MERLIN-ENGINED ( VARIANTS Oe > < Ye. my i ail cD Y ate | = aoe — 2 'e oe ~ TAAerodata International sircraft_monographe are self-contained page A4 size booklets Containing 1/72 scale mult-view plans, colour artwork, sketches, large Photographs and narrative (inchuding’ technical data)—everything. the modeller needs to know to check the accuracy of plastic kits or seratch-build his own replicas from wood or plastic. A special, additional wrap-around inside cover gives a bret outline history of the subject aircraft in French and German plus translations of the photo captions and drawing annotations in those same (wo languages, ‘This paniculr tile is one of six devoted vo famous bombers of World War 2, ollowing the inital series of six famous fighters of World War 2 “The sees includes: No. 1 Focke-Walf 190A series by Peter G. Cooksley No. 2 Supermarine Spittire 1 I by Philip J. R. Moves No. 3 North American P-SID Mustang By arr Holmes No. 4 Messerschmitt Me 109E by Peter G. Cooksley No. § Hawker Hurricane I by Philip J. R. Moyes No. 6 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt by John B. Rabbets No. 7 Handley Page Halifax (Mevia-engined variants) ‘by Philip J. R. Moyes No. 8 Boeing B-I7G Flying Fortress by Philip J. R. Moyes No. 9 Junkers JUBKA Series Philip J. R. Moyes No. amcaster MK I Dy Philip J. R. Moyes No. ed B24 Liberator by Philip JR. Moyes No. 12 Henkel He 111 by Pailip J. R. Moses Plans and artwork by Alfred Grange Colour arwork by Roy Mills Muiste Acrodata International Publications and theie contents are copyright ‘Vintage Aviation Publications Ltd., VAP House, Station Field Industrial Estate, Kidlington, Oxford, England, and no part may be reproduced ii-any way without the prior permission of the publishes, Trade enguiries would be welcome, but the publishers regret that they cannot deal with readers" enguiries concerning the content of Acrodata International Publications. Printed by Visual Art Press Limited, Oxford, England Fist published 1979, ISBN 0 905469 50 XHANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX MERLIN-ENGINED VARIANTS By Philip J. R. Moyes Fig. 1 Halifax BI L9530 MP-L of 76 Squadron—second squadron to receive the Halifax—at its dispersal site at Middleton St George in the summer of 1941. Series I bombers of this mark had an all-up weight of 55,000Ib; srs IIs were stressed for 60, 00016; srs IIIs had increased tankage. 6 121“‘Halifaxes have attacked Germany and Italy during the past week in the heaviest raids ever made on Turin and Berlin, Their performance is excellent by night and by day. We cannot have too many Halifaxes’’. Thus ran a message from Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, then Air Officer Commanding in Chief of RAF Bomber Command, which was read out by Lord Halifax at the official christening of Handley Page’s famous World War 2 ‘‘heavy’’ by Lady Halifax at the manufacturer’s airfield at Radlett, Hertfordshire, on 12 September 1941. During his address to those attending the ceremony, Lord Halifax quoted the old Yorkshire prayer, ‘From Hull, Hell and Halifax good Lord deliver us,”’ adding that the time was not far distant when that prayer might be on all German and Italian lips. In due course, Hitler’s ‘‘Fortress Europe’? and Mussolini’s Roman Empire each had ample cause to fear the Fig. 2. An armourer cleans the nose turret Brownings of a Halifax. Fig. 3. Rare photograph of the first prototype Halifax on test. Turret Positions in nose and tail were faired over with sheet metal. Both Prototypes and the first 50 Mk Is had Handley Page leading edge slats on the outer wings, but in service these were locked shut to allow barrage balloon cable-cutters to be installed in the leading edge. 122 Halifax, for it became one of Bomber Command’s two mainstays, the other being, of course, that champion bomb load lifter the Avro Lancaster. A product of the first limited company to be registered in Britain for the specific purpose of aeronautical engineering, the Halifax—or ‘‘Halibag’’ as it was popularly known—was the second of the RAF’s home-built WW2 four-engined heavies, entering ser- vice only a few months behind the Short Sterling. It proved to be far superior to the Stirling, but not as successful as the Lancaster. However, it made almost as great a contribution to winning the war as the “Lanc’’, and furthermore it did so in a far greater variety of roles. The Halifax story began in November 1936 when the Air Ministry, as part of the programme to greatly expand the RAF to meet the growing threat of Germany’s re-born air force, issued Specification P13/36 calling for a big all-metal monoplane bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Vulture engines of nearly 1,700hp then under development. The new bomber was to be suitable for easy mass production and the operational requirements included adaptability of the basic design for dive-bombing and torpedo-bombing. To meet P13/36, Handley Page’s chief designer, G. R. Volkert, and his colleagues evolved the HP56 and in April 1937 Handley Page won a contract for two prototypes, serialled L7244 and L7245. A few months later, the Air Ministry dropped the torpedo and dive-bombing requirements, and as the prospects of the Vulture engine now seemed doubtful, asked Handley Page to redesign the HPS6 to take four of the already proven Rolls- Royce Merlins, The contract was duly amended to cover the powerplant change on 3 September—exactly two years before the outbreak of WW2—and the revised design was designated HP57, eventually receiving the name ‘‘Halifax’’. Wing span of the HP57 was 98ft 10in (30125mm) compared with 88ft Oin (26825mm) for the definitive HP56, and on 7 January 1938 Handley Page was awarded an initial production order for 100 of the new bombers. Fig. 4 Second prototype shows off its yellow undersurfaces during a Slight from the A&AEE, Boscombe Down, in 1941.Fig.5 A Halifax BI of 10 Squadron—one of a number of early Mk Hs which retained the beam gun hatches and lacked the two-gun Hudson-type dorsal turret, E-Easy (L9619) was eventually abandoned by its crew over Cumberland on the night of 15/16 February 1942. Assembly of the two prototypes, whose serials re- mained the same as those originally allotted to the HP56 prototypes, began in March 1938, and to save time it was decided that they were to be hand-built, with the first machine being completed as quickly as possible as a flying shell for initial service trials at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Martle- sham Heath, Suffolk, while the fully-equipped second machine followed up as soon as possible for full service trials. The first prototype was completed on the eve of the war, and as the firm’s airfield at Radlett offered no safety margin should wet grass cause the aircraft’s wheels to lock on landing at the end of its maiden flight, L7244 was taken in sections to RAF Bicester, Oxford- shire, the nearest suitable and convenient airfield of insufficient importance to warrant attention from the enemy. While Handley Page personnel, working in strict secrecy, assembled and prepared the Halifax in a Fig. 6 Tail section of the fifth production BI, L9490, in service with 35 Squadron in 1941. Note beam gun hatch and rear radio aerial mast. Fig. 7 Brand new BIIs, including W7668 nearest camera, at Handley Page’s Radlett airfield in April 1942. Note asbestos exhaust muffs; these were eventually removed from Halifaxes to reduce drag. 123Fig. 8 A BI of 76 Squadron in one of the early styles of camouflage. Fig. 9 First English Electric-built BIT, V9978; note beam gun hatch. Fig. 10 BUIs in final assembly at Radlett. 124Fig. 11 The last Halifax BI, L 9608, at Radlett on 12 September 1941, the day when it was officially named by Viscountess Halifax. It later served in 76 Squadron as MP-H. Fig. 12 Flying profile of HP-built BIT R9483 S-bar (bar was used to differentiate between two aircraft in one unit with same identity letter) of 405 Squadron RCAF. Note bomb log on nose. specially set-aside hangar at Bicester, the company’s chief test pilot, Major J. L. B. H. Cordes, made several flights in a borrowed Miles Magister to familiarise him- self with the local surroundings. When L7244’s big moment came, on 25 October 1939, and Cordes eased it into the air he was very surprised to see what seemed to be either a canal or a river near the airfield boundary. He remained puzzled until the test flight was nearly over, and then, as he came in to land he was at last able to discover that the puzzling feature was in fact a line of cars drawn up along the roadside with their windscreens glinting in the autumn sunshine—so much for security in face of local gossip! The second prototype flew on 17 August 1940, at Radlett, and this machine was fully equipped, right down to the two-gun nose turret and four-gun tail turret—both made by Boulton Paul. It also had constant-speed Rotol propellers with Schwartz wooden blades as opposed to the de Havilland two-position variable-pitch propellers with duralumin blades of the first prototype, and the Rotols, though not fully- feathering, were chosen for production aircraft. The initial production contract for 100 aircraft was placed, it will be recalled, in January 1938 and the ‘‘first off’? (B Mk I L9485) flew on 11 October 1940, 72 weeks after the issue of the first production drawings. The Halifax’s ease of production was ensured by split-construction and unit-assembly methods which Handley Page first applied in 1935 in the Harrow twin- engined bomber and subsequently employed more extensively in the Hampden, the Halifax’s immediate predecessor on the assembly lines. In order to simplify and accelerate Halifax production, the entire airframe was split up into some two dozen major assemblies. This method, which was comparatively new then—although familiar enough nowadays—not only enabled far more Operators to work on each assembly stage, but also facilitated transport and repair. To provide a second source of Halifax production, the Air Ministry, early in 1939, instructed the English Electric Company of Preston to build the bomber to follow on from the Hampdens which that firm was then preparing to build under sub-contract from Handley Page. This marked the beginning of the huge organisa- tion known as the Halifax Group, which, in addition to Handley Page and English Electric, included three more main members: the London Aircraft Production Group, comprising the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) and several private concerns in the London area normally associated with omnibus manufacture; Rootes Securities at Speke, near Liverpool; and Fairey Aviation at Errwood Park, Stockport. Handley Page was itself instrumental in forming the London Aircraft Produc- tion Group and was offered the job of managing it, final erection and flight testing to be at Radlett. In the event the LPTB took on the job and flight testing of the LAP Group’s Halifaxes was done at a new shadow factory-cum-airfield at Leavesden, near Watford. To 125a Fig. 13 Engine nacelle and Messier undercarriage detail. Aircraft is a BII and pointing out a feature to visitors is the late Sir Frederick Handley Page, the founder of the firm. Fig. 14 Another Sfactory-fresh BI in close-up at Radlett. tages 126 the Leavesden factory came complete rear fuselages from Chrysler Motors Ltd., near Kew Gardens; outer wings, nacelles and engine cowlings from Park Royal Coachworks at Park Royal and White City; tail units and flaps from Express Motor and Body Works Ltd. at Enfield; and front fuselage shells from Duple Bodies and Motors Ltd. in the Edgeware Road at Hendon. These last components went on to the LPTB’s Aldenham works for fitting out before delivery to Leavesden, where centre-sections were also assembled from details and sub-assemblies manufactured in the main LPTB works at Chiswick. During its peak period of production, the Halifax group controlled 41 factories (totalling 7/2 million square feet (696800 square metres) of floor area, 600 sub-contractors, and 51,000 employees. In the middle war years the group was producing a Halifax each working hour. Crews visited factories to watch the air- craft being built and to tell the employees about the good work that the Halibags were doing. Aircraft were demonstrated in the air to factory workers and also, as part of the ‘“‘Wings for Victory’? campaign, to the public at large. Sir Frederick Handley Page, the parent company’s founder and managing director, was never one to miss an opportunity to publicise his products at any time during his lifetime and at one stage during WW2 he contacted the Halifax Building Society and suggested that it might like to support his firm in an advertising campaign to the two concerns’ mutual advantage. His suggestion was coldly received. The building society’s aim, one of its employees wrote to point out, was to put houses up. This was hardly the objective of Mr. Handley Page and his bombers. ‘‘Our interests’, the reply maintained a trifle testily, ‘‘do not run in the same channels at all.’’ Early in November 1940, No 35 Squadron was re- formed at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, for the express purpose of introducing the Halifax into Bomber Command service. The squadron moved to the No 4 (Bomber) Group airfield at Leeming, Yorkshire, later Fig. 15 Four-gun Boulton-Paul tail turret of a Halifax BII. This was the standard tail turret of wartime Halifaxes, both Merlin and Hercules powered. Se easRESEARCH: A GRANGER ©#7 ARTWORK: ROY MILLS SCRAP VIEW SHOWING CODES etc. TO 1/72 SCALE ® @ PLATE 1 HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX B Mk II Series | 10 SQUADRON, EARLY 1942. SCALE 1/144 ENTIRE UNDERSURFACES WERE PAINTED BLACK AND CARRIED NO MARKINGS. 4) @ L 9619 WAS ONE OF THE LAST 16 AIRCRAFT. OF THE ORIGINAL B Mk | PRODUCTION CONTRACT THAT WERE COMPLETED AS B Mk II Series |. BEAM GUN POSITIONS WERE RETAINED AND NO UPPER TURRET FITTED. 127Fig. 16 Fuselage bomb bay and wing bomb cells of the Halifax. Maximum bomb load comprised two 2,000-pounders and six 1,000-pounders in fuselage and six 500-pounders in wings, giving a total of 13,000Ib. Fig. 17 BIT srs I (Special) Halifaxes, including the London Aircraft Production Group-built BB238 wearing 76 Squadron’s code letters MP and the aircraft letter J.HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX I 11 && GENERAL ARRANGEMENT SHEET | OF 3 wi w2 we =} (1) 3°16" WING CONSTRUCTIONAL DATUM, ANGLE OF THRUST OF ENGINES @ FLEXIBLE SECTIONS ON FUEL JETTISON @ FUEL TANK VENT———-Fp PIPES TO ALLOW FLAPS TO FUNCTION Walaa RETRACTABLE LANDING PORT WING ONLY. LIGHTS @ 2 AEROFOIL DATUM / FORMATION LIGHTS. FIXED AILERON TRIM TAB ON PORT WING — (WITHIN WINGS ON HORIZONTAL DATUM ae ( NITHIN WINGS ON ® Gostusce 100 ADJUSTABLE ON STARBOARD . =a NAVIGATION LIGHT. AILERON MASS BALANCE a = wy L (ON UNDERSIDE < ON EARLY - i lof” AIRCRAFT) =o ® PORT_WING SHOWN ALL VIEWS DRAWN \ ON WING CONSTRUCTIONAL a CABLE DATUM. = CUTTER ied (6 ON bACH WING) a LANDING @ LIGHT ACCESS PANEL. PORT RETRACTABLE WING ONLY LANDING LIGHTS. PORT WING ONLY FUEL TANK VENT FUEL JETTISON PIPES ON EARLY AIRCRAFT ONLY © im — 4 @ UPPER SURFACE DINGHY STOWAGE.(PORT WING ONLY) PLATE 2. WING DETAIL, HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX MksI I &¥ © A.Granger. w.15.1. ® LOWER SURFACE 139/© A.Granger, ».1.s.1.c. HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX 1,0Y. GENERAL ARRANGEMEN A SHEET 2 OF 3. ce BASED ON ORIGINAL HANDLEY PAGE WORKSHOP DRAWINGS & DIMENSIONS ss, T =- VIEW LOOKING (2) AERIAL) BOULTON PAUL'C’ FORWARD ON LEAD-IN CONTROLS E PORT ONLY ® 2 / Ae a eee _j) BOTH SIDES(B) PORT ONLY) = | Ce ————— i M : FAIRLEAD FOR TRAILING AERIAL(PORT ONLY) _ BOULTON ——PAUL'A’ TURRET ed 1° Sau | NO GLAZING ON= SSS - : | THIS PANEL ON; J[-—AERIAL B0TH. |_-WHIP AERIAL (9) WT A \ | BIA) SIDES, LATE (18) LOWER PROFILE a Vg Ae _AIRCRAFT ASTRO DOME 0) | ETE = T T | / — : —— = — (port ONLY DI-POLE AERIAL FOR LORENZ BEAM BLIND APPROACH | ) DETAILS HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX Mks Iv ¥ \ Mk a SeriesI Ty || MkYJ Special @® + | STARBOARD GLAZING-ALL MODELS i, | LIT J, PORT : i Mt res | ony TPE NOSE, > K(— \ | Ll meV @ FAIRING | / SsectionT 1a) — | pe = THESE WINDOWS = | / > ON ORIGINAL 4 - RETAINED ON A FEW g +} ey SECTION T 1 ONG@3) FIN , — eS “ AIRCRAT TWITHEZ RUDDER FITTED wit RUDDER = © NOSES ANTI STALLING MODIFICATION. oO PARA-TROOP HATCH \ TY C } Mk Y SERIES I Special [hoe 7) \ \ ———— \_b"4 1301 SCALE |, | I pane JOIN OFFSET TO PORT STARBOARD ONLY \ PORT ONLY (7) -SECTION ATE DOOR ON PORT SIDE ONLY (13) LOOKING AFT ON ENGINEERS INSTRUMENT PANEL PORT STAREOARD GUN HATCHES ON EARLY AIRCRAFT WITHOUT DORSAL TURRETS. @® i W/T AERIALS ON LATER AIRCRAFT FIXED TO FINS. SOME MACHINES CARRIED BOTH TYPES OF AERIALS. Ae EARLY AIRCRAFT ENTRANCE DOOR (24) LATE TYPE FINS (FITTED RETRO- SPECTIVELY ) SWINGS IN & UP. HS SCANNER HOUSINGS) (9) ralLWHEEL APERTURE FAIRED OVER | EXTRA BULBOUS NOSE SECTIONS * AT TOP & BOTTOM OF RUDDERS TO CURE RUDDER STALLING. (TRIANGULAR FIN TAIL UNITS ONLY) . @) SECTION T 14) ne FIN RUDDER © © CATION, ® ‘G* AERIAL (ON CENTRE LINE)NOT ALL AIRCRAFT —~ GLIDER TOWING -—_—" FITMENT. DORSAL TURRET REPLACED BY EXTRA ESCAPE HATCH O+5” BROWNING NOSE MOUNTING | @ Cameo TAIL WHEEL ON EARLY AIRCRAFT ONLY, CEVENTIALYY 2) RESTORED @ BI) BRACING ON I~O°5 RADIO MAST oN) sf f= FULLY EXTENDED \ PRESTON - GREEN VENTRAL MOUNTING ON SOME AIRCRAFT. FULLY COMPRESSED © STATIC \ | S ho. “BROWNING . NO MINDONS @8) a|-VIEW ON LEADING EDGE "| TAIL PLANE DETAIL PORT SIDE SHOWN. INSPECTION PANELS ON UNDERSIDE ONLY ON GLIDER TUGS =e 131FEET METRES y HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX 11 &V. SCALE “2 GENERAL ARRANGEMENT SHEET 3 OF 3 ° 3% 16’ UPTHRUST~ALL ENGINES oo DETAIL OF FLAME ———— Sa DAMPING SHROUD = INTRODUCED ON MkII BUT SOON DISCARDED 1279” DIA ROTOL (MERLIN X) @ _— % 13O”DIA ROTOL S_\. / (MERLIN XX) = )f OUTBOARD NACELLE~ ® GALLAY RADIATOR WITH ENLARGED OIL COOLER & LIP ON AIR INTAKE , Mk IE (MERLIN XX), FINAL » i FORM OF \ | EXHAUST [ | sehen } - ORIGINAL FORM OF EXHAUST PIPE ~AS ON MKII FN ) BUT WITHOUT / . / 130” DIA ROTOL 4 BLADE AIRSCREW ORIGINAL GALLAY RADIATOR & INTAKE RO & Mk ON MkI WITH MERLIN 22) (ff) MERLIN X ENGINES REAR OF NACELLE FOLDS WITH FLAP NII NIZNI3 NI4 NIS NI6 NIS NIG NI7 NI8 $ t MORRIS BLOCK RADIATOR & FINAL FORM OF AIR INTAKE ON B MkII Series] (Special). 8 MkT Series (A) & Mk¥ (Special) NOTE STONEGUARDS ON CARBURETTOR AIR INTAKES (MERLIN XX & 22 ENGINES) . — FULLY COMPRESSED “— STATIC FULLY EXTENDED 2 ce L——¥10%17" / INBOARD _ port / NACELLE ~ DRAWN / DOWTY LEVERED-SUSPENSION UNDERCARRIAGE ~ Mk ONLY PLATE 4. ENGINE NACELLES & UNDERCARRIAGE DETAILS HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX Mks I I &Y © A.Granger, ».15... 1978 132Fig. 18 Twin tubular legs of its Dowty levered-suspension landing gear help to identify this Z fairing-nosed Halifax as a Mk V srs I (Special). Code letters OO are those of 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit. that month, taking with it the first prototype Halifax (strictly for training purposes) and the second pro- duction aircraft. Early in December it moved to another 4 Group base in Yorkshire—Linton-on-Ouse—where more Halifax Is were received, and on the night of 11/12 March—just five months after the appearance of the first production aircraft and when Handley Page had delivered nearly 20 Halifaxes to the RAF—the first operational mission was flown. Le Havre docks were the primary target and of the six Halifaxes sent out four successfully attacked the docks. The crew of another, unable to see the primary or the alternative target (Boulogne), bombed Dieppe, while the sixth machine also failed to locate Le Havre after repeated attempts and, running short of fuel, jettisoned its bombs in the English Channel. The raid ended in tragedy when one of the Halifaxes which had bombed Le Havre was mistaken for an enemy by one of our own night fighters over Surrey and shot down in flames; only two members of the crew escaped. On the follow- ing night two Halifaxes attacked Hamburg and in so doing became the first RAF four-engined bombers to attack the German homeland—achieving what the Handley Page V/1500 failed to do in November 1918 due to the signing of the Armistice just as it was about to go into action. On 1 May 1941, C flight of 35 Squadron became the nucleus of 76 Squadron which formed at Linton- on-Ouse as 4 Group’s second Halifax squadron. The squadron moved to Middleton St George, County Durham, in June and began operations on the night of 12/13 June. Not until July was the existence of the Halifax officially disclosed to the British public. The announce- ment followed a daylight attack by Nos 35 and 76 Squadrons on the notorious German battle-cruiser Scharnhorst at La Pallice, to which port it had only just moved, from Brest. Fifteen Halifaxes were despatched and fourteen reached the target area where they were were met by at least a dozen Messerchmitt 109s. All were hit by fire from fighters or flak, and five failed to return, a further five being badly damaged. Three of the five aircraft lost were from 76 Squadron, led by Wg Cdr G. T. Jarman. His own Halibag was one of those badly shot-up and it limped back with one engine out of action. However, Jarman was able to report the destruc- tion of two enemy fighters by his squadron. Despite the cost, the Halifaxes scored five direct hits on the Scharnhorst and compelled her to put back for Brest with 3,000 tons (2748130 kg) of water inside her. The Scharnhorst remained at Brest until an escape with the battle-cruiser Gneisenau enabled them both to regain their home ports, albeit in a very battered condition. Halifaxes bombed Berlin in 25/26 July, and six weeks later they were detached to an advanced base at Stradishall, Suffolk, whence, after being fitted with extra fuel tanks, they flew across the Alps on 10/11 September to strike at Turin. Late 1941 saw the Halifax I joined by the Mk II (HP59) powered by Merlin XXs and—except for a few of the earliest examples—with a twin-Browning Boulton-Paul dorsal turret, similar to that of the 133NOTE HOW THE WHITE OF THE FIN FLASHES AND PLATE 5 UNIT MARKINGS SCALE 1/144 ROUNDELS HAS pee DULLED BY A WASH OF GREY. HALIFAX B Mk II Series | 35 SQUADRON. @ HALIFAX B Mk II Series | 78 SQUADRON. ® HALIFAX B Mk V Series | (Special) 428 SQUADRON. aN 4 HALIFAX B Mk II Series IA 35 SQUADRON. G ® HALIFAX GR II Series 1A ® 58 SQUADRON, COASTAL FIN FLASHES EXTENDED ROUND LEADING EDGES OF FINS. COMMAND. 58 SQUADRON TRANSFERRED FROM BOMBER COMMAND IN APRIL 1942. APART FROM GREY CODES & SERIALS JP328 WAS FINISHED IN BOMBER COMMAND COLOURS. | LL469 () HALIFAX MET 5 Series IA 517 LONG-RANGE MET ‘A’ TYPE ROUNDELS ON LONG-RANGE MET AIRCRAFT. SQUADRON. ® (9) HALIFAX MET 5 Series IA, 4-518 LONG-RANGE MET SQUADRON. @ LONG-RANGE MET AIRCRAFT WERE FINISHED IN TEMPERATE RESEARCH: A. GRANGER ©1379 QW SEA SCHEME ON UPPER SURFACES WITH WHITE SIDES & ARTWORK: ROY MILLS UNDERSURFACES. 134Lockheed Hudson, replacing the Mk I’s twin Vickers K guns firing through side hatches amidships. This variant was built by Handley Page, whose first production example (L9609) flew at Radlett in September, and English Electric, whose first machine (V9976) flew at that firm’s final assembly-cum-flight-test facility at Samlesbury, Lancashire, on 15 August. After two daylight raids on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest in December 1941, the Halifax was withdrawn from daylight operations. For although its ability to withstand extensive battle damage and return safely home had been amply demonstrated, increasing fighter opposition threatened to make the casualty rate in day raids prohibitive. The third Halifax squadron—No 10, flying Mk Is— made its operational début on the occasion of the final daylight strike against Brest, on 30 December, and in the following year the number of Halifax squadrons in 4 Group continued to grow. However, in August 1942 No 35 Squadron was transferred to the newly-formed Path-Finder Force (PFF) in East Anglia, which soon attained group status as No 8 (PFF) Group. No 35 Squadron was issued with some of the earliest opera- tional H2S target-mapping radar sets, as also was the PFF’s No 7 Squadron, flying Short Stirlings, and thus when these two units first took H2S into action, on 30/31 January 1942, against Hamburg, the Halibag shared the honours. No 35 Squadron continued to fly Merlin-engined Halifaxes with the PFF until January 1943 when the last of them were supplanted by Bristol Hercules-powered Halifax IIIs. Meanwhile, No 1 Group in East Anglia had had a single Halifax squadron on strength during 1942—No 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire, which in the latter part of that year re-armed with Lancasters. Merlin-powered Halifaxes also formed the equipment of several squadrons of the almost exclusively Yorkshire-based No 6 (RCAF) Bomber Group from 1942 onwards. First Canadian unit to fly Halifaxes was No 405 Squadron, which started to convert in April 1942 after having originally flown Wellingtons. At that time it was part of 4 Group and its first operation with Halifaxes was on the occasion of the historic 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne, on 30/31 May 1942. Late in October of that year the squadron was loaned to Coastal Command to strengthen our air defences in the Bay of Biscay at the time of the North African convoy movements. Returning to Bomber Command at the beginning of March 1943, it flew with No 6 Group for a few weeks and was then posted to the Path Finder Force, with which it served for the rest of the war, latterly as a Lancaster squadron. By January 1942, No 138 (Special Duties) Squadron of No 4 Group, based at Stradishall, Suffolk, and engaged in clandestine operations over enemy-occupied Europe, under the control of the Air Ministry’s Director of Plans, was flying Halifaxes on supply- dropping missions to resistance movements. In due course it was transferred to 3 Group of Bomber Command and, with No 161 (Special Duties) Squadron continued its work from Tempsford, Bedfordshire, both units having Halifaxes as well as other types of air- craft. Meanwhile, 138 Squadron found itself in urgent need of Halifaxes offering more speed and range than did the current Mk Is and IIs, with the result that the BII srs I (Special) was produced. In this model, the basic Mk II’s bulky nose turret—of Hudson pattern like the dorsal turret—was replaced by a metal fairing, known as a Z-type fairing, and conversion of existing BIIs for the two SD squadrons was done by Handley Page’s Halifax repair depot at Rawcliffe Aerodrome— sometimes known as Clifton—at York. At the same time the bulky dorsal turret and the external fuel jettison pipes under the intermediate section of the wings were deleted—again in the interests of reducing drag. BII srs I (Special) Halifaxes came to be used not only by the SD units but also by Bomber Command’s main force and PFF Halibag element, the aircraft being produced both by conversion and as brand new machines on the production lines. The crews of Nos 4 and 6 Groups were unhappy about having no dorsal turrets on their machines, so many aircraft came to be seen with them fitted again, and eventually Boulton- Paul Defiant-type four-gun dorsal turrets were intro- duced, these being far more compact than the two-gun Hudson-type turrets. At first the new turrets were mounted on a raised deck fairing as the Air Staff in- sisted on having 10 degrees depression for the guns; however, this increased drag, so eventually they were installed at deck level. Fig. 19 Two BII srs I (Special) Halibags: W1173 LQ-X of 405 Squadron RCAF with what appears to be the name ‘‘Xcalabar”’ (instead of the correct “‘Excalibur”’) and the legendary sword of King Arthur on its nose, and a Hudson-type dorsal turret; and JB929 with a raised and faired Defiant-type dorsal turret.Fig. 20 Close-up of the Dowty levered-suspension starboard main- wheel unit of a Halifax V which is also fitted with Morris block radiators instead of the original Gallay drum radiators. March 1943 saw Bomber Command become em- broiled in the so-called Battle of the Ruhr, which lasted until the end of July (some sources prefer mid-July, though the precise date is arguable) and resulted in many key industrial centres, both in and widely separated from the “‘Happy Valley’’, being extensively damaged. The cost to Bomber Command was heavy. Halifaxes of 4 Group contributed 2,339 sorties alone and 138 of their number failed to return. In addition, several were lost in accidents in England on their return journeys as was seen on 3/4 April, after the third major attack on Essen, when a damaged Halifax of 158 Squadron, from Lissett, crashed into trees at Catfoss killing four of its crew, and another machine of 51 Squadron crashed at Snaith where it was on the point of landing. By now, a further improved Halifax variant was becoming established in service. This was the BII series IA, which had the compact four-gun Boulton-Paul Defiant-type dorsal turret as a standard feature. It also had a new streamlined turretless nose, ending in a fully- transparent fairing. This slightly longer low-drag nose— which increased the length of the fuselage by Ift 6in (457mm)—provided more space for the navigator and bomb aimer, the latter now being able to sit when he so desired and alternatively lie in his operation position. The new nose also afforded an excellent view and facilitated an improved distribution of equipment. Head-on attack during operational flights had long previously been found to occur rarely, hence the sacrifice of the nose turret in the interim BII series I (Special); however, in the BII srs IA a single gimbal- mounted 0.303in (7.7mm) Vickers K ‘‘scare”’ gun was installed just in case the bomb aimer felt he needed it. Merlin XXs were retained for early production aircraft, but the bulky Gallay drum-type radiators used hitherto in Halifaxes were replaced by neater rectangular Morris block units. Among other alterations which were standard in the Halifax II srs [A were improvements in the doors of the bomb compartments. For the big 136 bombs housed in the main bay there were alternative doors which were bigger and had their hinge points moved to allow easy housing for the bombs, although because of the nature of the Halifax’s bomb bay arrangement these doors were unable to completely enclose the big bombs and this did, of course, increase drag. The doors of the bomb cells in the centre-section of the wing were now pre-strained to ensure that they remained fully closed in most conditions. As a result of all the cleaning-up, the Halifax II srs IA had a 10 per cent edge in performance over the basic Mk II even when the latter was flown without its Hudson-type dorsal turret. Concurrently with production by the other Halifax Group members of the Mk II variants, Rootes and Fairey were turning out the Mk V version (HP63), which was identical in all respects but for the main undercarriage and hydraulic system. As the Messier mainwheel units were in short supply the Halifax V had a Dowty levered-suspension undercarriage and Dowty hydraulics. This new undercarriage retracted faster than the Messier, thus improving take-off performance, but to avoid unacceptable manufacturing delays it used castings instead of the originally intended forgings and as a result it had inherent weakness at high stress levels. This was discovered too late for the production programme to be altered, so it became necessary to limit the Halifax V’s maximum landing weight to 40,000Ib (18144kg). For this reason the type was chiefly used by Coastal Command and by para- troop/glider-tug squadrons of No 38 Wing (later 38 Group), although four squadrons in each of Nos 4 and 6 bomber Group flew it operationally at various times between the spring of 1943 and July 1944. (A further No 6 Group squadron—No 408—also flew the Mk V but not on operations; it was in fact the first Bomber Command unit to be so equipped, having the type on charge from October 1942 to December 1942, before re-equipping with Halifax IIs.) Series I (Special) and IA variants of the Halifax II and V were sometimes fitted with a ventral gun position of the Preston-Green type mounting a single 0.5in (12.7mm) Browning. In late production srs [As of both basic marks Merlin 22s were installed, the additional power enabling the permissible all-up weight to rise to 65,000lb (29484kg) including 4,000lb (1815kg) more useful load. Introduced during the summer of 1943 were the enlarged ‘‘oblong’’ fins and slightly revised rudders which became standard on all Hercules radial-engined Halibags from the Mk III onwards. These were fitted retrospectively to some Merlin-powered aircraft while late production examples received them from the outset. Apart from becoming a Halifax ‘‘trademark’’ they cured the dreaded rudder stall with which the Halibag had hitherto been afflicted; they also cured its yawing habit which, among other things, was not conducive to accurate bombing. Although the Merlin-engined Halifax did valuable work with Bomber Command its all-round performance was always unsatisfactory because the aircraft was underpowered. Labouring along at only moderate heights it was easy meat for enemy fighters, and by 1942 losses had become serious; in the period March to August the monthly percentage of Halifaxes missing from sorties despatched by 4 Group alone fluctuated between 4.8 and 10.1, and as a result squadrons were suspended from operations for three or four weeks toFig. 21 Halifax BII srs IA HR926 of 35 Squadron ona sortie from Graveley in the summer of 1943 piloted by Path-Finder ace Alec Cranswick, whose family crest appears below the cockpit. Note ventral blisters for H2S scanner. rest and train crews. The Halifax continued to be generally unsatisfactory throughout 1943 and it was not until about February 1944, when the Hercules-powered Mk III became available in quantity, that the type began —as the then AOC-in-C of Bomber Command, ‘‘Bert”’ Harris, said in his famous dispatch—‘‘to hold its own against the formidable fighter defences of the Reich’’. At this juncture, Mk IIs and Vs were permanently suspended from bombing operations against targets in Germany, and by June 1944 only two squadrons of Bomber Command were still operating Merlin-powered Halibags—Nos 346 and 347 (Free French) Squadrons, flying Mk Vs from Elvington, Yorkshire. Within a matter of weeks both units were re-armed with Mk IIIs. Meanwhile, in mid-1942, Halifax Ils and crews of Nos 10 and 76 Squadrons were posted overseas to Aqir in Palestine (the squadrons in the UK subsequently being re-formed) and joined by other non-operational squadrons which acted as ground servicing units. Attacks were made on Tobruk and Benghazi—missions which the crews dubbed the ‘‘night mail run’’—from advanced landing grounds in Egypt, and in September the units combined to form No 462 (RAAF) Squadron. Thereafter the squadron’s operational area was steadily widened to include much of North Africa, Italy, Greece, the Dodecanese Islands and Sicily. Early in 1944 it dropped leaflets on Greece, Crete, Rhodes, Leros and Samos, and in March, shortly after having moved to Italy, it was re-numbered 614 Squadron and given a path-finder role (a new 462 Squadron was formed in England in August 1943 with Halifax BIIIs). No 614 continued to fly Halifax II variants until early 1945 when it was completely re-armed with Consolidated Liberators, which latter type it had been already using to some extent since August 1944. Two more squadrons which flew Halifax II variants in the Mediterranean theatre were Nos 148 and 178 Squadrons, both of which also flew Liberators and, among other things, dropped supplies to partisans in Jugoslavia and north-east Italy, with extra bomb-bay fuel tanks for long-range work. Specialised versions of the Halifax II and V were adopted by RAF Coastal Command. They were con- verted for their maritime roles by Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft at Eastleigh Airport, near Southampton, and some of them were fitted with a single 0.5in Browning gun in a Preston-Green ventral cupola like that seen on some Bomber Command machines. Also, in the case of series IA variants, a 0.5in Browning was frequently installed in the nose, this again being capable of spoiling the aim of a U-boat’s gunlayer in a low-level attack. Most famous pair of Coastal Command Halibag squadrons were the two originals, No 58 and 502, which, from 1943, made day and night attacks on enemy surface vessels and U-boats in the Bay of Biscay, along the northern coast of Britanny and elsewhere. In May 1943, the CO of No 58 Squadron, Wg Cdr W. E. Oulton, sank two U-boats and shared in the sinking of another, all three of them having numbers ending in 63!—U-663, U-463 and U-563, sunk on the 5th, 15th and 31st respectively. In the closing months of the war Nos 58 and 502 Squadrons moved to northern Scotland and thereafter concentrated on anti-shipping duties in the Skaggerak and Kattegat, scoring further successes, though by the time VE Day arrived they had both re- eqipped with Halifax GRIIIs. From 1943, aircraft of certain other Coastal Com- mand Halibag squadrons, operating both from the UK and Gibraltar, performed the routine task of making long-range meteorological sorties over the Atlantic. The Halifax element originally comprised No 517 Squadron (Brawdy, in Wales), No 518 Squadron (Tiree, in the Western Isles of Scotland) and No 520 Squadron (Gibraltar). The first sorties were flown in September 1943, from Tiree where training and conversion of crews to Halifax Vs was also taking place, but ex- pansion of the force was slow because the Halifax V Fig. 22 Rare view of the Preston-Green ventral cupola in which was normally mounted a single 0.5in Browning ‘“‘scare”’ gun to deter enemy fighters from making attacks from their favourite below-and- astern position, These gun cupolas were sometimes fitted to series I (Special) and IA variants of the Halifax II and V. [Author’s photo] 137Fig. 23 A Halifax BIT srs IA with original style fins and rudders. Fig. 24 Rootes-built Halifax V srs I (Special) DG250 in Coastal Com- mand’s temperate sea camouflage scheme of white sides and under- surfaces and dark slate grey/extra dark sea grey uppersurfaces. Identity letter was black. Aircraft has Merlin 22s and four-bladed propellers. [Author’s photo] needed so much modification to adapt it for the Met role. Much mechanical trouble was also experienced by the Halifax Vs. If an engine failure occurred within two and a half hours after take-off, height could not be maintained, for the bomb bay overload tanks were not jettisonable; and as a temporary measure the length of the sortie had to be shortened while the aircraft were being equipped with jettisonable tanks. Soon after- wards, the Met Vs were replaced by Met IIIs which had a higher and more reliable performance and, fully modified for the Met role, were the standard equipment for the meteorological reconnaissance squadrons at the end of the war. As already mentioned, Halifax Vs were also used as glider tugs and paratroop transports by No 38 Wing/ Group—as in fact were Mk IIs also. These Airborne Forces aircraft could be readily distinguished by the small fairing projecting from the dropping hatch, or ce a Sie ia te oe s ns - cone as it was known, and the glider-towing gear under- neath the rear fuselage. Mid-upper turrets were deleted and an extra escape hatch installed in the roof instead. The first operational Halifax glider-towing mission was flown in 1942 when two Airspeed Horsa gliders, each carrying 15 sappers, were taken from Skitten, near Wick in northern Scotland, to attack the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant at Rjuken, in southern Norway, whose product was a basis of German research into atomic energy. The mission was a total failure: one Halifax crashed into the side of a mountain, killing all its crew, and the other came home after being unable to locate the landing zone and then losing the glider in turbulant air while recrossing the Norwegian coast. Both gliders crashed not very far from one another and the luckless survivors were captured and, soon after- wards, executed by the Gestapo. Fig. 25 Invasion-striped Halifax V srs IAs of 298 and 644 Squadrons at Tarrant Rushton ready to tow GAL Hamilcar gliders, whose wings can be seen above the Halibags. 138At the beginning of February 1943, one flight of No 295 Squadron, then stationed at Netheravon, Wiltshire, was equipped with Halifax Vs for experimental towing. At the end of February the experiments culminated in a 10'4-hour tow of a light Horsa, thus proving that it was possible to tow these gliders to Africa, where they were urgently required for the invasion of Sicily. This flight of 295 Squadron moved to Holmsley South, Hampshire, from where it ferried several Horsas to Africa via Portreath and Sale to Tunisia. In July 1943 Halifaxes were employed to tow Horsas to Sicily on two nights during the invasion. At the beginning of August 1943, this flight of 295 Squadron rejoined its squadron at Hurn, near Bournemouth, and in October the flight moved to Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, to provide the nucleus to re-form No 298 Squadron as a Halifax unit. At about this time, these Halifax Vs were re-engined with Merlin 22s in place of Mk XXs and fitted with the “oblong” fins and rudders. At the beginning of 1944, No 644 Squadron was also formed in 38 Group, equipped with Halifax Vs. These two squadrons carried out training and operations with General Aircraft Hamilcar gliders during the rest of the war. In August 1944 both squadrons were re-equipped with Halifax Allls, and at the same time two more squadrons in 38 Group received Halifax Vs. In March 1945, the Mk Vs were exchanged for AVIIs. Halifax Vs were used in 38 Group not only for glider-towing and paratroop opertions—including, of course, the D-Day landings in Normandy and the ill-starred Arnhem op later in 1944— but also flew a large number of sorties supplying arms and stores to resistance movements in France, Belgium and Holland. All told, 1,967 Merlin-powered Halifaxes were built, of which 702 (including the two original prototypes) were made by the parent company, who manufactured all the 84 Mk Is but none of the Mk Vs; one of the twelve Rootes-built Mk IIs (DG223) crashed on test at Speke and was not delivered, and 900 and 450 Mk IIs respectively were built by English Electric and LAPG. Fig 26 Close-up of a BII srs IA showing the Vickers K gas-operated “scare”’ gun in the transparent nose, Compare air intakes for Morris block radiators with those of Halifaxes with Gallay drum radiators as shown on page 6 and elsewhere. Of the Mk Vs, 246 were built by Fairey and 658 by Rootes. SPECIFICATION HP57 Halifax I Crew: Six. Powerplant: Four Rolls-Royce Merlin X twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled Vee engines. Dimensions: Span 98ft 10in (30125mm); length 70ft lin (21362mm); wing area 1,200sq ft (111.48sq metres). Weights: Empty 36,000 Ib (16,320kg); max—srs I 55,000Ib (24,950kg), srs If and III each 60,000lb (27,200kg). Performance: Max speed 262mph (325km/h) at 17,750ft (5410m); service ceiling 18,000ft (5486m); still air range with associated bomb load 2,780 miles (4474km), with 3,0001b (1360kg), and 1,000 miles (1600km) with 12,0001b (5440kg). Armament: Ten 0.303in (7.7mm) machine-guns disposed at follows—two in nose turret, two in port and two in starboard beam positions, and four in tail turret. Bomb load 13,000lb (5897kg). HP59 Halifax II srs I and HP 63 Halifax V srs I Crew: Six or seven. Powerplant: Four Rolls-Royce Merlin XX. Dimensions: As for Mk I. Weights: As for Mk I except max wt 60,0001b (27,200kg) in each case. Performance: Max speed 256mph (412km/h) at 19,000ft (5790m); service ceiling 21,000ft (6400m)); still air range with associated bomb load 1,900 miles (3058km) with 6,500Ib (2948kg) and 920 miles (1480km) with 13,000Ib (5897kg). Armament: Ten 0.303in machine-guns disposed as follows—two in nose turret, two in dorsal turret and four in tail turret. Bomb load 13,000lb (5897kg). 139“ParpPssuy S1oj0IpyL 49019 SLOW YIM PI S48 [11g fo dn-asoa payond-ymap syrup (7 “Biq 140WIntTace EXVIATION GQUBLICATIONS tro ‘Air History World War 1 Series, No 1 FOKKER FIGHTERS OF WORLD WAR I by Peter L. Gray ‘Air History World War I Series, No.2 ALBATROS FIGHTERS OF WORLD WAR 1. by Peter L. Gray [Air History World War 2 Series, No 1 SHORT STIRLING REMEMBERED by Phi Al History World Wat 2 Series, No 2 ‘SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE REMEMBERED by Philip J.R. Moyes Data Plan Not HAWKER WOODCOCK, DANECOCK by Aled Granger Data Plan No 2 BRISTOL BULLDOG by Alfed Granger Date Plan No 3 A.W. SISKIN by Allred Granger YESTERDAY'S RAF FIGHTERS by Philip JR. Moyes — EET matcone J. Moyes