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LAST OF THE LINE BEAUFIGHTERS TUGGING AT SLE THE MIGHTY BEAUFIGHTER REFUSED TO RETIRE FROM THE RAF AFTER THE W

Right attle-hardened torpedo-, all, he carried out the maiden flights Beaufi ghter TT.10 SR912 strike weapon of awesome of more than 1,800 of the 3,336 that towing a target while with Bcapability and pioneer night originated from the Weston factory. Kai Tak Station Flight, Hong Kong, circa 1952. fighter it may have been, but When the atomic bombs shattered The sleeve is only slightly with the advent of peace there Japanese willpower, there were just In the deployed for the purposes seemed little future for the Bristol six frontline Beaufighter TF.X units , the of the photo; normally Beaufighter. That slim was left; two each in (22 and Beaufighter had the edge over it would be a long, long not capable of taking more advanced 217 Squadrons) and the UK (254 its more nimble rival, the Mosquito. way behind! PETER GREEN airborne interception gear, and the and 287), one in Burma (27), and The latter’s bonded COLLECTION remoteness of the gunner-turned- another (252) in Greece. The last of structure suffered in extremes of operator back in the fuselage these disbanded in December 1946. temperature and humidity, while the did not help. With its side-by-side The lack of fuselage capacity all-metal Bristol type could shrug crew, the Mosquito was also worked against the ‘Beau’ as a off such privations. It was in this the of choice for the potential crew trainer. Like many same theatre that conflicts that immediate post-war period. other warhorses, some were headed could benefit from the For torpedo or rocket attacks for re-work and export, but most Beaufighter’s attributes another Bristol type, the Brigand, were destined for scrap. were developing. was gearing up for service, but it In Burma, 27 Squadron proved to be disappointing and, NEW LIFE, NEW WARS at Mingaladon was still besides, the days of torpedo- But there was still life in the needed to flex its muscles. were coming to an end. revered twin, thanks to its robust Despite the surrender, Victory in Japan Day was characteristics. The 1,770hp getting the word through celebrated on August 15, 1945 and (1,320kW) 14-cylinder, two-row to out-of-touch the following month – on the 21st – Bristol Hercules Mk.XVII radials Japanese troops meant production Ronnie Ellison powering the Mk.Xs were very that, occasionally, took TF.X SR919 into the air from reliable, plenty were held in reserve ‘contact’ was the Bristol-administered shadow and there were huge stocks of required factory at Oldmixon, near Weston- consumables. Later versions of the and a super-Mare, Somerset. This was the Hercules were fitted to the Handley 5,564th and last of the powerful Page Hastings, , twins to be built in Britain. Varsity and Viking, so there was Ellison had been at the helm of a large pool of personnel the first Oldmixon machine, Mk.If used to working X7540, on February 20, 1941 and on them. he made sure he took the honours for the 1,000th (Mk.VI JL762), 2,000th and 3,000th examples. In

90 FLYPAST January 2019 EEVES E WAR. KEN ELLIS EXAMINES ITS SECOND CAREER, WHICH LASTED UNTIL 1960

January 2019 FLYPAST 91 LAST OF THE LINE BEAUFIGHTERS

Above burst from the guns of a TF.X often 1946, 27 Squadron disbanded the dissidents had become better armed The prototype TT.10, helped to quell resistance. The unit following month. and more organised. NT913, at Filton in 1948. also dropped more than 250,000 Following a slaughter of plantation Note the winch in the HEAVY STRIKE upright position and leaflets explaining that World War owners and staff in Perak, a state the wire guards around Two had ended. In Malaya, insurrection was of emergency was declared on June the tail surfaces. BRISTOL Having endured the Japanese, fermenting throughout the vast 17, 1948. With typical British AEROPLANE COMPANY on Java the Indonesian nationalist jungle peninsula behind , understatement, what was to Sukarno seized his moment to declare spreading up to the / become an 18-year conflict was Above right Weary-looking TT.10 independence from the previous Burma border. By early 1948, nonchalantly referred to as ‘The RD809 of 34 Squadron, occupying power, the . based at Horsham St Militarily, the area was a British BEAUFIGHTER TT.10 UNITS Faith, taxiing at an responsibility – UK forces were airshow circa 1950. PETER busy rounding up Japanese soldiers Squadrons: 5 & 17 Chivenor, 20 Valley, 34 & 695 Horsham GREEN COLLECTION and, most importantly, extracting St Faith, 167 Abingdon, then Benson Below prisoners of war. Armament Practice Camps: 26 Nicosia, Cyprus; 27 Butterworth, Malaya The last British-built Although hoping to avoid a Beaufi ghter, TF.X SR919 at confrontation, one occupying force Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Units: 1 Hornchurch; 2 Little Snoring, then Langham; Oldmixon, August 1945. looks much like another and, from 3 Exeter; 4 Llandow; 5 Llanbedr BRISTOL AEROPLANE COMPANY October 1945, British personnel were fired upon by Sukarno supporters. Communications/Target Towing Squadron: Luqa and then Ta Qali, Malta The UK was unwillingly immersed Far East Transport Wing: Changi, Singapore in what would become the bitter struggle for Indonesian autonomy. Operational Conversion Units: 226 Molesworth then Bentwaters and Among other assets, 27 Squadron’s Driffi eld; 229 Leuchars, Scotland, then Beaufighters were detached to Chivenor, Devon Kemajoran on Java, arriving in Station Flights: Changi, Seletar and Tengah, all Singapore; Kai November 1945. They went straight Tak, Hong Kong into and, in the space of three months, undertook 300-plus ‘ops’. Target Towing Flight/Section/Unit: Nicosia, Cyprus; Shallufa, Egypt Many of these sorties were a matter of merely showing up to disperse Trials units: Aeroplane & Armament Experimental hostile forces, or to drop leaflets. Establishment, Boscombe Down; Handling When close support was required, the Squadron, Manby; Royal Aircraft Beaus provided accurate firepower. Establishment, Farnborough Returning to Mingaladon in January

92 FLYPAST January 2019 violently. On return to RAE, the undersides of RD388 were pockmarked with damage from expended links. The gun bay was urgently re-thought, so the links were not ejected into the slipstream but Left collected within the fuselage. TT.10 RD850 served with Distinctive bulges – known as 229 OCU at Chivenor before moving to ‘Sabrinas’ after a well-endowed Nicosia, Shallufa and glamour model and actress of the fi nally Malta, retiring in time – were fitted to Hunters to late 1958. KEC cure this element of the jet fighter’s Below left Emergency’ and in RAF-speak as The first assault was on August 12, ADEN ailments. Based at Llanbedr, Operation Firedog. 1949, on a camp near the Thai border, Testing in the modified Wales, TT.10 SR914 of During 1948, the RAF stopped where a large concentration of CTs RD388 continued, including 5 Civilian Anti-Aircraft using Roman numerals for its aircraft had been found – 30 were believed to firing in tight manoeuvres and Co-operation Unit, at designations. Arabic numbers were have been killed in the initial salvoes. steep dives. These inflicted terrible low level in early 1950. adopted, so the Beaufighter TF.X Five days later came the biggest strike strains on the and the PETER GREEN COLLECTION became the TF.10. The nearest heavy yet, with Beaufighters supplemented Beaufighter was declared over- strike unit in the Far East Air Force by Spitfires. stressed by the end of 1955 and was 84 Squadron at Seletar, Singapore. In October, 84 Squadron departed was grounded. F.8 Previously a Mosquito FB.6 operator, to Habbaniya in , where it started WK660 took over the trials. it re-equipped in November converting to Brigands. Also coming The ADEN was a derivative of the 1946 with Beaufighter TF.10s. A to grips with the troublesome Brigand German 213. The name detachment was sent to Kuala Lumpur was 45 Squadron, which re-located was derived from a combination of – known as ‘KL’ – in July 1948. to Tengah, Singapore, in December the Royal Armament Research and Across the Indian Ocean at 1949. The unit did not forsake Development Establishment at Fort Negombo in Ceylon, 45 Squadron Beaus totally, though, until early the Halstead, Kent, where the was traded its Mosquito FB.6s for TF.10s following year. created, and Enfield in Middlesex, in December 1948. It was also put Beaufighters of 45 were brought where it was manufactured. ADEN on standby and had a detachment of in for an attack on a settlement in 30mm guns were eventually fitted to Beaus in place at KL a month after Johore – the Malay state neighbouring British jets through to the Harrier 84 and the entire unit settled there in Singapore – on February 7, 1950. and Jaguar. May 1949. This sortie was very likely the last time Between these two, an average of a Beau was used in anger. THREE PROPELLERS eight Beaufighters were on call to hit With its days of shooting at targets what were called Communist Terrorist BIG GUN over, the Beaufighter turned to a (CT) bases, supply lines or bands of The Weapons Department of the task that would keep it employed insurgents. Until the arrival of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) for 12 years. Its good turn of speed – 303mph at 1,500ft (487km/h at 457m) – and typical range of 1,470 miles (2,365km) offered considerable endurance. All this combined to make the Beau well suited for target-towing. All three services had an insatiable need for gunnery practice. While the fuselage had its restrictions in terms of radar, it could accommodate a winch for pulling gunnery sleeves with ease. The airframe could take plenty of knocks and was simple to repair. In 1945, Mk.Is V8319 and X7574 were involved in towing trials at hard-hitting Bristols, Supermarine at Farnborough, Hampshire, operated the A&AEE, Boscombe Down. Spitfire FR.18s equipped with under- TF.10 RD388 into the early 1950s. It was May 1948 before NT913, wing rocket-projectiles (RPs) were the Ironing out problems on the 30mm the true prototype, was converted first responders. ADEN cannon for the Hawker at Filton, Bristol, and given the So 45 and 84’s Beaufighters came Hunter and was a designation TT.10. An initial 35 into their own. Robert Jackson high priority, and two of the weapons were transformed at Oldmixon up summed up the twin’s advantages in were installed in RD388’s forward to 1950. Demand was such that the his masterful The fuselage gun bay in place of the usual total number of TT.10s created came and Indonesian Confrontation (Pen quartet of 20mm cannon. to just shy of 60. & Sword 2008): “With its powerful On May 5, 1954 Flt Lt Mitchell All TT.10s were originally built at armament of four 20mm cannon, six and civilian observer W Ainley took Oldmixon as TF.Xs. Other than the 0.303 machine-guns, eight RPs or two RD388 to the Aberporth gunnery prototype, the majority came from the 250 or 500lb bombs, each Beaufighter ranges off the Welsh coast. While RDxxx serial batch plus seven from was the offensive equivalent of firing several bursts at a float target, the final production run, SR911 to two Spitfires.” the Beaufighter bucked around ’914, SR916, SR917 and SR919.

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Above Last of the line: TT.10 blaze engulfed it. RD761 of Seletar Station He and the winch Flight, May 1960. PETE WEST operator were rescued by boat. Right A colour study from 1959 The final loss was showing TT.10 RD809 more typical of accidents incurred by at Benson. PETER GREEN tugs. On charge with Seletar Station COLLECTION Flight, RD811 was towing off the Singapore coast, near Changi, for Below right the gunners of the destroyer HMS Former Portuguese Cavalier Beaufi ghter TF.10 RD253 , on November 13, 1958 on display at the RAF (retired in 1972, Cavalier is today Museum Hendon. preserved at the Historic Dockyard KEY COLLECTION Chatham in Kent). Just one machine, RD708, had seen service prior to conversion; all the others were taken from store or straight from the factory. A windlass was placed within the rear fuselage, and a cable attached to a target sleeve (or drogue) was trailed out via a lug below the tail. Under the bubble canopy in the rear fuselage, the second crew member handled the winding in/out of the cable. The winch was powered by an airstream-driven four-bladed propeller on a fixed arm, which extended from the starboard mid-fuselage. When not in use, this propeller was rotated through 90°, to create the minimum which re-formed at Abingdon, At 4,000ft one of the Hercules amount of drag. Guards and wires Oxfordshire, on February 1, 1953 radials failed and the pilot headed protected the tail surfaces and from 3 Ferry Unit, moving in April for home. Two miles out from base, tailwheel from the tow wire. to nearby Benson. The outfit existed RD811 was sighted at about 700ft In the early 1950s, RAE TF.10 to fly various types long distances to with its undercarriage down. It SR915 was tested with a ML new ‘clients’ and with TT.10s in use abruptly turned to starboard, Type G self-contained in all points east to Hong Kong and rolled on to its back and dived winch mounted on the centre section Singapore, a ‘Beau’ or two was on vertically into the sea. The pilot was torpedo shackles. This device was strength to keep pilots current. killed, but miraculously the winch not adopted for the Beaufighter, but An unofficial motto adopted by operator survived. the pod found favour with Hawker RAF target facilities units is, ‘We aim Tempest TT.5s, Mosquito TT.35s to please – you aim too, please!’ With FINALE and (FAA) Fairey the drogue nearly three-quarters of Seletar was the venue for the Firefly TT.4s, among other platforms. a mile behind the Beaufighter tug, Beaufighter’s denouement, carried losses through being shot at were rare. out by the Station Flight’s TT.10 LINE OF FIRE But they did happen. RD761. Built at Oldmixon in Hard-working TT.10s served Based at Hornchurch, Essex, 1945 as a TF.X, it was typical of extensively in the UK, the 1 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation the tugs. It never served at the Mediterranean (with the FAA and Unit specialised in providing the Royal ‘sharp end’ and was stored. After RAF), and the Middle and Far East. Navy with gunnery exercises. On June conversion in late 1948, it went Five squadrons flew the yellow and 26, 1952 TT.10 RD855 was off the off to operate in turn with 17 black striped tugs along with many north Kent coast at Sheerness when Squadron at Chivenor in Devon, 5 ancillary units (see the panel). the port wing erupted in flames; it had Squadron at Llandow, Wales, and The final RAF squadron to been hit by several anti-aircraft gun 226 Operational Conversion Unit, fly the Beaufighter was 167, shells. The pilot ditched RD855 as the also at Chivenor. It was ferried to

94 FLYPAST January 2019 “An unoffi cial motto adopted by RAF target facilities units is ‘We aim to please – you aim too, please!’” the Far East in 1955 to join the , , , Two of the TF.10s were transferred Below Seletar Station Flight. and the USAAF had to the Lisbon Technical Institute, Beaufi ghter RD761 during its farewell On May 12, 1960 flying RD761 operated Beaufighters during the to act as instructional in fl ight around Singapore Fg Off H Marshall piloted the RAF’s war. All but the Australians dropped 1950. Ten years later, BF13 (the landmarks, May 12, commemorative last sortie. Official the type from their inventories soon former RD253) was gifted to the 1960. Note the winch photos of this last flight are dated after 1945. The RAAF retired its last RAF Museum. propeller is in the May 16 and this is often quoted in example, a locally built Mk.21, in The other airframe, BF10 stowed position. sources, but this was the release date December 1957. (RD220), soldiered on at Lisbon RAF CHANGI VIA KEC of the prints, not of the event! Four former RAAF Beaufighters until 1983 when it was exchanged Eight days later, RD761 and fellow survive intact, three in Australia, with the RD809 were struck off charge. They one in the USA and The Fighter Museum’s Spitfire IX ML255. This were stripped of spares and their Collection’s Mk.XI under restoration Beau was sold to what is now the forlorn carcasses left on the scrap at Duxford, Cambridgeshire. National Museum of Flight Scotland dump. Another TT.10, RD781, As well as RAF combat operations at East Fortune, arriving from South had met a similar fate the after 1945, two other countries flew Africa in December 2000. previous February. Beaus in action. The Dominican The Portuguese gift to the RAF Republic took delivery of ten TF.10s Museum, BF13, was in far better state MUSEUM RETROSPECTIVE in 1948 and the following year they than the hulk of RD867 salvaged in As the last TT.10s decayed at Seletar were used to quell an insurrection, but Malta. Engines and other parts of in 1960, plans for what became the they were out of service by the 1950s. RD867 were used in the restoration of RAF Museum were in their earliest managed to acquire four BF13, which was displayed at Hendon days. It looked like the Beaufighter TF.10s clandestinely and they were from March 15, 1971, once again had slipped the ‘shopping list’. engaged in the War of Independence wearing the serial RD253. The substantial remains of TT.10 during October 1948. The hulk In 1969, the engineless RD867 RD867 were languishing on the of one of these is preserved at was despatched to the National dump at Ta Qali, Malta; it had been Hatzerim, Israel. Museum of Aviation at Rockcliffe, retired in December 1958. The The first export customer for Ontario, Canada. It had been forward fuselage, centre section, Beaufighters was , taking exchanged for engines and undercarriage of stocks from RAF units IVT 10001, which had arrived in former 29 Squadron Mk.If X7688 in 1944 and 24 reconditioned TF.Xs Britain in April 1966. was a familiar sight at Halton, in 1946. All are thought to have been With its wartime service, the Buckinghamshire. It was used to test withdrawn by 1950. former Halton test rig was a run Hercules radials by students of Portugal received 17 TF.10s during very tempting museum piece, 1 School of Technical Training. This 1945 and 1946 for its naval air but wisely, it was disposed of in machine had been struck off charge arm. The last flight by a Portuguese December 1987. It was acquired by in June 1943, becoming instructional Beaufighter was performed by a Bedfordshire-based restorer as the airframe 3858M. airframe BF17 in 1949 when, basis of a return-to-flight project These two were snapped up by the bizarrely, the twins were replaced by using sections from former RAAF nascent museum: the Malta Beau in Curtiss SB2C Helldivers of much examples. This venture was exported 1964, the Halton engine rig in 1970. the same vintage. (See February to Australia in 2012 and it Both required much work… could a 2018 FlyPast for the full story of continues to make progress in better example be found? Portuguese Beaus). New South Wales.

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