The Vickers Wellington is one of the most recognisable and best loved aircraft of the period with a staggering 11400 being produced before and during WW2.
The Vickers Wellington is a twin-engine long-range medium day bomber produced by Vickers-Armstrong from 1936 to 1945 and entered service with the RAF in October 1938. Although it was designed as a day bomber it was used as a night bomber primarily after the opening months of WW2. The aircraft was designed by Barnes Wallis under the direction of chief designer Rex Pierson. Barnes designed the geodetic airframe structure, an innovative internal framework with stretched doped fabric skin making it very resilient to enemy fire. The Wellington, named after the Duke of Wellington, was built in huge numbers in various Marks.
The Mk.I was introduced in 1938 initially powered by Bristol Pegasus engines with the Mk.II being powered with Rolls-Royce Merlin X. The Wellington B Mk.III was the predominant mark with 0ver 1500 being built and powered by the Bristol Hercules III engines. The Mark X was introduced in 1942 with 3500 being built at Broughton. The Mk.X was effectively a Mk.III with more powerful engines.
The type, along with the Hampden, Whitley and Blenheim, formed the core of Bomber Command from the outset of the war. The other three aircraft were deemed unsuitable very early on in hostilities making the Wellington the mainstay of bomber command from early 1941 until the introduction of the four-engine ‘Heavies’. The time needed to manufacture the geodetic airframe meant that only one per day could be produced, mainly in Weybridge and 50 a month in Broughton, North Wales.
In 1943 a propaganda fuelled project at the Broughton factory built a Wellington in 23hrs 50mins which took off after 24hrs 48mins, the fastest ever build of a bomber, filmed by the air ministry and broadcast in UK and America.
The Wellington was the only bomber to be built before and throughout WW2, in many variations and Marks, and used by the RAF, Coastal Command and the FAA as well as commercial use.
Wellingtons were sent on bombing missions right from the outset of WW2 with many raids on German shipping in bases such as Brunsbuttel and Heligoland. The day that Britain declared war on Germany there were six Wellington squadrons in service with the first operational sortie of the war on 4th September 1939. 14 Wellingtons with some Blenheims flew the first bombing raid on Germany. 2 of those Wellingtons became the first casualties of the war. However, during further bombing missions many Wellingtons were lost, notably the raid on 18 December 1939 over Heligoland where, due to German ships being in harbour and reluctance of the Air Ministry to incur civilian casualties, the 24 Wellingtons returned home only to lose 15 of their number from enemy fighters on the journey. From mid-1940 the Wellington was used for night bombing and removed from daylight raids. Many took part in the first raid on Berlin on 25 August 1940. On the first 1000 bomber raid over Cologne on 30May 1942, 599 of the 1046 aircraft were Wellingtons. During the conflict Wellington bombers flew over 47000 sorties, dropped over 41000 tons of bombs and lost 1332 in combat.
The Wellington was armed with 6 to 8 .303 Browning machine guns in forward and aft turrets with two in the mid-fuselage. The Mk.II’s were upgraded with four Browning .303 in the rear turret in 1940. It could carry a load of 2000kg of bombs in various configurations. In its many roles the aircraft was capable of multiple tasks with all the airborne activities during the war including Coastal patrol, mine clearance, anti-submarine, airborne radar and tugging gliders. It was used after the war as a training aircraft for bomber command as well as multiple transport and commercial use. It was retired from service with the RAF in 1953.
Despite the numbers built and its varied uses only two examples survive neither of which are airworthy. A Wellington Mk.IA N2980, delivered in November 1939, on display at Brooklands Museum, Surrey, UK and a T.10 MF628 at the RAF Museum, Cosford, UK built in 1944.
