![]() The only British-made bomber that stayed in production throughout World War II, the Vickers Wellington was the most mass-produced. Read more about: WW2 Douglas Bader: The double-amputee flying ace of the Battle of Britain They weren’t just used for bombing raids, but also took on missions such as Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound to drop humanitarian aid and food packages into the occupied Netherlands. Lancasters flew over 156,000 raids and dropped 608,000 tonnes of explosive bombs and over 50 million incendiary bombs. With a top speed of 454km per hour and a range of 4,000km, it was a swift craft whose larger payload capacity meant more opportunities for successful missions.Īs the war progressed, Lancasters were easily modified to carry the infamous ‘Grand Slam’ bombs weighing 10,000kg a piece. The most successful bomber of the Second World War, the Lancaster had room for a crew of seven men, boasted no less than eight Browning machine guns, and could carry an impressive payload of 15,000kg in fuel and bombs. An immediate success, mass orders for Lancasters were placed, with over 7,370 aircraft built throughout the war. Increasing the wingspan, updating and adding two extra engines, and learning from the failures of the Manchester, Chadwick’s Lancaster bomber flew its maiden voyage in January 1941. Instability and inferior engines meant that most Avro Manchesters that undertook missions were lost to engine failure, not enemy fire. Having completed the design of the Avro Manchester, a twin-engined heavy bomber, Chadwick realised that the plane would fall short of what was needed to defend Britain before the plane had even flown any operations. Perhaps the most famous of all the British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster was created by British aviation architect Roy Chadwick. Read more about: WW2 3 RAF Bomber Command raids that helped win World War II Here are five of those groundbreaking bombers that helped to win the war. Reactive and adaptive aviation design championed the ingenuity of British engineering and ensured that British bombers continued to dominate the skies throughout the Second World War. What followed was a considerable investment into bombers to join the ranks of the RAF fighter squadrons. The Fighters are our salvation, but the Bombers alone provide the means of victory.’ Therefore our supreme effort must be to gain overwhelming mastery in the air. In September 1940, during the height of the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill addressed the cabinet in a memo, and stated, ‘The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. As tensions grew across Europe during the Second World War, it became clear that the United Kingdom would need a greater defence structure, not just on land and sea, but also in the air.Īlthough the Battle of Britain only lasted three months and three weeks, the ferocity and relentless waves of aerial attacks by the German Luftwaffe highlighted the growing need for more aggressive defence in the form of medium and heavy bombers, not just fighter planes like the Spitfire and the Hurricane.
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