Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Long-range heavy bomber

Power Plant:

Four 1,205 kw (1,615 hp) Bristol Hercules VI fourteen-cylinder two-row sleeve-valve radial engines

Specifications:

Armament:

One 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Vickers K machine gun on flexible mount in nose; four 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Browning machine guns in Boulton & Paul A Mk III dorsal turret; four 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Browning machine guns in Boulton & Paul E turret in tail; max bomb load 5,897 kg (13,000 lb)

History:

One of the most important bombers of World War II, a total of 6,179 Handley Page Halifax aircraft had been built by the time production ended, having been built by Handley Page (1,592), English Electric (2,145), London Aircraft Production Group (LAPG) (710), Rootes Securities (1,071) and Fairey Aviation (662). LAPG used the production facilities of the London Passenger Transport Board, Park Royal Coach Works, Express Motor and Body Works, Chrysler Motors, and Duplex Bodies and Motors.

With a crew of seven, comprising a pilot, wireless operator, navigator, flight engineer, bomb-aimer/gunner, and two turret gunners, the Halifax was built to an Air Ministry specification issued on 8 May 1935. Like the Avro Lancaster, the original plan was for a twin-engine aircraft. Development led to the HP.57, an order for 100 of which was placed on 1 January 1938. By the time of the Munich crisis, orders were increased and work was proceeding to get the bombers on order from the various manufacturers to Bomber Command as quickly as possible. The prototype HP.57 (L7244) made its first flight at Radlett in Hertfordshire on 25 October 1940, the first production machine flying on 11 October 1940.

The history of the Halifax is well recorded. It was produced in a variety of models, and was fitted with two types of engine: the Mk I with the Bristol Hercules radial, and the Mk II with the 955 kw (1,280 hp) Rolls Royce Merlin XX. Production proceeded in parallel, the prototype Mk II (HP.59) flying for the first time on 3 July 1941. The Halifax was produced for a number of tasks. Units were sent to the Middle East and Italy; and a number of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Squadrons in Europe received the Halifax. From mid 1942 aircraft were fitted with H2S airborne, ground-scanning radar equipment. They also saw service with Coastal Command.

A number were converted for use as freighters, and as passenger transports, initially by the Royal Air Force (RAF), and after the war by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). This necessitated the removal of all armament and making provision for freight, nine stretchers, or eight passengers. As well, some carried a detachable pannier capable of carrying a 3,629 kg (8,000 lb) freight load. Twelve aircraft were converted for BOAC and became known as the Handley Page Halton but they only operated until 1948, the conversion work being performed by Handley Page and Short Brothers & Harland. In addition, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation converted at least 17.

The Halifax saw extensive service throughout the Berlin airlift, where 41 were used by seven different companies; and examples were placed on the civil registers of Switzerland, Pakistan, and Norway. The Berlin Airlift was probably the last major operation of the type and afterwards most survivors were scrapped.

Three examples have survived. One (LV907 – ‘Friday the 13th’) has been partly built from scratch, but using parts of many aircraft, and has been placed on display at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington. A Mk II (W1048) has been displayed, conserved but unrestored, at the RAF Museum at Hendon in Greater London as it was recovered from a lake in Norway. And a Mk A VII (N337), recovered also from a Norwegian lake in 1995, has been restored for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Memorial Museum at Trenton in Canada.

At least three examples of the Halifax came to Australia and two of these ended their lives here. London Aero and Motor Services (LAMS) was a company formed in 1946 which operated from Elstree in Hertfordshire on freight work. After World War II LAMS obtained 16 ex RAF Halifaxes for the carriage of freight. The first of the company’s aircraft based in Australasia was G-AIWT (c/n 1338 – ex PP265), a Halifax C.VIII, which was named ‘Port of Sydney’. It made a round-the-world flight commencing on 23 April 1947 from Elstree. It was flown to New Zealand via Iceland and the United States, the flight of 4,023 km (2,500 miles) from San Francisco, California to Honolulu, Hawaii taking 11½ hours. It made a number of charter flights between Australia and New Zealand and carried turkeys from Sydney, NSW to The Philippines. G-AIWT returned to the United Kingdom in June 1947 loaded with seven-tons of dripping from the people of New South Wales as a gift for the victims of floods in England. It crash landed at Bovingdon in Hertfordshire on 5 September 1947, was written off and was eventually scrapped.

A second LAMS Halifax, a C.VIII G-AIWK (c/n 1368 – PP295 – also named ‘Port of Sydney’) came to Australia. Due to the success of the company in Australasia, a subsidiary named LAMS (Australia) Ltd was formed. This aircraft was used to convey turkeys between Sydney and The Philippines, as well as carrying freight to the United Kingdom. After the demise of the founder of LAMS the company ceased business.  G-AIWK remained at Mascot, NSW but, after being damaged by vandals, was scrapped.

The third, a B.Mk III VH-BDT (ex NR169, G-AGXA – ‘Waltzing Matilda’), an ex No 466 Squadron RAAF machine, was obtained by Geoffrey Wikner, well known for his aircraft designs, and flown with his family and a group of passengers from the United Kingdom to Sydney in a flying time of 71 hours, arriving on 15 June 1946. It had been converted by Handley Page at Radlett to a civil transport with seating for 15 but retained its camouflage. This aircraft had during the war made 51 bombing raids over Europe.

The aircraft’s Certificate of Airworthiness was initially issued on 16 May 1946 to Mr Wikner and it left Radlett on 26 May 1946. The route flown was via Hurn, Marseilles, Tunis, Castel Benito, Cairo, Basra, Almaza, Jodhpur, Dum Dum, Pegu, Bangkok, Changi, Balikpapan, and Darwin, NT arriving in Sydney at Mascot on 15 June 1946. On arrival Wikner sought to make some exhibition flights in the aircraft but approval was denied.

Mr Wikner made efforts to sell the machine to the RAAF for training purposes, and advertised it for sale generally. It was then offered, because of its war record with an RAAF squadron, to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, ACT as a gift to be preserved alongside the Avro Lancaster, which was later preserved, but the offer was not accepted. Finally a group of pilots and ground engineers, led by Group Captain Clive Caldwell, purchased it for flights to the Far East, setting up Aircarriers of Australia.

After refurbishment, and repainting, VH-BDT was flown by Captain E Hourigan, taking a load of 89 dogs to Singapore to replace the canine population which had become depleted during the war but the company found there was no payload available for the return flight. On the return flight it had an engine problem and flew from Darwin to Sydney on three engines. The company went into liquidation after the one flight. The registration lapsed, it was struck off the register in December 1947 and the aircraft was sold to a scrap dealer for $200 (£100), eventually being used by fire crews at Mascot for training before being broken up.