SHORT STIRLING BOMBER
The
Royal Air Force's first four engined monoplane Bomber, the Short Stirling
first flew in May 1939 and entered front line service in August 1940 with
no. 7 squadron. Due to its poor operational ceiling the aircraft sustained
heavy losses and by mid 1942 the Stirling was beginning to be replaced by
the Lancaster. Improved versions of the Short Stirling were built
for Glider towing, paratroopers and heavy transport. also from 1943 many
of the Stirling's were used for mine laying. A total of 2381 Stirling's
were built for the Royal air Force and from this total 641 Stirling
bombers were lost to enemy action.
Crew 7 or 8:
Speed:
260 mph (MK1) 275mph (MKIII) and 280mph (MKV)Service ceiling 17,000
feet Range: 2330 miles.
(MK1) 2010 miles (MKIII) and 3,000 miles (MKV)
Armament: two .303 Vickers machine guns.
in nose turret, two .303 in browning machine guns in dorsal
turret , Four .303 Browning machine guns in tail turret. Bomb
Load 14,000 Lbs Engines: four 1150 Hp Bristol Hercules II
(MK1) four 1650 hp Bristol Hercules XVI (MK111 and MKV)
Tribute to the Crews of the Stirling by Graeme Lothian
Outward bound, Stirling III of 199 Squadron based at Lakenheath,
Suffolk, heads out on another night of operations in August 1943.
EE953, Sqd letters EX - E of 100 group is piloted by F/L Tom Austin DFC
who finished his tour by the end of October 1944, winning the DFC with
his bomb aimer F/O Jack Lawrence. Nicknamed the "Queen of the
Skies", the Stirling was the 1st four engined bomber to enter
service with the RAF in 1941. The cockpit stood a massive 22.5
feet from the ground and had an operational ceiling of only 12,000 feet,
well within the range of the enemy AA guns. By September 1944
other bombers were taking the brunt of the attack to the Germans and the
Stirlings were used mainly for glider towing especially for D-day and
Arnhem
.Blackburn Beverley C.Mk.1 XM108 of 84 Sqn RAF by Keith
Woodcock
Hudson Attack by Marii Chernev On
October 5th 1942 Lockheed Hudson N of 269 Squadron
encountered and sank U-619 which was on its first patrol
Target Y "The Eder Dam Raid",
The Rhur Valley, 17th May 1942 by David Pentland At 0154am, Pilot officer Les Knight in Avro Lancaster
AJ-N
transmitted the codeword "Dinghy", the signal that the Eder
Dam had been successfully breached. Although the target was undefended
by flak, its location made it extremely difficult to hit. In fact, four
of the five aircraft involved in the attack failed in their attempts and
Knights' was the last available aircraft carrying the last available
bomb!
