Handley Page Hampden

HP.52 Hampden
Hampden Mk.I of No. 455 Squadron RAAF (May 1942)
Role Medium bomber
Manufacturer Handley Page
Designer Gustav Lachmann
First flight 21 June 1936
Introduction 1938
Retired 1943
Primary users Royal Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Soviet Naval Aviation
Royal Australian Air Force
Produced 1936–1941
Number built 1,430


The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a British twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force serving in the Second World War. With the Whitley and Wellington, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and the first 1,000-plane raid on Cologne. The newest of the three medium bombers, the Hampden, known as the "Flying Suitcase" because of its cramped crew conditions,[1] was still unsuited to the modern air war and, after operating mainly at night, it was retired from Bomber Command service in late 1942.

While the Hampden was powered by Bristol Pegasus radial engines, a short-lived variant known as the Handley Page Hereford instead featured in-line Napier Daggers.

Design and development

Handley Page designed the Hampden to the same specification as the Wellington (Air Ministry Specification B.9/32) for a twin-engined day bomber. One prototype HP.52 (Serial K4240) was ordered which first flew on 21 June 1936. The first production batch of 180 Mk I Hampdens was built to a production Specification 30/36 with the first aircraft flying on 24 May 1938. Lady Katharine Mary Montagu Douglas Scott, Viscountess Hampden, christened the first flight at Radlett aerodrome in 1938.[2]

The Hampden's cockpit

The Hampden used a stressed skin design reinforced with a mixture of bent and extruded sections with the wing having a single main spar. Construction was from sections prefabricated then joined. The fuselage was in three major sections – front, centre and rear. The centre and rear sections were themselves made of two halves. This meant the sections could be fitted out in part in better working conditions before assembly. In a similar way, the wings were made up of three large units: centre section, port outer wing and starboard outer wing, which were in turn subdivided.[3]

The Mk I had a crew of four: pilot, navigator/bomb aimer, radio operator and rear gunner. Conceived as a fast, manoeuvrable, "fighting bomber", the Hampden had a fixed .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine gun in the forward fuselage. To avoid the weight penalties of powered turrets, the Hampden had a curved Perspex nose fitted with a manual .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine gun and a .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K installation in the rear upper and lower positions. The layout was similar to the all-guns-forward cockpits introduced about the same time in the Luftwaffe's own medium bombers, notably the Dornier Do 17. The guns were thoroughly inadequate for defence and by 1940, the single guns had been replaced by twin Vickers K guns.

The fuselage was quite cramped, wide enough only for a person. The navigator sat behind the pilot and access in the cockpit required folding down the seats. Once in place, the crew had almost no room to move.

"I did my first flight and first tour on Hampdens. A beautiful aeroplane to fly, terrible to fly in! Cramped, no heat, no facilities where you could relieve yourself. You got in there and you were stuck there. The aeroplane was like a fighter. It was only 3 feet wide on the outside of the fuselage and the pilot was a very busy person. There were 111 items for the pilot to take care of because on the original aircraft he had not only to find the instruments, the engine and all that, but also he had all the bomb switches to hold the bombs. – Wilfred John 'Mike' Lewis[4]

A total of 1,430 Hampdens were built: 500 by Handley Page, 770 by English Electric at Samlesbury in Lancashire and 160 in Canada in 1940–41 by the Canadian Associated Aircraft consortium (although some were retained in Canada, 84 were shipped by sea to the United Kingdom).

Operational history

UK service

Scale comparison diagram of the trio of British twin-engined medium bombers at the outbreak of the Second World War; the Hampden (yellow), the Vickers Wellington (blue) and the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley (pink)

No. 49 Squadron received the first Hampdens in September 1938 and by the end of the year, 49 and 83 Squadrons at RAF Scampton had re-equipped.[5] A total of 226 Hampdens were in service with ten squadrons by the start of the Second World War, with six forming the operational strength of 5 Group of Bomber Command based in Lincolnshire.[5][6] Despite its speed and manoeuvrability, the Hampden was no match for Luftwaffe fighters and its career as a day bomber was brief. Hampdens continued to operate at night on bombing raids over Germany and mine-laying (code-named "gardening") in the North Sea and the French Atlantic ports.

Flight Lieutenant Rod Learoyd of 49 Squadron, was awarded the Victoria Cross for the attack that he led on the Dortmund-Ems canal on 12 August 1940.[7] Sergeant John Hannah was the wireless operator/air gunner of an 83 Squadron Hampden and was awarded the Victoria Cross on 15 September 1940, when he fought the flames of the burning aircraft, allowing the pilot to return it to base.[7]

Almost half of the Hampdens built, 714, were lost on operations, taking with them 1,077 crew killed and another 739 missing. German flak accounted for 108, one hit a German barrage balloon, 263 Hampdens crashed because of "a variety of causes" and 214 others were classed as "missing". Luftwaffe pilots claimed 128 Hampdens, shooting down 92 at night.[8] Guy Gibson spent most of the first two years of his wartime service flying Hampdens and his book Enemy Coast Ahead (1946) gives a strong flavour of the trials and tribulations of taking these aircraft into action.

The last Bomber Command sorties by Hampdens were flown on the night of 14/15 September 1942 by 408 Squadron, RCAF against Wilhelmshaven.[9] After being withdrawn from Bomber Command in 1942, it operated with RAF Coastal Command through 1943 as a long-range torpedo bomber, (the Hampden TB Mk I with a Mk XII torpedo in an open bomb bay and a 500-pound (230 kg) bomb under each wing) and as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

Non-UK service

The Hampden was also used by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), Aviatsiya Voenno-Morskogo Flota (AV-MF: Maritime Military Fleet Aviation) of the Soviet Union and the Swedish Flygvapnet (Air Force).

The Hampden in RCAF service included the 160 examples manufactured in Canada by the Victory Aircraft consortium. Of the total built, 84 were shipped by sea to Great Britain, while the remainder came to Patricia Bay (Victoria Airport) B.C., to set up No. 32 OTU (RAF) used for bombing and gunnery training. Typical exercises at 32 OTU consisted of patrolling up the West Coast of Vancouver Island at night or flying out into the Pacific to a navigational map coordinate, often in adverse and un-forecast inclement weather. Due to attrition from accidents, about 200 "war weary" Hampdens were later flown from the U.K. to Pat Bay as replacements.[10]

In September 1942, the crews of 32 Hampdens from No. 144 Squadron RAF and No. 455 Squadron RAAF flew from Sumburgh in the Shetland Islands to Vaenga (renamed Severomorsk in 1951) in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, a hazardous route often subject to poor weather and spanning more than 2,100 nautical miles (3,900 km), partly over enemy-occupied territory in Norway and Finland. Nine Hampdens were lost en route. From Vaenga, 144 and 455 Squadrons escorted Arctic Convoy PQ 18. After the convoy arrived, the Wing's personnel returned by sea to the UK and the 23 surviving Hampdens were transferred to the Aviatsiya Voenno-Morskogo Flota. These Hampdens were then flown by the 3rd Squadron of 24 MTAP (″Минно-торпедный авиаполк/Mine-torpedo aviation regiment [Anti-Shipping Wing]) until at least 1943.[11] The Flygvapnet assigned an HP.52 to Reconnaissance Wing F 11 at Nyköping for evaluation, under the designation P5. After the war, the aircraft was sold to SAAB where it was used as an avionics testbed.

Variants

The Hampden was powered by two 980 hp (730 kW) Bristol Pegasus XVIII nine-cylinder radial engines. A Mk II variant was developed as the HP.62 by converting two Hampdens to use the 1,000 hp (750 kW) Wright Cyclone engine in 1940 but no more was done of the project.

Interest in the HP.52 by the Swedish for placing a potential order led to the HP.53 prototype, which was subsequently used as a testbed for a pair of 1,000 hp (750 kW) Napier Dagger VIII 24-cylinder H-block air-cooled inline engines.

In 1936, the RAF ordered 150 Dagger-engined Hampdens as the Hereford. Problems with engine cooling resulted in most of those built (by Short & Harland) being re-engined as Hampdens. The surviving Herefords served in training units only.

Operators

Hampden

 Australia
 Canada
 New Zealand
 Soviet Union
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

Hereford

 United Kingdom

Survivors

Hampden P5436 at the Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley, British Columbia c.2006

No Hampdens remain in flying condition today, although two wrecks are in the process of being restored to fly:

Recovered from a crash-site in Russia in 1991, the aircraft is being reconstructed at the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. During the Second World War, it served with No. 144 Squadron RAF, part of Coastal Command. In September 1942, the squadron was transferred to the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia to help protect the Arctic convoys. While in transit over Finland, P1344 accidentally flew close by a German airfield and was shot down by two scrambled Messerschmitt Bf 109s. It crashed in a wooded area of the Kola Peninsula, three crew members were killed and two taken prisoner. After its recovery by another party, the RAF Museum gained ownership of the aircraft in 1992. By April 2013 it was reported that the fuselage restoration was nearing completion.[13]
This aircraft has been reconstructed largely from parts of the last Canadian-built example, ditched on a training flight in November 1942 when the pilot lost control after a practice torpedo drop. The remains were recovered from 600 ft of water in Saanich Inlet on Vancouver Island in 1989. Along with recovered components from two other Hampden crashes in Canada, as of 2007, the reconstruction was about 97 per cent complete. The aircraft was to become the showpiece exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley, British Columbia, in the Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver.
In January 2009, a heavy snowfall snapped off the aircraft's left wing. Despite the efforts of Museum staff to clear the accumulating snow, the wing's internal structure failed and the wing separated from the fuselage, falling onto a display case containing one of the aircraft's original engines. The wing suffered considerable damage and there was additional damage to the tail and propeller.[14] The wing had largely been restored using wood parts because most of the metal parts of the wing structure had been eroded, so it did not possess the structural integrity of the original aircraft. The museum is currently seeking donations to repair the aircraft.[15] The repairs, in 2011, included the mating of the wing and propeller to the fuselage and engine.[16] As of November 2013, the repairs to the CMF Handley Page Hampden have been completed. The wing has been re-secured and the complete aircraft has been repainted.[17] By 20 April 2015 the two gunner sections were open.

The Hampden in popular culture

The HP Hampden had a featured role in The Big Blockade, a 1941 Second World War propaganda film showing "blockade" bombing and its effects on the German war industry,[19] with Michael Rennie and John Mills as two of its four-man crew.[20] The trials of flying Hampdens in the early years of the Second World War are also described in the 2002 novel Damned Good Show by Derek Robinson. There is also an issue of the comic Combat about a Hampden and its crew.

Specifications (Hampden Mk I)

3-view projection of the Hampden Mark I, with inset detail of the Dagger-engined Hereford Mark I

Data from Hampden: Defender of Liberty[21]

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
Related lists

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Crosby 2007, p. 104.
  2. ↑ "Latest bomber type christened 1938". British Pathe.
  3. ↑ Flight May 1939
  4. ↑ "Before the Lancs", Early Days, Personal Stories, The Bomber Command Association
  5. 1 2 Air International November 1984, p. 248.
  6. ↑ Richards 1995, pp. 17–18.
  7. 1 2 "Campaign Diary: The Battle of Britain (June–October 1940)", Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary, 6 April 2005, archived from the original on 6 July 2007, retrieved 29 July 2011
  8. ↑ Moyle 1989.
  9. ↑ Air International November 1984, p. 251.
  10. ↑ "Handley Page Hampden." The Canadian Museum of Flight. Retrieved: 9 October 2011.
  11. ↑ "9th Guards Kirkenesskiy Red Banner Maritime Missile Aviation Regiment." ww2.dk. Retrieved: 8 October 2011.
  12. ↑ "RAAF Handley Page HP.52 Hampden Mk.I & TB.I 455 Sqn, RAAF". ADF-Serials. 4 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Warbird News: RAFM-Cosford Shows Progress on Hampden Restoration Retrieved: 23 September 2013.
  14. ↑ Day 2009, p. 20.
  15. ↑ Niles, Russ. "Snowfall Snaps Wing Off Rare Vintage Plane." avweb.co, 4 January 2009. Retrieved: 29 July 2011.
  16. ↑ "Press: Hampden repair progresses." Canadian Museum of Flight, 5 March 2011.
  17. ↑ CMF update. "Canadian Museum of Flight: Collection: Handley Page Hampden"
  18. ↑ Simpson, Andrew. "Individual History, Handley Page Hampden TB1 P1344/9175M." RAF Museum. Retrieved: 26 September 2010.
  19. ↑ "The Big Blockade". ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 March 2014. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  20. ↑ "Cast: The Big Blockade". ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 March 2014. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  21. ↑ Air International November 1984, p. 249.
  22. ↑ Thetford 1957, p. 253.

Bibliography

  • Barnes, C.H. and Derek N. James. Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1987. ISBN 0-85177-803-8.
  • Bowyer, Chaz. Hampden Special. Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Ltd., 1976. ISBN 0-7110-0683-0.
  • Clayton, Donald C. Handley Page, an Aircraft Album. Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Ltd., 1969. ISBN 0-7110-0094-8.
  • Crosby, Francis. The World Encyclopedia of Bombers. London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2007. ISBN 1-84477-511-9.
  • Day, Jerry. "Hurt Hampden." Air Classics, Volume 45, Issue 4, April 2009
  • Donald, David and Jon Lake, eds. Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft. London: AIRtime Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1-880588-24-2.
  • Green, William. Famous Bombers of the Second World War. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1977. ISBN 0-356-08333-0.
  • Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. WW2 Aircraft Fact Files: RAF Bombers, Part 2. London: Jane's Publishing Company Ltd., 2nd edition revised 1981. ISBN 0-7106-0118-2.
  • Gunston, Bill. Classic World War II Aircraft Cutaways. London: Osprey, 1995. ISBN 1-85532-526-8.
  • "Hampden: Defender of Liberty". Air International, Vol. 27, No. 5, November 1984. pp. 244–252.
  • Mondey, David. The Hamlyn Concise Guide to British Aircraft of World War II. London: Hamlyn/Aerospace, 1982. ISBN 0-600-34951-9.
  • Moyes, Philip J.R. Bomber Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft. London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1964 (2nd edition 1976). ISBN 0-354-01027-1.
  • Moyes, Philip J.R. The Handley Page Hampden (Aircraft in Profile 58). Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1965.
  • Moyes, Philip J.R. Royal Air Force Bombers of World War Two, Volume Two. Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, UK: Hylton Lacy Publishers, 1968. ISBN 0-85064-000-8.
  • Moyle, Harry. The Hampden File. Tonbridge, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1989. ISBN 0-85130-128-2.
  • Postlethwaite, Mark. Hampden Squadrons in Focus. Walton on Thames, UK: Red Kite, 2003. ISBN 978-0953806164.
  • Richards, Denis. The Hardest Victory: RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War. London: Cornet, 1995. ISBN 0-340-61720-9.
  • Roberts, Nicholas. Crash Log: Handley Page Hampden & Hereford. Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, UK: Midland Counties Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-904597-34-2.
  • Thetford, Owen. Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918–1957. London: Putnam, 1957.

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