fall of France these aircraft were diverted to support the British war effort and called Tomahawk. The P-40’s lack of a two-

95

DOUGLAS BOSTON/HAVOC The Douglas DB-7/A-20 Havoc was the most-produced attack bomber during World War 2, with nearly 7,500 built. It entered production in 1938, with France ordering nearly 400 of the type. After the fall of France, the remaining order was taken up by the British Purchasing Commission for the RAF which called the type Boston. The British Boston series covered three distinct marks as the Boston I (DB-7), Boston II (DB-7A) and Boston III (DB-7B). The French had originally intended to use the DB-7 as a short-range tactical attack aircraft, but its range was too short for the RAF to use them as light bombers against German targets in Europe. However, the RAF was in desperate need of an aircraft suitable for night fighting and intruder duties, so the Boston was modified into a dedicated night fighter version (AI Mk.IV radar and eight 0.303in machine guns) and intruder version (glazed nose, five 0.303in machine guns and 2,400lb of bombs), and renamed Havoc. The type saw its first active operations with the RAF in early 1941. Eventually, the British Purchasing Commission ordered a pure British version (the DB-7B, Boston III) which was the first to operate with

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US TYPES

BOEING B-17 FLYING FORTRESS Many will be surprised to learn that the B-17 Flying Fortress first saw combat with the RAF, in the summer of 1941. The RAF entered World War 2 with no heavy bomber of its own in service, so in early 1940 the RAF entered into an agreement with the US. Army Air Corps to acquire 20 B-17Cs, which were given the service name Fortress I. The B-17’s first combat mission was carried out by No 90 Squadron on 8 July 1941 and was a high-altitude daylight raid on the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven. By September, the RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat and had experienced numerous mechanical problems, and Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing raids using the Fortress I because of the aircraft’s poor performance. The experience showed both the RAF and the US that the B-17C was not ready for combat, and that improved defences, larger bomb loads and more accurate bombing methods were required. The performance of the Fortress affirmed the RAF’s belief that no daylight bomber could operate safely against the German air defences. The Flying Fortress remained in RAF service in limited numbers throughout the war. The most important user of the aircraft was Coastal Command. No 220 Squadron took over the Fortress Is of No 90 Squadron, operating them in the Far East for two months, before receiving the Fortress II, which it used for anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. During 1942 and 1943 three squadrons used the Fortress for the same duty, one operating in the Far East. The two homebased squadrons retained their Fortresses until 1944 and 1945 respectively. By 1945 the Fortress was being used by two Meteorological squadrons, one air-sea rescue squadron and one anti-submarine squadron. Despite its inauspicious start with the RAF, the B-17 of course evolved into one of the greatest weapons of World War 2, spearheading the US daylight strategic bombing campaign against German industrial and military targets.

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NORTH AMERICAN B-25 MITCHELL Made famous by the Doolittle Raid on Japan, the B-25 became a symbol of US airpower during the war. Before that, however, the RAF was an early customer for the B-25 via LendLease when 23 B-25Bs were delivered in August 1941, to be used exclusively for training with 111 Operational Training Unit based in the Bahamas. The first operational B-25s to serve with the RAF were B-25Cs and Ds, which were designated Mitchell IIs. Nos 98 and 180 Squadron took the Mitchell II into battle on 22 January 1943, when six aircraft attacked oil installations at Ghent. It was a harrowing experience. Flak over the target shot down one Mitchell, and Luftwaffe FW190s pounced on the formation and shot down two more. After the invasion of Europe, all four RAF Mitchell squadrons moved to bases in France to support Allied ground forces. Altogether, 167 B-25Cs and 371 B-25Ds were delivered as Mitchell IIs, before the RAF was allocated 316 B-25Js as Mitchell IIIs. Deliveries took place between August 1944 and August of 1945. However, only about 240 of these machines actually reached Britain, with some being diverted to No 111 OTU in the Bahamas, some crashing during delivery and some being retained in the USA. The Mitchell IIIs that did reach Britain were issued as replacement aircraft for No 2 Group’s Mitchell IIs from November 1944, although two units held on to their Mk IIs since they regarded them as having a better control response than the Mk III because they were lighter. The B-25 was also used by various second-line RAF units in the UK and abroad. In the Far East, No 3 PRU, which consisted of Nos 681 and 684 Squadrons, flew the Mitchell (primarily Mk IIs) on photographic reconnaissance sorties. The Mitchell II and II soldiered on into the post-war period, there still being 393 Mitchells on RAF rolls as late as December 1945. 

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US TYPES

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NORTH AMERICAN P-51 MUSTANG The North American Mustang long-range fighter was initially developed in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission for the RAF. There was no denying its pedigree when it entered service in 1942, but its high-altitude performance was disappointing, and the aircraft was ‘restricted’ to tactical reconnaissance and ground attack duties. All that changed when Ronald Harker, a test pilot for Rolls-Royce suggested changing the Allison V-1710 engine for a Rolls-Royce Merlin. The result was arguably the finest all-round fighter of World War 2. The first Mustangs supplied to the RAF under Lend-Lease were 93 P-51s, designated Mk Ia, followed by 50 P-51As, or Mustang IIs. The first examples arrived in the UK in October 1941 and entered service in January 1942 with No 26 Squadron. RAF Mustangs undertook their first long-range reconnaissance mission over Germany on 27 July 1942. During the amphibious Dieppe Raid on the French coast (19 August 1942) four British Mustang squadrons saw action covering the assault on the ground. By 1943–1944, British Mustangs were used extensively to seek out V-1 flying bomb sites. The last RAF Mustang I and II aircraft were struck off charge in 1945. Prior to this of course, the performance of the Mustang had been transformed by the inclusion of the Merlin engine, so it is of little surprise that the RAF also operated 308 P-51Bs and 636 P-51Cs, which it referred to as Mustang IIIs; the first units converted to the type in late 1943 and early 1944. Mustang III units were operational until the end of World War 2, though many had already converted to the legendary P-51D (Mustang IV) and P-51K (Mustang IVa). As all except the earliest aircraft were obtained under Lend-Lease, all Mustang aircraft still on RAF charge at the end of the war were either returned to the USAAF ‘on paper’ or retained by the RAF for scrapping. The last RAF Mustangs were retired from service in 1947.

REPUBLIC P-47 THUNDERBOLT Nicknamed the ‘Jug’ (short for ‘Juggernaut’) by its adoring pilots, the P-47 was a heavyweight warbird – and one that packed a devastating punch. More than 15,600 Thunderbolts were manufactured between 1941 and 1945 and they served in every theatre of the war performing a variety of missions, from bomber escort to close air support. The RAF received 240 ‘razorback’ P-47Ds which they designated Thunderbolt I, and 590 bubbletop P-47D-25s, designated Thunderbolt IIs. With no need for another high-altitude fighter, the RAF adapted its Thunderbolts for ground attack, a task for which the type was well suited. Once the Thunderbolts were cleared for use in 1944, they were used against the Japanese in Burma by 16 RAF squadrons of the South East Asia Command from India. Operations

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included army support (operating as ‘cab ranks’ to be called in when needed), attacks on enemy airfields and lines of communication, and escort sorties. The Thunderbolts were armed with three 500lb (227kg) bombs or, in some cases, RP-3 rockets. The ‘Jug’ proved devastating in tandem with Spitfires during the Japanese

breakout attempt at the Sittang Bend in the final months of the war. Long range fuel tanks gave five hours of endurance allowing the Thunderbolt to fly escort for RAF Liberators in the bombing of Rangoon. Thunderbolts remained in RAF service until October 1946.

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UK

EU

US

ROW



6

1 Year

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£49.99

$64.99

£54.99

Please quote: AA0618 Close Date: 30 June 2018 319/18

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