The planes that won the Second World War

When Nazi Germany threatened the very existence of Britain in 1940, air power was the instrument of national salvation.

Through a titanic struggle in the skies, the Hurricane and the Spitfire, the two iconic fighter planes of the RAF, beat back the Luftwaffe, denying the Reich aerial superiority over southern England and thereby thwarting a massive German seaborne invasion.

Due to the magnificence of these aircraft and the valour of their crews, what could have been our darkest hour was transformed into our finest.

The historic squadron that performs at air shows today consists of six Spitfires, two Hurricane Mk 2Cs, one Lancaster bomber, a C47 Dakota and two Chipmunk training aircraft

Having saved the nation, it was the RAF that then took the fight directly to the heart of the Nazi homeland for the rest of the war. For night after night, Bomber Command pulverised German cities, industries and military infrastructure.

At the forefront of this offensive was the mighty Avro Lancaster, a heavyweight four-engined beast that could carry formidable loads at high speed. Once again, the quality of the plane was matched by the astonishing bravery of its crews: more than half of the 125,000 men who served in Bomber Command lost their lives.

Now the courage of crews and the magnificence of these planes are celebrated in a new book, published to mark the 60th anniversary of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight.

Established to pay tribute to men of the RAF who died in World War II, the Flight was formally inaugurated in 1957 and has become a much-loved national institution. Today it has six Spitfires, a pair of Hurricanes, and one of only two airworthy Lancasters, the other residing at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Ontario.

Every year, the aerial displays by the Flight are estimated to be watched by over seven million people, while its historic planes are faithfully maintained by a team of 30 RAF engineers.

What is so striking about the book is its photos that capture the remarkable qualities of this trio of aircraft.

The City of Lincoln, pictured above, is the only Lancaster in Britain still flying. The most successful RAF bomber of the war, it bore the brunt of the strategic aerial attack on Germany

The City of Lincoln, pictured above, is the only Lancaster in Britain still flying. The most successful RAF bomber of the war, it bore the brunt of the strategic aerial attack on Germany

The lethal Lancaster Bomber

The City of Lincoln, pictured above, is the only Lancaster in Britain still flying. The most successful RAF bomber of the war, it bore the brunt of the strategic aerial attack on Germany.

Of 7,377 built, 3,500 were lost on operations and another 200 destroyed or written-off in crashes.

Led all the most controversial RAF raids of the war, including the assaults on Hamburg in the summer of 1943.

Its ability to fly low and sustain punishment also meant that it carried out precision raids like the attack on the German experimental rocket plant at Peenemunde in August 1943.

For the Dambusters raid, the crew first practised low-level flying over the Derwent reservoir in Derbyshire. During daylight training exercises, the cockpits were fitted with blue Perspex while the crews wore amber goggles to give the illusion of moonlight.

Its huge, long bomb bay meant the Lancaster had a loading capacity far beyond any other bomber in the European theatre. At the end of the war, the Head of Bomber Command Sir Arthur Harris declared: ‘The Lancaster was the greatest single factor in winning the war.’

Maiden flight: January 1941, entered RAF December 1941.

Max speed: 275mph.

Number built: 7,377.

Weaponry: Initial loading capacity of 4,000lb but, by the end of the war, the Lancaster was able to drop the colossal, 22,000lb Grand Slam. When tested, it made a crater 70ft deep and 130ft in diameter.

Wingspan: 102ft.

AIRWORTHY NOW: 2.

All three were triumphs of British engineering. Rugged and robust, the Hurricane — which first came into RAF service in 1937 — was the real workhorse during the Battle of Britain, responsible for more than 60 per cent of Luftwaffe losses.

The Spitfire, with its elegant elliptical wing, was more modern, fast and versatile. When it entered service in 1938, its sleek beauty captured the nation’s heart but it was also deadly.

‘Give me a squadron of Spitfires,’ the German ace Adolf Galland said when asked how the broken Luftwaffe might win the Battle of Britain.

The Hurricane, in the foreground of the picture above, was overshadowed by the more glamorous Spitfire flying behind and its construction was considered outmoded, especially with its fabric-covered fuselage and, in early versions, wings

The Hurricane, in the foreground of the picture above, was overshadowed by the more glamorous Spitfire flying behind and its construction was considered outmoded, especially with its fabric-covered fuselage and, in early versions, wings

The hurly-burly Hurricane 

The Hurricane, in the foreground of the picture above, was overshadowed by the more glamorous Spitfire flying behind and its construction was considered outmoded, especially with its fabric-covered fuselage and, in early versions, wings.

But the plane, the first in RAF service to pass the 300mph barrier, was solid and tough in combat.

‘A jolly good machine, a rugged type, stronger than the Spitfire,’ was the verdict of the Fighter Command chief Sir Hugh Dowding in 1940.

For every German plane shot down by the Spitfire, two were destroyed by the Hurricane and it proved a lethal ground attacker at El Alamein.

Renowned for its ease of maintenance, it was designed by the moody but brilliant Sydney Camm, who began working life as a carpenter at an aircraft company before World War I.

His fertile mind also designed the Hawker Hunter transonic fighter jet and the Harrier, the world’s first vertical take-off military plane.

Maiden flight: November 1935, entered RAF 1937. Operational 1937-1947.

Max speed: 340mph.

Number built: 14,583.

Weaponry: Eight .303 Browning guns unloading 20 rounds per second. Later featured cannon and could carry a 500lb bomb-load.

Wingspan: 40ft.

AIRWORTHY NOW: 13.

 

As the spearhead of the RAF’s bomber force, the Lancaster combined astonishing manoeuvrability with tremendous strength. At the end of the war, it was dropping the 22,000lb Grand Slam bomb. ‘It was a perfect design. The power that surged through the machine was terrific,’ recalled Lancaster flight engineer Leonard Miller.

The book is further enriched by first-hand testimony of combat, like the account left by Spitfire pilot Eric Lock of 41 Squadron, the highest-scoring ace of the Battle of Britain, of a dogfight on September 5 1941, in which he shot down two bombers and an Me107 fighter.

Equally vivid are the recollections of George ‘Johnny’ Johnson, the last surviving crewman from the 1943 Dambusters Raid, carried out by the Lancasters of 617 Squadron.

A stunning display of the Spitfire¿s grace and aerobatic skill that made it so brilliantly successful in combat

A stunning display of the Spitfire’s grace and aerobatic skill that made it so brilliantly successful in combat

The spectacularly acrobatic Spitfire

A stunning display of the Spitfire’s grace and aerobatic skill that made it so brilliantly successful in combat. 

‘The b******* make such infernally tight turns. There seems no way of stopping them,’ complained one German pilot of a Spitfire Mark XIV in action.

The plane was the masterpiece of Supermarine’s leading designer Reginald Mitchell. He initially considered Spitfire to be ‘a bloody silly name’ — other titles considered were the ‘Shrew’ and the ‘Shrike’. Sadly he never saw his masterpiece in action, dying of bowel cancer in 1937.

The Spitfire was the first all-metal monoplane in Fighter Command, and served until 1955.

At the start, it was difficult to build, mainly because the elliptical wing required such precision engineering. Indeed, the slowness of production in 1938 prompted a political crisis that led to the resignation of the Air Secretary Earl Swinton.

Maiden flight: March 1936, entered RAF service August 1938.

Max speed: 440mph with the Griffon-powered Mark XIV; 370mph with earlier Merlin-powered Mark V.

Number built: 20,351 in 24 different marks.

Weaponry: Eight .303 Browning guns, unloading 20 rounds per second. Later versions featured more powerful cannon and could carry light bombs, either one 500lb bomb under the fuselage or two 250lb bombs under each wing.

Wingspan: 36ft 10in.

Airworthy now: 55.

Johnson was the bomb aimer in the attack on the Sorpe dam in the Ruhr valley and, after nine dummy runs, he secured a hit, though the damage was insufficient to crack the structure.

But two other dams, on the rivers Mohne and Eder, were breached, causing widespread devastation to the region.

Just as importantly, the Dambusters’ Raid became a justified symbol of Britain’s increasingly confident fight against the once impregnable Nazi war machine, a confidence that resulted in victory two years later.

Without the RAF and its three warhorses of the sky, the course of history would have been very different.

  • Leo McKinstry is author of Spitfire, Portrait Of A Legend.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk