Fly Past

AVRO MANCHESTER 100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 49

Left

A rare colour

photo, and even

rarer example of a

Bomber Command

aircraft carrying a

name – ‘Hobson’s

Choice’ – in 1941.

Manchester IA L4783

of 207 Squadron

at Waddington,

November 1941. VIA

ANDY THOMAS

Below

Manchester IA L7483

of 207 Squadron.

On its fourth and

last ‘op’ it took off

from Bottesford on

December 27, 1941

piloted by Sqn Ldr

K H P Beauchamp,

bound for Düsseldorf.

Encountering

technical problems, it

jettisoned its bombs

and returned for a

forced landing at

Martlesham Heath.

The undercarriage

collapsed and the

aircraft ended

its days as an

instructional airframe

at Melksham.

PETE WEST

Experimental Establishment at
Boscombe Down; and twice in the
circuit at Boscombe, on December
12 and 23.

After 200 Manchesters, the

production lines were to switch,

almost seamlessly, to what was briefly

designated the Manchester III –

the Lancaster. The comparatively

small fleet went on to incredible

achievements in the face of

considerable mechanical problems,

let alone what the weather and the

Third Reich threw at them.

Picking up its first Manchesters at

Boscombe Down, 207 Squadron

settled in to Waddington in

November 1940 to begin the task of

converting to the Manchester. Not

long after Operation ‘Millennium’,

the ‘Thousand Bomber’ attack on

Cologne of late May 1942, the type

withdrew from the front line.

Pressures on Bomber Command

were such that the retired

Manchesters were not sent to the

scrapheap but used for crew training

until the middle of 1943. As will

be seen on page 56, the Lancaster

proved that Roy Chadwick’s design

was a world-beater if given the right

engines.

Type: Seven-crew heavy bomber

First fl ight: July 25, 1939; entered service November 1940

Powerplant: One 1,760hp (1,312kW) Rolls-Royce Vulture 24-cylinder X-format

Dimensions: Span 90ft 1in (27.45m); length 68ft 10in (20.98m)

Weights: Empty 45,000lb (20,412kg); all-up 56,100lb (25,446kg)

Max speed: 284mph (457km/h) at 17,200ft (5,242m)

Range: 1,630 miles (2,623km)

Armament: Nose, mid-upper and tail turrets with two, two and four machine

guns respectively. Up to 10,250lb (4,449kg) of bombs

Replaced: Handley Page Hampden from 1940

Taken on charge: 200, including sub-contract to Metropolitan-Vickers

Replaced by: Avro Lancaster from 1942

AVRO MANCHESTER

“The Manchester was saddled with the

hugely complex 24-cylinder, 90° X-format

1,760hp Rolls-Royce Vulture.”