100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE
BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 77AVRO LINCOLN
Above
Armstrong Whitworth-
built Lincoln B.2
SX988 serving with
230 Operational
Conversion Unit at
Scampton, 1950.
PETE WESTLeft
Shackleton AEW.2
WL747 close to the
end of the last-ever
RAF sortie – it was
delivered to private
ownership at Paphos,
Cyprus, on July 19,- KEC
Below left
Displayed at the RAF
Museum Cosford
Lincoln B.2 Phase
4A RF398 joined the
Bomber Command
Bombing School
at Lindholme on
November 27, 1957
after 12 years in
storage. It last served
with 151 Squadron at
Watton and was fl own
to Henlow on April
30, 1963 to join the
museum collection.
RAF MUSEUM
http://www.rafmuseum.orgregion in March 1950, based at
Tengah, Singapore. The first raid was
staged on the 26th.
Terrorist camps and supply dumps
located deep in the dense and vast
Malayan jungle were more appropriate
targets for the ‘sledgehammers’.
The unsophisticated 1,000lb bomb
was used to devastating effect, each
Lincoln carrying 14 in its huge
weapons bay. Detonations within a
wooded area generated shockwaves
and countless wooden shards caused
considerable damage to the makeshift
guerrilla installations.
When conditions permitted, up to
five Lincolns flying in close formation
at relatively low level could inflict
massive damage to manpower,
materiel and morale. These tactics
forced the enemy to abandon large
bases and disperse its forces into
smaller groups, greatly reducing its
combat ability.
From June 1950 RAAF Lincolns
arrived at Tengah to take part in
operations. The RAF withdrew
the type from March 1955 when
Canberras took over. The RAAF kept1950s when the jet-powered English
Electric Canberra took over.
In total, 529 Lincolns were ordered
for the RAF and a small number
served with the Argentine Air Force.
A single example was built in Canada
and the Government Aircraft Factory
at Fishermens Bend, Melbourne,
made 54 Mk.30s for the Royal
Australian Air Force (RAAF).
SLEDGEHAMMERS
While the Lincoln did not see action
in World War Two, it was used to
combat guerrilla forces in Kenya and
Malaya. Based at Eastleigh, Nairobi,
detachments of Lincolns attacked the
Mau Mau 1953 to 1954 – see page 3.
The big bombers had a limited effect
in this conflict, being described as
“like using a sledgehammer to crack
a walnut” by an armourer from 100
Squadron.
Famously understated as the
‘Emergency’, the struggle with
communist insurgents in Malaya
was waged, ultimately to success,
from 1948 to 1960. Detachments
of Lincolns were introduced to the
its Lincolns in theatre until February
1956.
The last RAF examples were
employed by 151 Squadron at Watton
on radio and radar development trials.
The final trio operational with 151
flew a farewell formation on March
12, 1963. One of the participants was
RF398, now on display at the RAF
Museum at Cosford.40 YEARS OF SERVICE
A Mk.III Lincoln for air-sea rescue
and maritime patrol was initiated
by Chadwick and his team, but this
was sidelined in favour of a more
comprehensive solution. A shorter,
but more capacious, fuselage was
mated to a Lincoln wing, with four
2,450hp Rolls-Royce Griffon 57As
driving counter-rotating propellers.
This emerged as the Shackleton, not
strictly a bomber in the sense of this
publication, but such an important
type in RAF heritage and in the story
of the Manchester-Lancaster-Lincoln
that it must get a mention.
Jimmy Orrell carried out the
inaugural flight of the prototype,
VW126, on March 9, 1949 and the
RAF received its first Shackleton
GR.1 (later MR.1) in April 1951.
Production totalled 178 in three
major variants; the last coming off
the line in 1959.
As a stopgap, an airborne early
warning version, the Shackleton
AEW.2 was created. The first
conversion, WL745, flew at
Woodford on September 30, 1971
and was followed by 11 more. The
fleet soldiered on until July 1, 1991 –
Shackleton had clocked a staggering
40 years of service.