52 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS
HANDLEY PAGE
HALIFAX
A
s the Hawker Hurricane was
to the Supermarine Spitfire, so
it was that the Halifax spent
its time in the shadow of the Avro
Lancaster. In bombing operations,
Lancasters flew nearly twice as many
sorties and dropped just under three
times as much tonnage as their
Handley Page stablemate. But the
Halifax had a glittering career that
encompassed strategic bombing to
the end of the war; action over the
high seas with Coastal Command,
demanding countermeasures work
with 100 Group, hazardous flying
on clandestine ‘special duties’,
glider towing, paratroop and supply
dropping, transport and training.
It is as well to remind readers that
space restrictions mean that the
heritage of the RAF’s World War Two
bombers can only be dipped into.
To chart the diversity and valour of
Halifax ops here is an impossibility.
Like the Avro Manchester (page
48) the Halifax was conceived as a
heavy twin, powered by Rolls-Royce
Vulture engines. Thankfully Handley
Page avoided the traumas of having to
re-engineer its design (Avro morphed
the Manchester into the Lancaster)
and the prototype initially flew with
Rolls-Royce Merlins on October 25,- The first production examples
went to 35 Squadron at Linton-on-
Ouse in December.
Despite a series of ‘rolling’
modifications, Merlin-engined
Halifaxes had disappointing
performance. This was corrected with
the Bristol Hercules-engined Mk.III
which entered frontline service in
October 1943. The Hercules radial
transformed the prospects of the
Halifax and the type remained in
production until November 1946.
During the summer of 1945,
Bomber Command withdrew the
Halifax from its order of battle. The
type remained in use in the transport
and airborne forces role into the late
1940s. Coastal Command soldiered
on with meteorological reconnaissance
Halifaxes until March 17, 1952 when
224 Squadron flew the last ‘met’ sortie
from Gibraltar.
S-FOR-SUGAR
Half past eight, the evening of April
27, 1942 at Kinloss, 35 Squadron
Halifax II W1048 S-for-Sugar took
off en route for Fættenfjord, near
Trondheim, Norway. Target: the
42,000-ton Bismarck-class battleship
Tirpitz. Crew: Plt Off Don P
MacIntyre (pilot); Sgt Vic C Stevens
(flight eng); Plt Off Ian Hewitt (nav/
bomb aimer); Sgt Dave L Perry
(wireless op/air gunner); Sgt Pierre G
Blanchett RCAF (mid-upper gunner);
Sgt Ron H D Wilson (tail gunner).
Part of a force of 31 Halifaxes
and 12 Lancasters despatched from
Lossiemouth and Kinloss, S-for-Sugar
was the eighth into the attack, over the
target at 00:30 hours. Canadian-born
MacIntyre dropped to 200ft (60m) to
deliver his quartet of 1,000-pounder
spherical mines and was engaged by
heavy anti-aircraft defences. As the
weapons were released, W1048’s
starboard wing burst into flames.
Too low to convert speed into
height and try for Sweden, McIntyre
put S-for-Sugar down on the frozen
surface of Lake Hocklingen, east of
Trondheim. It was a brilliant bit of
flying, Stevens broke his ankle, but all
stumbled away from the wreck. With
his injury, Stevens became a prisoner
of war, the rest of the crew evaded and
in 72 hours walked to Sweden.1918 20181939 TO 1952
Built by English
Electric at Samlesbury
in Lancashire, W1048 had been on
charge with 35 Squadron 18 days and
had a total flying time of 13 hours ‘on
the clock’. Before April 28 was out,
the ice gave way and the Halifax sank
to the bottom, 92ft down.
Sugar was one of five bombers lost
that night: two Halifax IIs from 10
Squadron, another from 35 and
a Lancaster I from 97 Squadron.
Including MacIntyre’s crew, eight men
evaded, ten became prisoners of war
and 15 were killed. Tirpitz was finally
sunk by Lancasters of 9 and 617
Squadrons on November 12, 1944.RESURRECTION
In 1971 local divers found Sugar and
the following September a team from
the RAF Sub-Aqua Club carried out
a series of dives. The bomber was
missing its starboard outer Rolls-
Royce Merlin XX, the area where it
had taken the most damage from the
flak batteries.
Lake Hocklingen was fresh water
and the state of preservation was
excellent. At the time it was the only
substantially intact Halifax in the
world.
By using new techniques, such as
pneumatic airbags, a recovery for the
RAF Museum was very ‘do-able’.HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX
Right
London Aircraft
Production Group-
built Halifax II Series I
BB324 of 10 Squadron
performing for the
cameras in early 1943.
It carries a small
cartoon of a terrier
wearing a sailor’s cap
and the name ‘Wings
for Victory’ under
the canopy. Based at
Melbourne, Yorkshire,
BB324 went missing
on a raid to Mülheim,
Germany, on June
23, 1943. All seven of
its crew were killed,
believed victims of a
night-fi ghter.