British and Commonwealth thread

[Denniss]

I would assume the Halifaxes were both slower and flying lower on the return leg, thus staying longer in enemy field of fire.

[Smirfy]

Was reading about that unsung hero the Lockheed Hudson in coastal command and it appears there were two squadrons 608 and 500 in the Coastal Airforce for Husky and beyond. Having played the Italian scenario more than a few time I could use the extra maritime patrol aircraft.

[wokelly]

The merlin Halifax's were different beasts compared to the Hercules powered Mark III's, but the older models were pretty much death traps even for bomber command.

The earlier Halifax's with merlin engines (I's, II's and V's) had a very low survival rate by late 1943 and early 1944. Based on the probability of surviving 30 operations within preceding 6 months, Crews from these older models had a 25% of completing a tour ending in July 1943 to an even more abysmal 17% for a tour ending in December 1943. In comparison the Lancaster crews "enjoyed" a 35% chance of completing a tour in July 1943, climbing to 40% for a bit before dipping back to 35% in December 1943. Evidentally the Lanc not only was a safer bomber in this time period, it held more bombs.

In 5 raids from December 20th to 19th Februrary on Frankfurt, Berlin, Magdeburg, Berlin and Leipzig, Halifax units suffered an average loss rate of 11.6%. If a Halifax crew happened to fly all five of these raids, they had a 54% chance of surviving all five of them. Then they still had 25 more missions to do! The losses were so bad Halifax units actually were unable to keep up to strength. The loss of 34 Halifax bombers on Leipzig (13.3% of Halifaxes sent vs 7.8% of Lanc's sent) was the last straw for Harris and the older type was pulled from major raids.

[Denniss]

Halifax II are listed as cruising 10-15 mph slower then H.III and Lanc, 253 mph at 19k as max speed (mean weight) and 21k service ceiling at max weight.
The H.II was clearly underpowered with the ~1200hp Merlins - 200 yards more take-off distance than the heavier H.III.
Fully loaded I expect the H.II to be at least 20 mph slower than on the return leg, making it easier to track/follow for Flak and NFs.