RAF Warplanes: Fairey Battle
(RAF Photo)
Fairey Battle (Serial No. K7650), 63-M, No. 63 Squadron, RAF Benson, Nov 1939.
The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. As the Battle, with its three-man crew and bomb load, was much heavier than the fighters, it was therefore much slower. Though a great improvement over the aircraft that preceded it, its relatively slow speed, limited range and inadequate defensive armament of only two .303 (7.7 mm) machine guns left it highly vulnerable to enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire.
The Fairey Battle was used on operations early in the Second World War. During the “Phoney War” the type achieved the distinction of scoring the first aerial victory of an RAF aircraft in the conflict. From 10 to 14 May 1940, the Battles of the Advanced Air Striking Force suffered many losses, frequently in excess of 50 per cent of aircraft sorties per mission. By the end of 1940 the type had been withdrawn from front-line service and relegated to training units overseas. (Wikipedia)
(IWM Photo C447)
Fairey Battle, No. 218 Squadron over France, ca 1940.
(Ind Escent Photo)
Fairey Battle (Serial No. L5343 is displayed at the Royal Air Force Museum London, Hendon. In July 1940, it was with No. 98 RAF Squadron, based at Kaldadarnes, Iceland for anti-invasion operations supporting British forces. L5343 was the first RAF aircraft to land on Icelandic soil, and crashed during subsequent operations. In 1972, the RAF recovered the wreck for restoration, which was completed at the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre of the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, Shifnal, Shropshire.
(IWM Photo, C 604)
Armourers unloading 250-lb GP bombs from a trolley in front of a Fairey Battle of No. 226 Squadron, in the snow at Reims-Champagne.
(IWM Photo, CH 2141)
Fairey Battle Trainer, (Serial No. R7365), of No. 1 Service Flying Training School based at Netheravon, Wiltshire, in flight.