46 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS
BRISTOL BEAUFORT
BRISTOL
BEAUFORT
Right
Pratt & Whitney
Twin Wasp-powered,
Australian-built
Beaufort VIII A9-201 of
100 Squadron, RAAF.
Note the machine gun-
toting ‘Donald Duck’
and ducklings nose-art.
PETER GREEN COLLECTIONR
esponding to an Air Ministry
requirement for a torpedo-
bomber and another for a
general reconnaissance bomber,
Bristol used the rugged Blenheim
airframe as a starting point. The
two specifications were combined
into one and the resultant Beaufort
featured a lengthened and deepened
fuselage, including a bomb bay.
Two 1,130hp (842kW) Bristol
Taurus radials replaced the 840hp
Bristol Mercuries, as the Beaufort was
a much heavier beast. The prototype
first flew on October 15, 1938.
Development problems – dominated
by the troublesome Taurus – delayed
the type’s introduction to service until
November 1939 when Beauforts
ousted the Vickers Vildebeest
biplanes of 22 Squadron at Thorney
Island.
The ‘blood line’ had further to go.
By mating the Beaufort’s wings, tail
surfaces and undercarriage to an all-
new slim-line fuselage, with robust
and reliable Bristol Hercules radials,
the incredible Beaufighter was born
in July 1939.
Searches for a better engine for
the Beaufort settled on another
dependable radial, the Pratt &
Whitney Twin Wasp. The first Mk.II
appeared in November 1940 and the
Beaufort became a stalwart of Coastal
Command operations although
it dropped far more mines and
conventional bombs than it did its
intended weapon, the torpedo.
Vildebeests were replaced by
Beauforts at Seletar, Singapore, when
100 Squadron took the new type inNovember 1941. With the Japanese
invasion, the remnants retreated
to Java before the unit disbanded
in February 1942. Australia built
Beauforts under licence and the
Royal Australian Air Force used
them to great effect in New Guinea
from 1942.
Beauforts were withdrawn from
British-based frontline units in
August 1942. They remained in
operational use in the Mediterranean
and Ceylon until September 1944.
With its capacious fuselage the
Beaufort was ideal as a crew trainer,
particularly in the instruction of
the demanding art of dropping
torpedoes. The last examples of the
breed were retired in autumn 1946.1918 20181939 TO 1946
RUNNING
THE GAUNTLET
The battle cruiser
Gneisenau slipped out of dry dock
at Brest, France, on April 5 and
Coastal Command wasted no time
in seizing the opportunity. At 04:20
hours the following morning six
Beauforts – three with torpedoes,three carrying mines – of 22
Squadron took off from St Eval for
a co-ordinated attack.
Only Fg Off Ken Campbell in
N1016 X-for-X-ray managed to
fight through atrocious weather
and arrive on time. He and his crew
pressed home the attack alone and
succeeded in blowing a 40ft (12m)
hole in the side of the ship and over
3,000 tons of water flooded in.
The warship was condemned to
return to its dry dock. It did not
venture out again until the ‘Channel
Dash’ of February 11, 1942 when
the Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and
Scharnhorst slipped through the
English Channel and into the
North Sea.Type: Four crew torpedo/reconnaissance bomber
First fl ight: October 15, 1938, entered service November 1939
Powerplant: Two 1,065hp (794kW) Bristol Taurus II
Dimensions: Span 57ft 10in (17.37m), Length 44ft 2in (13.46m)
Weights: Empty 11,839lb (5,370kg), All-up 20,000lb (9,072kg)
Max speed: 265mph (426km/h) at 6,000ft (1,828m)
Range: 1,510 miles (2,430km)
Armament: One fi xed machine gun in the port wing, one free-mounted
machine gun in the nose, two in dorsal turret. One 1,548lb (702lb)
18in (45cm) torpedo or up to 2,200lb (997kg) of ordnance
Replaced: Vickers Vildebeest from 1939, Avro Anson from 1940, Bristol
Blenheim from 1941, Vickers Wellesley 1942
Taken on charge: 1,429, plus 700 built under licence in Australia
Replaced by: Lockheed Hudson from 1941, Consolidated Liberator and Handley
Page Hampden from 1942, Bristol Beaufi ghter from 1943BRISTOL BEAUFORT I