The workhorse of World War II
THE BRISTOL BLENHEIM: A COMPLETE HISTORY
by Graham Warner (Crecy Publishing, £34.95) AS THE 60th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II draw to a close, it is entirely appropriate that the workhorse of the RAF, the streamlined monoplane the Bristol Blenheim, should at last emerge to claim its rightful position within the annals of aviation history.
Less graceful than the Spitfire and Hurricane, and lacking the majesty of the Lancaster, it still held its own as a day and night fighter.
At the start of the war, there were more Blenheims than any other type of aircraft, so they bore the brunt of the initial onslaught.
Their contribution to the Battle of Britain was outstanding, particularly in the dangerous bombing raids on enemy airfields and invasion barges in the Channel ports. The range and versatility of the Blenheim was vital for antishipping operations, particularly in the desperate Battle of the Atlantic.
It is clear that wherever intense action and dangerous missions were involved, then the Blenheim was very much present. Three of its air crew were to win the Victoria Cross.
The prototype for the Blenheim was conceived in 1933 as a light civil aircraft, able to carry six passengers and a crew of two.
It was commissioned by Lord Rothermere, the proprietor of the Daily Mail, who paid the Bristol Aeroplane Company £18,500 to develop the prototype. An ardent supporter of British aviation and one of the few far- sighted individuals who realised the only way to win a war was to have air supremacy, he later gave the first model to the RAF.
After extensive trials, the company received an order for 150 aircraft, ensuring that the air force had a modern, light bomber. In this exhaustively researched book, Warner describes every campaign in which the Blenheim was involved and at the end of each one meticulously details the losses of each aircraft.
The hundreds of listed ‘ FTRs’ ( Failed To Return) make poignant reading. Many of the bodies of the air crew were never found, but their names are commemorated on the Runnymede memorial.
The Blenheim experienced many technical teething troubles, and as Warner details, the RAF lost 70 aircraft through accidents in the year leading up to the war alone. In the early months of action in 1940, there were so many casualties that the Blenheim earned the grim sobriquet of ‘Widowmaker’.
But it carried on, and in the end its air crews regarded their — at times idiosyncratic — Blenheims with great affection.
Max Arthur