The Handley Page Halifax

Video from the channel Aircraft Files about Handley Page, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 20:24. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The documentary traces the history of the Handley Page Halifax: its origin as a twin-engined medium bomber, how it became a four-engined heavy bomber, its variants and its service with Bomber Command and Coastal Command during the Second World War. Crews nicknamed it the "Halibag". It entered RAF service on 13 November 1940 with No. 35 Squadron, and production ended in April 1945 after 6,176 aircraft.

The project began with the Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36, issued in September 1936. George Volkert's team put forward the HP.56, a twin-engined aircraft with Rolls-Royce Vulture engines. The competition was won by the Avro 679, but the ministry ordered two Handley Page prototypes as a backup alternative. Problems with the Vulture led the company to redesign it as the four-engined HP.57, with Merlin engines. The first hundred Mark Is were ordered off the drawing board, and the first prototype, L7244, flew on 25 October 1939 from Bicester. The aircraft was modular, built from sub-assemblies that were easy to transport and repair. It had to correct a tendency to spin caused by its triangular tail fins, which were replaced by larger rectangular ones from early 1943. It debuted in combat on 11 March 1941 against Le Havre. Its low ceiling and poor protection caused many losses, and by the end of that year it was withdrawn from daylight bombing.

The Mark I carried four Merlin X engines and reached 260 mph, with an 18,000 ft ceiling and up to 13,000 lb of bombs split between the bomb bay and the wings. The Mark III (HP.61), with Bristol Hercules XVI radial engines, reached 282 mph and a 24,000 ft ceiling. 2,091 were built, more than any other version, and it entered service in November 1943. There were maritime patrol versions with ASV radar, a transport version with a cargo pannier, and a paratrooper version. Arthur Harris preferred the Lancaster, which could drop more bombs. Even so, No. 35 Squadron flew Halifaxes as Pathfinders in Operation Gomorrah over Hamburg in 1943, and at its peak the aircraft equipped 34 Bomber Command squadrons in Europe. According to the video, one Halifax was lost for every 21 sorties, against one Lancaster for every 27, a figure weighed down by the Halifax's heavy early losses.