48 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS
AVRO MANCHESTER
AVRO
MANCHESTERMANCHESTER
Right
Repair work is carried
out on L7477 of 61
Squadron at Woolfox
Lodge. The Manchester
had taken part in
Operation ‘Fuller’,
the ‘Channel Dash’ of
February 12, 1942 – see
page 46 – and had been
peppered by fl ak from
the German fl eet. KEC“A
ccept from me personally,
and on behalf of my
command and my service,
salutations upon the signal honour, so
well merited, which His Majesty the
King has seen fit to confer upon your
gallant son. No Victoria Cross has
been more gallantly earned.
“I cannot offer you and yours
condolence in personal loss in
circumstances wherein your son’s
death and the manner of his passing
must so far surmount, by reason
of the great services he rendered to
his country and the last service to his
crew, all considerations of personal
grief.
“His shining example of unsurpassed
courage and staunchness to death will
remain an inspiration to his service
and to his unperishable memorial.”
So ran a handwritten letter dated
October 23, 1942 to the Manser
family of Radlett, Hertfordshire, and
signed simply Arthur T Harris.
Plt Off Leslie T Manser and the crew
of Manchester L7301 D-for-Don of
106 Conversion Flight – but on loan
to 50 Squadron at Skellingthorpe- had failed to return from the first
‘Thousand Bomber’ raid, to Cologne,
on the night of May 30/31, 1942.
A force of 45 Manchesters had
been despatched from Balderton,
Coningsby, Scampton, Skellingthorpe,
Syerston and Waddington. Manser’s
L7301 was one of four lost, with 13
aircrew perishing.
It was late October when Harris put
pen to paper; yet he was writing about
an event in May. Bomber Command
was not that far behind with its
administration – as summer turned to
autumn five of D-for-Don’s crew, who
had managed to evade capture, gave
testified to their skipper’s valour.
Over the target, L7301 was mauled
by flak and came down as low as 700ft
(213m) before Manser pulled the
stricken machine back into a climb
to about 2,000ft. They set course for
home, but the port engine failed and
its propeller was feathered.
Manser knew the bomber was
doomed and, in its single engine state,
he’d need to stay at the controls to
give the others a chance of getting out
of a stable aircraft. He gave the order
to bale out and Plt Offs R Barnes, R
Horsley and Sgts E Finch, S King and
A Mills took to the silk.
Sgt Leslie Baveystock, a second pilot
under tuition who had shut down
the recalcitrant Vulture engine, joined
Manser to help him put his parachute
on. Manser would have none of it,
yelling: “For God’s sake, get out! We’re
going down!”
Baveystock baled out and moments
later D-for-Don keeled over and
plunged into the ground. Only Barnes
was picked up by the Germans,
becoming a prisoner of war. The
others managed a ‘home run’ and, at
the debriefing, Manser’s selflessness
was stressed and recommendations
made.RIGHT AIRCRAFT,
WRONG ENGINE
Both the Halifax and the Lancaster
were conceived as twin-engined
bombers. Thankfully, the Halifax
avoided that stage; its days as a
twin were confined to the drawing
boards. Not so the Manchester: it
was saddled with the hugely complex
24-cylinder, 90° X-format 1,760hp
(1,312kW) Rolls-Royce (RR)
Vulture.
This engine was essentially two RR
Peregrines – as fitted to the Westland
Whirlwind fighter – one above the
other on a single crankcase. The idea1918 20181940 TO 1943
of such a brutish engine was that it
gave the new ‘heavies’ all the power
they needed while allowing stocks
of RR Merlins to go exclusively to
fighters.
The Air Ministry soon relented, but
not before metal was being cut on
the two prototype Manchesters. Avro
and Metropolitan-Vickers had tooled
up the production lines in readiness.
Experience with Armstrong
Whitworth Whitleys, Handley Page
Hampdens and Vickers Wellingtons
had shown that only in the most
experienced hands could one of
these types with an engine out be
brought home. The asymmetric loads
on a heavy twin would be virtually
impossible – as Manser proved.
Production of Merlins showed no
signs of waning and the industrial
capacity was ready for the new
generation of bombers.
The prototype Manchester, L7246,
first flew on July 25, 1939 and gave
a vivid foretaste of life with the
Vulture. It force-landed three times:
in Staffordshire on November 29,
1939 on delivery to the Aeroplane
and Armament