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History[]

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 like the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. The Battle was much heavier, with its three-man crew and bomb load. Though a great improvement over the aircraft that preceded it the Battle was relatively slow (compared to the Bf109s it had to face), had limited range, and had only two .303 (7.7 mm) machine guns as defensive armament, thus it was found to be 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. In 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 By the end of 1940 the type had been withdrawn from front-line service and relegated to training units overseas. As an aircraft that had been considered to hold great promise in the pre-war era, the Battle proved to be one of the most disappointing aircraft in RAF service.

Piece of Caske[]

Before Hornet Squadron left for France, they shared their airfield with a Battle squadron. Squadron Leader Ramsay asked 'Uncle' Kellaway to organise a rugby match between the two squadrons[4] which, due to Ramsay's death, never took place.[5]

Hornet Squadron acted as escort for a combined force of Battles and Bristol Blenheims sent to destroy a number of bridges during the German assault in May 1940.

The Battle sub plot was not featured in the Miniseries.[N 1]

Notes[]

  1. This was presumably due to a lack of available airframes.

Sources[]

  1. http://www.pilotfriend.com/photo_albums/timeline/ww2/Fairey%20Battle.htm
  2. Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II.
  3. http://www.ww2warbirds.net/ww2htmls/fairbattle.html
  4. Piece of Cake page 49
  5. Piece of Cake page 55.
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