Fairey Aviation Company was keen to produce a design to meet the demands of the specification P.27/32 and started work on such design with the Belgian designer Marcel Lobelle as as the main engineer. Lobelle chose to use the Rolls-Royce Merlin I engine from very early on development due to its favourable power and compact frontal area. Thanks to the Merlin engine, the aircraft had exceptionally clean lines and enjoyed a generous speed performance. The resulting design was an all-metal single-engine aircraft with a low mounted cantilever wing and equipped with a retractable undercarriage.
A total of four companies answered to the specification, Fairey, Hawker, Armstrong-Whitworth and Bristol, but only those designs of Fairey and Armstrong Whitworth were selected by the Air Ministry. Therefore, on 10th March 1936 the first prototype, powered by a 1030 hp Merlin I engine, took off to the skies for the first time at Hayes, Middlesex. The prototype was quickly transferred for service trials with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and achieved the speed of 257 mph (413 km/h) making it that way the fastest day bomber back then.
When the design process was still going on, some members of the Air Staff expressed their reluctance about the aircraft as they considered the design to be insufficient in a hypothetical conflict with a re-emergent Germany. In spite of those concerns, there was a considerable pressure to put the Battle into production in order to increase RAF's strength numbers to cope with Luftwaffe's similar increase in the mid 1930s.
In 1936 orders were placed for Fairey to build Battles to specification P.14/36, so in June 1937 the first production Battle, which was part of a first batch of 136 machines powered by the Merlin engine, performed its maiden flight. By the end of 1937 a total of 85 Battles were completed and a considerable number of RAF squadrons had been re-equipped with the type or were in re-equipment process. As the RAF was undergoing a substantial pre-war expansion programme, the Battle was recognised as a production priority. In fact, at one point there were orders for a total of 2.419 aircraft. The first production aircraft was completed at Fairey's Hayes factory, but every subsequent machine was completed at Fairey's newly completed plant at Heaton Chapel, Stockport in Greater Manchester. Completed aircraft were sent for testing at RAF Ringway and a total of 1.156 aircraft were completed by Fairey.
Later, as a part of a government-led wartime production planning, the Fairey was also manufactured at Cotton Hacket, Longbridge in Birmingham in a shadow factory operated by the Austin Motor Company, with a total of 1.029 exemplars manufactured. The first one of these Austin-built Battles was completed on 22nd July 1938. At that point concerns about the aircraft's obsolescence were widespread, but because of the difficulties associated to getting another aircraft types into production, and the production lines having been established, stop-gap orders were maintained and production continued steadily well until late 1940.
In September 1940 all production came to an end and every production line was closed. Overall production numbers for the Battle was 2.201 machines including the Belgian 16 machines.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Battle
2. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Battle-Mk-I-t1349
3. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Battle-Mk-II-t17039
4. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Battle-Mk-III-t61598
5. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Battle-TT-t104197
6. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/fairey-battle.html
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