Bristol Beaufighter, part seven. The Beaufighter in Australian hands. Part one.

 

The Bristol Beaufighter was also employed by many Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) squadrons all around the globe.

The first of such was No. 456 Squadron which was formed under Royal Air Force's (RAF) command at RAF Valley, (Wales) in June 1941 as a night-fighter unit. 
Although initially equipped with the Boulton-Paul Defiant Mk. I, they transitioned to the Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF, completing the transition in September 1941 and becoming fully operational in November. They were at first tasked with flying defensive patrols over the Irish Sea and scoring their first kill in January 1942. This squadron kept their Beaufighters Mk. I and Mk. II, flying as a defensive unit, until December 1942 when they began to transition to the De Havilland Mosquito fighter.
However, for a brief period, ranging from July 1942 to January 1943 (or March, according to some other sources), they operated the Beaufighter TF. Mk. X too as part of their new anti-shipping strike role, operating mainly over the Bay of Biscay. 

On Australian soil, the first RAAF's squadron to operate the Beaufighter was No. 30 (City of Sale) Squadron, which was formed at RAAF Richmond (New South Wales, but close to Sydney) and was initially equipped with some of the fifty-four of the Fairey-built Beaufighter Mk. IC that the Australian Government bought in 1941 and 1942. 
As said, this unit was formed on 9th March 1942 as a long-range fighter unit and, after some training period, they were rebased to RAAF Townsville (Queensland) with a detachment to RAAF Milne Bay (Papua) from where they attacked Japanese shipping, becoming the first unit of the RAAF with Beaufighters to see action.  Shortly later, they were deployed to Port Moresby to operate as a low-level ground support unit, where they Beaufighter proved to be highly successful.
Operating from Port Moresby and surrounding areas, their main task to strike Japanese shipping and naval bases, with occasional ground attack missions supporting the Kokoda trail campaign and various Japanese airfields and bases.
In early 1943 they took part in the Battle of Bismarck Sea, conducting various low-level attacks on Japanese ships, where they proved to be highly effective. 
In July they were moved to RAAF Goodenough Island to keep their anti-shipping role while also striking on Japanese airfields. 
By 1944 they were flying a mixture of Beaufighter Mk. I to Mk. VI and also the Mk. X sent straight from the United Kingdom. By September 1944 they were also flying the Mk. 21 (the Australian-built variant of the Beaufighter)
They accompanied Australian forces all along their campaigns through Borneo, Celebes and Tarakan and they were disbanded in December 1945.

The first Australian unit to receive the Australian-built Mk. 21 (of which we will write another post) was No. 31 Squadron RAAF (which had an operational history identical to that of No. 30 Squadron) , with another unit, No. 22 Squadron converting to the type, replacing their Douglas Bostons in late 1944. 
Two additional units operated the Beaufighter Mk. 21, although for a brief period of time, Nos. 92 and 93 Squadrons, although only No. 93 flew it in fruitless patrols during the last two weeks of the war operating from Labuan. 

Sources:
1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._456_Squadron_RAAF
2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._30_Squadron_RAAF
3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._31_Squadron_RAAF
4th https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAAF/456_wwII.html
5th Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action  153 - Bristol 'Beaufighter' in Action
6th SAM Publications - Modellers Datafile 6 - Bristol Beaufighter

Bristol Beaufighter, part six. Turkish Beaufighters.

 

Note: The Turkish Air Force employed army terms such as regiment or company for their aerial units.
Turkey and its air force (Hava Müstesarligi first and Türk Hava Kuvvetleri -THK for short- later) were the largest export customer for the Bristol Beaufighter and, apparently, during the war, at least one Beaufighter Mk. I was sold by the Royal Air Force (RAF), together with other types. As the information about the Turkish Beaufighters is confusing, some documents don't acknowledge the existence of this aircraft.
However, it seems that in 1944, when the THK was founded, at least nine ex-RAF Mk. X were supplied to Turkish control, followed in 1946 ordered additional twenty-four machines from Bristol. However, in the official lists, there are only twenty-three Beaufighters listed, so there is some confusion about the number that was actually sold.

Anyway, between April and August 1947 the Beaufighters TF. X were delivered to replace the almost derelict Bristol Beauforts that were sold back during the war. Just like the Beauforts, the Beaufighters were assigned to the 105th Torpedo-Bomber Group based at Köseköy (this unit was created  to maintain an effective anti-shipping force in the Black Sea), with nine aircraft assigned to each company and six being kept in reserve. 
As the airfield in Köseköy was not big enough, many accidents took place. 
On 23rd August 1947 the 105th Torpedo-Bomber Group was merged into the 10th Reconnaissance Regiment (15th according to some sources), formed at Afyon, with the Beaufighters forming the 1st and 2nd companies. 
However, the airfield at Afyon was at an altitude of 2.000 feet (610 m) above the sea level, the take-off performance was not enough for the time and it was decided to put the Beaufighters into storage, so they Eskisehir. Later, in 1948 they were replaced by the American Martin B-26 bombers and, when the 10th Recon Regiment was disbanded in early 1951, the Beaufighters were sold for scrap.

Sources:
1st Turkish Air Force - Türk Hava Kuvvetleri
2nd Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action -153 - Bristol Beaufighter in Action
3rd Scale Aircraft Modellers Datafile 6 - Bristol Beaufighter
4th https://web.archive.org/web/20211028194120/http://www.tayyareci.com/digerucaklar/turkiye/1923ve50/beaufighter.asp

Bristol Beaufighter, part five. The Beaufighter in Israel.

 

During the late 1940s the Chel Ha'Avir (Israeli Air Force - IAF) was under build-up, so four Beaufighter TF.Xs were acquired as part of a batch of six that were overhauled by Fairey Aviation at Ringway (Cheshire) and purchased by R. Dickson and partners for a war movie that never came out. Those initial Beaufighters had civilian registrations from G-AJMB to G-AJMG).
One Beaufighter crashed in the United Kingdom during the ferry flight to Israel and one other Beaufighter was, apparently, left behind back in the UK. The other four remaining machines were flown and arrived in Israel in July 1948. They were assigned to 103 Tajeset (103 Squadron) and, supposedly, they saw some action against Egyptian and Syrian forces during the first Arab-Israeli War (AKA Israel's War of Independence). 

In October 1948 a Beaufighter was damaged when strafing Egyptian aircraft parked on the ground at an airfield in El Arish (northern Sinai) and 103 Tajeset lost another Beaufighter to Egyptian anti-air fire over Iraq-Suweidan (Gaza). Although effective, the Beaufighter proved to be very difficult to maintain in flyable conditions under the climatological middle-east weather and, in spite of the efforts of the IAF's mechanics, the type was written off from IAF's inventory in November 1948, shortly after the 31st October truce.

However by January 1950 one machine was still listed as flying with 22 Wing, based at  Tel-Nof air base. 

Sources

1st Scale Aircraft Magazine  - Modellers Datafile 6 - The Bristol Beaufighter - A comprehensive guide for the modeller

2nd Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 153 - Bristol Beaufighter in Action

Bristol Beaufighter, part four. The Beaufighter in South African Air Force's service.

 

The Bristol Beaufighter operated with the South African Air Force (SAAF) during the mid-to-late stages of World War 2. 
It was operated by two squadrons, Nos. 16 and 19:

• No. 16 Squadron SAAF: No. 16 Squadron operated under Royal Air Force's (RAF) Command as part of the Desert Air Force. In April 1943 this unit was rebased to Egypt where they replaced their Bristol Blenheim Mk. V with Beaufighters in November and were assigned to anti-submarine duties in the Mediterranean, however, with the need of an air wing that could assist Yugoslav partisans in the Balkans, Albania and Greece, the Balkan Air Force was formed and from December 1943 this squadron operated within it, performing aerial strikes on the Balkans and some occasional anti-shipping raids on the Aegean Sea from February until August 1944.
  One of their most successful raids was the bombing of the bridges on the village of Zenica (Bosnia).
  They remained in that role, equipped with the Beaufighter until they were disbanded on 15th June 1945.
• No. 19 Squadron SAAF: This unit was reformed, taking personnel from No. 227 Squadron RAF and was officially numbered as No. 19 Squadron SAAF on 15 August 1944 at Biferno, Italy. They were equipped with Beaufighters Mk. VI and TF. Mk. X from the beginning and were assigned to the Balkan Air Force. Just like No. 16 squadron, they performed many raids on Yugoslavia and Greece, as well as some raids against coastal shipping in the Adriatic Sea. 
  The squadron was disbanded on 10th July 1945 and its personnel was sent back home.
  
  

Sources:

1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Squadron_SAAF

2ns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_Squadron_SAAF

3rd https://www.saairforce.co.za/the-airforce/squadrons/99/16-squadron

4th https://www.saairforce.co.za/the-airforce/squadrons/100/19-squadron

5th https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/SAAF/16_wwII.html

6th https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/SAAF/19_wwII.html

7th Scale Aircraft Magazine  - Modellers Datafile 6 - The Bristol Beaufighter - A comprehensive guide for the modeller

Bristol Beaufighter, part three. The Beaufighter in USAAF's service.

 

The United States Army Air Force (USAAF) also employed the Bristol Beaufighter, as four night fighter squadrons of the 12th Air Force were equipped with the type. Those were: 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons. 
Those units received the Beaufighter Mk. VIF (the night fighter variant, equipped with an Al Mk. VIII radar) during the summer of 1943, deployed to the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations (MTO). Of those squadrons, both 414th and 415th were re-equipped with the Northrop P-61 during late 1944/early 1945. The 416th was re-equipped with Mosquitoes just before the end of the war, but most of the night interceptor role in the MTO by the USAAF was carried out by the Beaufighter.
More than 100 Beaufighters Mk. VIFs were transferred to the USAAF during March-April 1943, equipped all of them with either Al Mk. I radar in the standard nose, or the Mk. VII/VIII inside a radome. 
Initial night fighter training was carried out with RAF's Beaufighters in the United Kingdom, as many of the American personnel were fresh from basic training in the United States. 
The Beaufighter was previously tested in US mainland, but few of the future crews were familiarized with the aircraft.
Relevant personnel of the four night fighter squadrons left the United Kingdom during the spring of 1943 and headed to Algeria, where, on 10th May 1943, the 414th NFS (Night Fighter Squadron), based at La Senia (Oran) was the first to become operational. 
The 415th NFS became operational just two days later, in the same airfield, while both 416th NFS and 417th NFS didn't become operational until 8th August and operated from Algiers and Tafaraoui, respectively. 
Just like it happened to their British counterpart, some American pilots found the Beaufighter hard to fly. As they were used to the tricycle landing gear of the Douglas P-70 (the night fighter variant of the A-20 bomber) on which they were trained in the US, some individuals found difficult to allow for the take-off swing and many Beaufighters were damaged in accidents. However, other pilots liked the Beaufighter and appreciated the type, specially its rugged construction.
The 12th Air Force night fighter crews found relatively little action as far as the night interception action went. The major aerial war had moved on to mainland Europe and they were rebased various time before ending up in Italy, making the American Beaufighter kill-list relatively low. In total the four squadrons were credited with 32 confirmed victories while flying the Beaufighters. Of those, eight were for the 414th NFS, eleven for the 415th NFS, four for the 416th NFS and nine for the 417th NFS.
The first American Beaufighter victory took place on 24th July 1943 when a German Heinkel He. 115 floatplane was shot down by Captain Nathaniel Lindsay and Flight Officer Austin Petty of the 415th NFS, while the last claim was achieved by the 417th NFS when 1st Lieutenant Malcolm Campbell and 2nd Lieutenant Robert McCullen shot down a Junkers Ju. 290 on 28th December 1944. Many other enemy aircraft were claimed as damaged or probable but, as was the nature of night fighting in general, many rounds were fired at targets with inconclusive results.
Summing it up, the relationship between the USAAF and the Beaufighter wasn't as successful as it could have been; most of the aircraft passed on by the RAF suffered from wear and tear and the airfields they operated from were far from ideal. It should be considered that in 1943 there was not other type available and the night fighter crews gained many experience on the Beaufighters, learning much of value while the war lasted.

Sources:
1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Beaufighter
2nd Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 153 - Bristol Beaufighter in Action
3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bristol_Beaufighter_operators
4th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/414th_Combat_Training_Squadron
5th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/415th_Special_Operations_Squadron
6th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/416th_Fighter_Squadron
7th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/417th_Test_and_Evaluation_Squadron

Bristol Beaufighter, part two. The Beaufighter in Dominican Republic.

 

The Bristol Beaufighter Mk. VI was a Hercules-powered variant of the Bristol Beaufighter. The Mk. VIF variant was equipped with the Al Mk. VIII radar and was exported to Dominican Republic. 
In 1948 ten Beaufighter TF. Mk. X (TF stands for 'Torpedo Fighter') were stripped of their torpedo release gear, being  modified back to the Mk. VIF variant, to be sold to the Dominican Military Aviation Corps ('Cuerpo de Aviación del Ejército Nacional' in Spanish). 
The Beaufighters, which were equipped with Al Mk. VIII radars installed inside a nose radome and had underwing rocket launcher equipment, received a three-digit serial numbers from the Dominican Air Corps, those being from 306 to 315, with the sole exception of No. 309 which was previously RD432. All of them were assigned to the 'Escuadrón de Caza-Bombardeo' (Fighter-Bomber Squadron)
The Dominican Beaufighters were employed in combat for the first time on 14th June 1949  (though, according to some other sources, it was on 20th June) when, together with two Dominican de Havilland Mosquitoes, attacked a Consolidated Catalina and two ships belonging to Dominican exiles at Luperón bay which were trying to disembark and overthrow the Dominican President Leonidas Trujillo.  Anyway, the Beaufighters strafed and destroyed the Catalina with fifteen men inside which were forced down off Puerto Plata the previous day. 
The last three flyable Dominican Beaufighters were written off from frontline service in June 1954 (although, according to some sources it wasn't until 1958), with the remaining ones having been stripped to provide spare parts.

Sources:
1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Beaufighter
2nd https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuerza_Aérea_de_República_Dominicana (translated)
3rd Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 153 - Bristol Beaufighter in Action

Bristol Beaufighter, part one. Royal Canadian Air Force.

 

The Bristol Beaufighter is a British heavy fighter aircraft that could also perform other types of roles, from pure and night fighter to light and torpedo bomber. It was designed during World War 2 by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. With almost 6.000 units manufactured from May 1940 to 1946, the type proved successful and was therefore employed by many air forces around the globe. One of such was the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF with four squadrons operating the Beau (as  it was commonly known).

The first of those units was No. 406 "City of Saskatoon" Squadron. This formation was created in May 1941 and was equipped with Bristol Blenheim Mk. IF (which was the heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Blenheim bomber), although they only lasted for a month, because in June that same year the squadron was re-equipped with the much better Beaufighter Mk. IIF (the Rolls-Royce Merlin powered night fighter variant).
The Mk. IIF was operated for one year, until June 1942 when they received the Mk. VIF (another night fighter variant equipped with an Al Mk. VIII radar and powered by the Bristol Hercules engines). The Mk. VIF was operated until August 1944 when the squadron completed the transition to the De Havilland Mosquito Mk. XII, transition which began in April 1944. During the war, No. 406 Squadron operated only from British soil. 

Another Beau-equipped RCAF squadron was No. 409 Squadron, which received the Beaufighter Mk. IIF in August 1941, replacing their Boulton-Paul Defiants and performing the night-fighter role. During the early days of this unit's existence, two victories were claimed, with more being claimed in June 1942 when the squadron received the Mk. VIF. The unit retained their Beaus until March-May 1944 when they were reassigned to the 2nd Tactical Air Force (TAF) and their Beaus were replaced with Mosquitoes Mk. XII. 

Assigned to RAF's Coastal Command, No. 404 squadron, received the Beaufighter Mk. IIF in as late as September 1942. Unlike other units above, this squadron was tasked with coastal patrols and anti-shipping operations in the Atlantic Ocean. In January 1943, operating from Devon, the squadron was tasked with anti U-boats patrols over the Bay of Biscay, task which was kept in March 1943 when the squadron received the Beaufighter TF Mk. X (a dedicated anti-shipping variant, commonly known as the "Torbeau", powered by the Hercules Mk. XVII engines).
In May/June 1944 the squadron was tasked with the defence of the western approaches from England to France, in order to support Operation Overlord. It was during those months that the squadron attacked three German destroyers spotted south of the French port of Brest. Although the destroyers managed to arrive to port safely, two of them were sunk on the next day by surface ships. In July 1944 they were rebased to the eastern shore of England, where they were assigned to anti-shipping duties on the Dutch coast. This task lasted until September, when they were rebased to Scotland, where they were assigned to the famous Banff Strike Wing, one of the most effective anti-shipping units of the war. In as late as March 1945 their Beaufighters were replaced by Mosquitoes Mk. VI. 

The last RCAF unit to operate the Beaufighter was No. 410 Squadron, which operated the Beaufighter Mk. IIF for less than a year, as they began to replace their Boulton-Paul Defiants in April 1942. The first official sortie of this unit took place on the night of 4th June 1942 when twelve Beaus Mk. IIF took off from RAF Drem, Scotland. In November the unit began its transition to the Mosquito NF Mk. II, transition that was completed in January 1943.

Sources:

1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bristol_Beaufighter_operators

2ns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/404_Long_Range_Patrol_and_Training_Squadron

3rd https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RCAF/404_wwII.html

4th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/406_Maritime_Operational_Training_Squadron

5th https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RCAF/406_wwII.html

6th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/409_Tactical_Fighter_Squadron

7th https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RCAF/409_wwII.html

8th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/410_Tactical_Fighter_Operational_Training_Squadron

9th https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RCAF/410_wwII.html