Best remembered as the first RAF aircraft to shoot down a German aircraft during World War II: the rear gunner of a Battle of No 88 Squadron Advanced Air Striking Force shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109E over France on 20 September 1939. The prototype of this light bomber flew for the first time on 10 March 1936. The Battle was a cantilever low-wing monoplane with a retractable undercarriage, enclosed cockpits for the crew of three and powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
It was certainly a major advance over the old Hawker Hart and Hind open-cockpit biplanes it was to replace and was selected as one of the types to be mass-produced for many of the new squadrons forming under the RAF expansion programme of the latter 1930s. Unfortunately advances in aircraft design in the immediate years prior to World War II made the Battle slow and vulnerable, especially as it became clear that the bomber could not hope to outrun even the most mediocre of modern fighters.
Its defensive armament of one forward-firing 7.7mm Browning and one rear-mounted 7.7mm Vickers K was also far from adequate. Nevertheless the RAF was committed to the Battle and by 1938 it had 13 squadrons. With the outbreak of war ten squadrons were sent to France. The Battle's uphill task against superior German forces was tackled vigorously and indeed the first VCs won by the RAF during this war were awarded to Battle crews for their actions on 12 May 1940 during an attack on the Maastricht bridges. But the bomber was obsolete and within a short time was withdrawn from operational service, subsequently becoming a trainer and target tug in the UK and in Canada under the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The type also served with the air forces of Australia, Belgium, South Africa and Turkey. Production totalled more than 2,400 aircraft, many built by Austin Motors.
Interestingly one Battle was fitted with the Fairey P.24 engine and Fairey electrically operated contra-rotating constant-speed propellers - the first propellers of this type to be flight tested in the UK. Between 13 June 1939 and 5 December 1941, the aircraft accumulated about 86 flying hours at the hands of Flt Lieut Christopher Staniland, Mr F. H. Dixon (the company's subsequent chief test pilot) and a number of RAF pilots. It was then shipped to the USA.
FACTS AND FIGURES
© The Battle had the same Merlin
engine as the Spitfire Mk I, but
when loaded weighed nearly
half as much again, giving it a
top speed over 160km/h less than the Spitfire.
© The Battle was designed as a
two-seater with crew of pilot
and observer, but provision
was later made for a gunner,
armed with a single World
War I-vintage Vickers
machine gun.
© One forward-firing Browning
machine gun was mounted in
the starboard wine.
Fairey Battle on YOUTUBE
