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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1266.PDF
422 FLIGHT, 18 September 1953 SERVICE AVIATION . . . The Last "Wimpey" DURING the Battle of Britain "At Home" at St. Athan, South Wales, to morrow, September 19th, the last remain ing Vickers Wellington—the beloved "Wimpey"—will be demonstrated. It is hoped, also, that it will visit some other stations in the south-west on the same day. The Wellington, a wartime type of re nown almost equalling that of the Hurri cane and Spitfire, has, for the past eight years, been mainly employed for training purposes. This last summer all were taken out of service and scrapped, with the ex ception of No. MF 628, a Mk 10 Trainer, now the only specimen in flying condition. Altogether, 11,461 Wellingtons were built and they were operational right through the war, from September 1939 to March 1945. Operational flying hours from Great Britain totalled 346,440 and in the Middle and Far East a further 524,769. Nearly 100,000 tons of bombs were dropped by them. If the post-war flying hours of 355,660 is added, the grand total becomes 1,226,869, which represents more than 184 million miles. The geodetic form of construction em ployed in building the Wellington was de vised by Dr. B. N. Wallis, who designed the R.100 and the special weapons used to breach the Mohne and Eder dams. No. 9 Squadron was the first unit to get Wellingtons, in October 1938, and at the outbreak of war six Bomber Command squadrons were equipped. The first op eration brought litde glory to the partici pants. At 6.15 p.m., September 3rd, 1939, nine Wellingtons from Mildenhall, in com pany with 18 Handley-Page Hampdens from Scampton, took off on what should have been the first bombing raid of the war. They were briefed to attack German warships off the Danish coast but failed to locate their quarry. The next day, however, 14 Wellingtons, with 15 Bristol Blenheims, took part in an attack on die German naval vessels at Brunsbuttel. In the Battle of Britain period the main task of the Wellington squadrons was the bombing of the concen trations of barges held in readiness by the Germans in Continental ports ready to in vade Britain. Wellington production increased stead ily. In September 1940, it was at the rate of 134 a month, and by the Spring of 1941 ONE MORE OF MANY: A barrage balloon i$ lowered to allow a Vickers Wellington to be flown out of Brooklands airfield in 1942. The edge of banking of the old motor-racing track, seen in the background is the site of the original flying sheds of 1910. had grown to more than double this figure. The aircraft itself underwent the normal process of development and improvement, such as the installation of the more power ful Merlin and Hercules engines, and better armament. They were now mainly employed on night bombing, and on April 1st, 1941, a Wellington Mk 2 delivered the first 4,000 lb. "Blockbuster" to Hitler's Reich—on the town of Emden. By May 1941, there were 21 Wellington squadrons in Bomber Command, and a year later, of the 1,043 aircraft which took off to make the historic 1,000-bomber at tack on Cologne on the night of May 30th/ 31st, 1942, no fewer than 599 were Wel lingtons. But by this time, the four- engined "heavies" were coming forward in increasing numbers, and the Wellingtons gradually left Bomber Command, making their last bombing attack from England on October 8th, 1943. They were still widely used by Coastal Command—Wellingtons were the first aircraft to use the Leigh- light for attacking submarines by night— and for training and other duties at home. It was, perhaps, in the Middle East that the Wellington achieved its greatest fame, remaining as a front-line bomber almost until the end of the war. When Italy en tered the war in 1940, the RA.F. had no long-range bombers in the Middle East, but late that summer a small number of Wellingtons arrived from England. On September 19th, 1940, Wellingtons of No. 70 Squadron made their first night attack on the port of Benghazi. Attacks on this target continued almost nightiy for many months, and the "mail run" to Benghazi was immortalised in the 70 Squadron song, to the tune of "Clementine", with the re frain: "Seventy Squadron, Seventy Squad ron, though we say it with a sigh—Must we do this blessed mail run every night until we die?" (In Bomber Command, the Wellington had earlier been commem orated in a popular R.A.F. ballad—a parody of "Waltzing Matilda"—with the title "Ops on a Wimpey".) For the rest of 1940, throughout 1941 and for most of 1942, during the ebb and flow of the Desert battles, the Wellingtons of No. 205 Group attacked targets of vari ous types. During the final advance of 1942-43 they moved to bases near Tripoli, remaining there until the end of the Afri can campaign. Wellingtons were also used by No. 330 Wing, of the British North African Air Force, operating from Tunisia. In the summer of 1943 all the Welling tons were grouped near Kairouan, Tuni sia, and operated extensively in support of the assaults on Sicily and Italy. During this phase they made a number of remark ably successful attacks on railway bridges in Italy, using 4,000 lb. delayed-action bombs dropped from very low level. At the end of 1943, the Desert Wellingtons at last moved out of Africa to Foggia, Italy, and a wider selection of European targets came within their range. On April 8th, 1944, for one special operation, they reverted to their 1939 role as day bombers, to attack, with 4,000-pounders, concentra tions of German troops in the Yugoslav town of Niksic. During the same month they started intensive mining of the River Danube. In the spring and summer of 1944, four- engined bombers became available for the Mediterranean area, and Liberators started to replace the Wellingtons, but it was not until March 13th, 1945, that their last op eration took place. On that night six Wel lingtons accompanied a force of Liberators making an attack on the marshalling yards at Treviso, northern Italy. THE AIR/SEA BATTLE: Parachute mines being loaded on to a Wellington in 1942. In addition to mining, the Wellington did many anti- E-boat patrols over the North Sea and Channel.
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