Fly Past

100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 79

BRISTOL BRIGAND

Above

Rocket-equipped

Brigand B.1 VS814 of

8 Squadron, based at

Khormaksar, Aden,

1949. It was written
      off in a belly landing
      at Shaibah, Iraq, on
      July 4, 1951 when
      the undercarriage
      refused to come
      down. PETE WEST

Above left

Brigand T.5 RH797

of 238 Operational

Conversion Unit,

North Luffenham,

1957. KEC

Left

Early production

Buckingham I, KV335,

in 1945. Like most of

the Mk.Is, it saw no

RAF service. BRISTOL

Below left

Brigand B.1 of

8 Squadron at

Khormaksar,

Aden, in 1950.

PETER GREEN

COLLECTION

settled into Tengah, Singapore, in
February 1949 and they were joined
by 45 Squadron in December.
With a huge area to police, Brigands
and other types were used mostly in
flights of three or four, but by mid-
1951 large formations, designed to
intimidate and scatter terrorist forces,
were increasingly adopted.
On September 12, 1951 a trio of
Brigands struck at a suspected large
encampment at Kuala Selangor,
on Malaya’s western coast, north
of Kuala Lumpur. Intelligence and
reconnaissance revealed that the
area was indeed a major base and on
November 8, a show of force was
organised. In a series of strikes 14
Brigands, eight de Havilland Hornets,
four Avro Lincolns (see page 76) and a
solitary Short Sunderland laid waste to
the bandit camp.
Sunderland flying-boats of 205
Squadron, based at Seletar, Singapore,
and operating from the Straits of
Johor, proved to be very efficient anti-
insurgent aircraft, with good firepower
from the turrets and a 2,000lb bomb
load and, most advantageous, it ability

broke off and the Brigand plummeted

into the jungle, killing all three crew.

Investigations asserted that the

mainspar had probably crystallised;

yet another of the structural

problems that had plagued the type’s

career. Other alarming incidents

included what a Brigand groundcrew

member called “the ultimate engine

failure” a Centaurus radial falling

from its mounts and propeller

blades, or entire assemblies, flying

off. With RH823’s horrific accident,

the Brigand was withdrawn from

frontline operations.

Brigand RH823, which was built at

Filton, was tested prior to issue to the

RAF in the late summer of 1948. On

October 14 the very next machine

off the production line, RH824, was

taken up by Bristol test pilot Sqn Ldr

Douglas Weightman DFC ready for

sign off. The port Centaurus failed

and the propeller blades sheared off,

impacting in the nose section and

starboard engine.

Weightman was over a populated

area, he struggled with the controls

to take the doomed Brigand to the

northwest. Attempting to force-land

at Northwick, on the shores of the

River Severn, he was killed when

RH824 hit trees. Brigands had been

trouble from beginning to end.

taken up by Bristol test pilot Sqn Ldr

Douglas Weightman DFC ready for

to loiter awaiting ‘trade’.

The Brigand fleet was becoming

more and more prone to accidents

and 45 Squadron traded them in for

another piston twin, the Hornet, in

January 1952. This left 84 Squadron

sticking with the type, but all this

came to a rapid halt on December 20.

Pilot Flt Lt Brendan Massey,

navigator Sgt Edward Powell and LAC

Douglas Kay were airborne in B.1

RH823 over Kota Tinggi in southern

Malaya. As Massey pulled RH823 out

of a shallow dive, the starboard wing