Handley Page Halifax Bomber

The Halifax became one of the RAF frontline four engine bombers of WWII, produced between 1940 and 1945 resulting in a total of over 6,000 being built.  As with the Avro Lancaster, the original specification called for a two engine heavy bomber powered by the Rolls Royce liquid cooled Vulture engine.

 Even before the prototype got off the drawing board it became obvious that the production and operational problems with the Vulture powerplant would result in a heavily flawed design that would not produce the required performance.   The competing Avro design was already in production and known as the Manchester and fitted with two Rolls Royce Vultures; the design would suffer operational problems as a consequence.  In 1937 the original Handley Page 56 design was redesignated HP.57 and developed as a four engine bomber powered by the far more reliable Rolls Royce Merlin X, and named the Halifax.  The prototype first flew in September 1939 and introduced into squadron service in November 1940.

 The most numerous Halifax variant was powered by Bristol Hercules air cooled radial engines and introduced in 1943.  Halifax’s were built at several locations around the UK and at the peak of production one Halifax was completed every hour.

 Although inferior in performance and load capacity to the Avro Lancaster, the Halifax proved an able partner and in addition to night bombing duties was used for special operations by 100 Group, SOE clandestine operations and coastal command long range operations into the Atlantic western approaches.  The Halifax and Stirling were the first bombers to use H2S (ground scanning radar) on 30^th January 1943 to identify targets under all weather conditions.  The final Halifax bombing operation of WWII took place on the 2^nd May 1945 on a mission to bomb Kiel Harbour.  Variants of the Halifax saw service with the Pakistani Air Force and were finally withdrawn in 1961.

Survivors

Two fully restored examples exist of this bomber.  One is located at the Yorkshire Air Museum at the former site of RAF Elvington, and the other is at the RCAF museum near Ontario, Canada.

Another example is displayed in ‘as discovered’ condition following recovery from Lake Hoklingen, Norway.  This aircraft was a member of 35 Squadron that took part on a raid against the battleship Tirpitz on the night of 27/28 April 1942.  The aircraft was hit by flak after releasing the bomb load and the pilot made a successful crash landing on the frozen surface of the lake.  The aircraft was recovered in 1973 and transported to the RAF museum at Hendon.