Short Stirling & RAF Bomber Command Forum

Hi Folks, here are a few photos of the Handley Page Halifax. Fill free to add to this collection. Please list all credits. Details come by way of ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/39411748@N ... 362566001/
Cheers,
John

Here are another couple of great photos...........
John

I know very little I'm afraid about Halifaxes, to my shame , but Richard the remains of the one dredged from a Norwegian fjord and displayed at Hendon most certainly has wooden prop blades.



Max

Thanks Max, here is the link to the recovery of this Halifax.
Cheers,
John
http://www.archieraf.co.uk/archie/1048t ... inued.html

John, the photo of the bomb damaged Halifax appears to showa 4 gun mid upper. I cannot recall having seen one before. Does anybody know the amount of rounds carried & where they were stowed.

Dennis

Dennis if you look closely you see that all of the photos, that show the mid upper turret, have four guns.
"The Mk II Series IA had a moulded Perspex nose (the standard for future Halifax variants), a four-gun Defiant-type dorsal turret" -from Wikipedia
Kerry

A four bladed Hali in the background. Taken in August 44 at 1662 CU, sadly, 6 of this crew died just over 3 months later with 166sqdn.
With thanks to Albert Barr, brother of one of those lost.

A very moving picture Alan, thank you for posting it.
John

Denonline wrote:John, the photo of the bomb damaged Halifax appears to showa 4 gun mid upper. I cannot recall having seen one before. Does anybody know the amount of rounds carried & where they were stowed.

Dennis

Dennis,
The Type A- 4 gun Halifax mid upper had 1000 rounds per gun,( vs the rear turret @ 2500 rnds per gun). The mid upper rounds being stowed within the turret.
The Bolton Paul turrets differed from the FN units in that they were powered with an electric over hydraulic unit which was self contained within the turret, no hyd. lines to the port inner! The BP turrets were controlled via a "joy stick" vs. your FN turret's handle grips, the rear turret's seat and arm rests rising as the guns were depressed.
They had a high speed switch for use when extremely fast rotations ( 48 degrees per second) were required. Even on the slow setting, these turrets were much faster than their FN counterparts. Some gunners disliked them saying that the BP units were "too touchy" and harder to track a target?
My uncle's mid upper gunner preferred the Halifax 4 gun mid upper to the Lanc's turret.
His 427 sqdn crew did 25 of their 30 ops on Hallies, the final 5 trips on Lancs.
My uncle, in the rear turret, preferred the Lanc as did the remainder of the crew.
Hope this helps?
Cheers.
Paul

Here is a colour enhanced photo of a previous pic.
John

Little Lulu