British Bomber Aircraft 1930-1939 - Bristol Blenheim, Bristol Beaufort, Vickers Wellington, Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax, Fairey Battle (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 64. Chapters: Bristol Blenheim, Bristol Beaufort, Vickers Wellington, Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax, Fairey Battle, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Fairey Swordfish, Handley Page Hampden, Fairey Fox, Bristol Fairchild Bolingbroke, Blackburn Skua, Fairey Albacore, Handley Page Heyford, Avro Manchester, Vickers Wellesley, Hawker Hind, Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow, Blackburn Shark, Bristol Bombay, Fairey Hendon, Handley Page H.P.47, Fairey Gordon, Boulton Paul Overstrand, Fairey P.4/34, Blackburn Botha, Westland PV-3, Blackburn B-3, Armstrong Whitworth AW.23, Hawker P.V.4, Parnall G.4/31, Fairey Seal, Armstrong Whitworth A.W.29, Supermarine B.12/36. Excerpt: The Bristol Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) was a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. Beauforts first saw service with Royal Air Force Coastal Command and then the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm from 1940, until they were withdrawn from operational service in the European theatre in 1942. RAF Beauforts flying from Britain operated as torpedo bombers, conventional bombers and mine-layers and were then used as training aircraft until being declared obsolete in 1945. Beauforts also saw considerable action in the Mediterranean; Beaufort squadrons based in Egypt and on Malta helped put an end to Axis shipping supplying Rommel's Deutsches Afrikakorps in North Africa. Beauforts were most widely used, until the end of the Second World War, by the Royal Australian Air Force in the Pacific theatre. All but six of the RAAF's Beauforts were manufactured under licence in Australia. Although designed as a torpedo-bomber, the Beaufort more often flew as a level-bomber. The Beaufort also flew more hours in training than on operational missions and mo...