Handley Page Halifax

As it's Friday 13th...

Great nose art, This and others in a similar vein, must have seemed like 'cocking a snoop' at the loss ratios of Bomber Command.

Not seen this composite replica of a HP Halifax in the flesh yet. Was hoping to get up near Elvington later in the year. There was a discussion about this particular exhibit on the 'Flypast' historical forum recently. The IWM have an original cockpit/nose section at Lambeth, and the consensus was that it would be good if they could donate it to '13th' to make the composite a little more complete.

Dont get me started on the original Halifax that lays on the floor of RAFM Hendon in its crash pose. I am one of those who would have liked to have seen that particular example restored to a static display and take its place alongside Lancaster S-Sugar in the Bomber hall.

I think the reason for the one at Hendon looking like it does is all down to money. Likewise the Hampden being restored at Cosford will only be half restored.

Halifax W7656 from April 28th 1942 raid to bomb Tirpitz believed found

A fascinating story about the discovery of this aircraft is in the Daily Telegraph.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europ...Norwegian-fjord.html
I trust the proper respect will be given to this war grave. Thoughts and prayers with the families of those who crewed this aircraft on its last mission.

The Halifax, built by Handley-Page initially as a twin engine bomber built to meet the Air Ministry specification P.13/36 and was fitted with the Rolls-Royce Vulture engines; the same engines that were fitted to the ill-fated Avro Manchester, and consequently it too lacked the performance expected of it. The Halifax was almost immediately redesigned with four Merlin engines and later upgraded with Bristol Hercules radial engines, and while it not always used for incursions deep into Germany, it did fly many very hazardous operations, including mine-laying at the entrances to German sea ports and estuaries (codenamed “Gardening”) and some were operated by the RAF based at RAF Tempsford on behalf of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) for dropping supplies to the resistance and inserting agents into occupied France by parachute. The SOE special version had the nose gun and mid-upper gun turret removed and faired over, modifications were also made to the fuel venting and engine exhaust shrouding to reduce noise and the red glow which might have been seen and heard from the ground.

The Halifax was also deployed as a glider tug and as ECM (Electronic Warfare and Counter Measures) aircraft for 100 Group RAF. They were also used by Coastal Command in an anti-submarine warfare role as well as for meteorological and reconnaissance duties.

Halifax bombers were also included in the numbers when the call from the Air Ministry was for “Maximum Effort”, or in other words a 1000 plus bomber raid, after all Bomber Command wasn’t able to put 1000 Lancasters over a target at any time, for the first 1000 bomber raid on Cologne, 131 Halifaxes were dispatched plus aircraft and crews also taken from Operational Conversion Units (OCUs). Three Halifaxes were lost on the raid.

The first operation for the Halifax, listed by the Bomber-command website was on 10/11th March 1941 when 6 Halifax MkI aircraft of 35 Squadron were sent to Le Havre, one was lost. The last listed war-time operation for the aircraft was to Wangerooge on 25th April 1945. Of course, following the fall of the Third Reich on May 7th 1945 and VE Day on the 8th, the Halifax was, as were other bomber types tasked with bomb disposal over the North Sea. Immediately the hostilities were over, many of the Halifax “B” aircraft were hurriedly converted to Halifax “C” in the first instance by removing the guns and fairing over the mid-upper and tail gun turrets and the squadrons transferred to RAF Transport Command along with their aircrews.

Of the 6,178 Halifax aircraft built in numerous variants, the “B” MkIII (2,091 built) and the “B” MkVI became the mainstay variants of the Halifax versions between 1943 and 1945. The MkIII was fitted with the 1,650 horse power Bristol Hercules XVI sleeve valve radial engines and was identifiable from the earlier types because of the large “barn-door” style tail-fins instead of the smaller “D” shaped pointed profile fins which improved the lateral stability. The MkVI was fitted with the more powerful 1800 horse power Bristol Hercules 100 radial engines, increased fuel capacity and H2S ground mapping radar bombing aid.

Early versions of the Halifax did have a forward gun turret, although that was removed and replaced with the “Perspex” clear plastic nose fairing on the MkIII onwards, and the bomb aimer was given a single forward firing machine gun to play with. Earlier versions of the mid-upper turret had two machine guns, but following modification, it was later fitted with the Boulton-Paul 4 gun turret. The rear gunner’s turret had four Browning .303 machine guns. Some later Halifax variants were fitted with “50 calibre” machine guns which had a greater hitting power than the .303 guns.

The maximum bomb load of the MkIII Halifax was 14,500 lb in three bays, one in the fuselage and one each side in the wings between the fuselage and the inboard engines, but because of the design of the three bomb bays, the maximum bomb size was the 2,000 lb standard bomb, although the first 8,000 lb high capacity bomb was dropped by a Halifax MkII of 76 Squadron on Essen on the night of 10/11th April 1942.

The Halifax, along with other heavy bomber types were beginning to be fitted with the “GEE” radio navigation aid in mid-1942 and on 23rd April 1942 a Halifax successfully performed the first flight test of the H2S ground mapping radar bombing system. By 1st January 1943 twelve Halifaxes and twelve Short Stirlings had been fitted with H2S and by mid-1943, large scale deployment of the system was well underway. H2S required a small rotating radar dish antenna to be installed in a streamlined “blister” fairing on the underside of the fuselage just aft of the bomb bay doors.

Later modifications to the Halifax “C” airframe included a large fairing arrangement over the fuselage bomb bay to increase the cargo carrying capability. The first Halifax derived commercial aircraft was the Halton, and by 1948 the Handley-Page Hastings, also a derivative of the Halifax was entering service with RAF Transport Command.
During war-time operations the Halifax flew some 82,773 sorties and dropped a total of 224,207 tons of bombs. The Halifax remained in service with various air forces until 1961. None remain in an airworthy condition but there are two “complete” examples on static display; one in Trenton, Ontario in Canada and the other at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington near York and one or two in a partial or in a “conserved as recovered” condition in various locations, mainly in Canada and also at the RAF Museum at Hendon. The YAM Halifax has been fitted with the similar Hastings wings because Halifax wings in an acceptable condition weren’t available while it was being rebuilt.

The reconstructed Halifax MkIII at the Yorkshire Air Museum is presented to honour on the port side NP-F (F - Freddie) of 158 Squadron with the nose art of “Friday the Thirteenth”, the aircraft which against all the odds successfully completed an incredible 128 operational sorties over enemy territory and on the starboard side H7-N, an aircraft of 346 “Guyenne” (French) Squadron based at RAF Elvington following 77 Squadron’s relocation to Full Sutton in the middle of May 1944.

CornwallPhil wrote:

Halifax W7656 from April 28th 1942 raid to bomb Tirpitz believed found
A fascinating story about the discovery of this aircraft is in the Daily Telegraph.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europ...Norwegian-fjord.html
.

from this article:

In all, 23 Halifaxes and 11 Lancasters took part in the unsuccessful April 1942 mission, with two being shot down.

I note Middlebrook and Everitt state 31 Halifaxes and 12 Lancasters Four Halifaxes and one Lancaster were lost.

One of the Halifaxes was flown by Wg Cdr DCT Bennett, later C/O of 8 Group. He escaped to Sweden and got back to England five weeks later.
Another Halifax was the famed W1048. (Lots via Google, including www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/collectio...Halifax-II-W1048.pdf)

Fantastic! Will you 'treat' the metal at all?

I would love one as well as my father was a Halibag pilot!