Starting from July 1939 orders for the licensed production of the Bristol Beaufort were placed at the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) at Mascot, New South Wales and Fishermen's Bend, Victoria. When Japan waged war on the west, those factories were fully committed to the manufacture process of the Beaufort, so various Beaufighters Mk. I and Mk. VI were taken from production lines in Great Britain and were shipped to Australia.
At first, fifty-four Fairey-built Beaufighters Mk. ICs (registered from A19-1 to A19-54) were supplied to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the first two of them being A19-7 and A19-8, which were taken on charge on 26th March 1942. Those were followed by additional eighteen machines (A19-55 to A19-72) in October 1942 and sixty-three Mk. VIC more (A19-73 to A19-137). Although this final order was for sixty-four airframes, one machine (A19-105) crashed before delivery.
Every British-built Beaufighter in RAAF service had the A19 prefix, while the Australian-built machine had the A8 one.
The initial manufacture process in Australia was intended to begin with the Mk. VII, to be powered by the Bristol Hercules 26 radial engine, equipped with a Bendix carburettor. However this had to be discarded as the standardisation on the Hercules Mk. XVII and Mk. XVIII series engines was required. The next two versions of the Beaufighter intended for mass production were the Mk. VIII and the Mk. IX, both intended to be powered by the American Wright Double-Cyclone GR A5B. In fact, one airframe registered as A19-2 was experimentally fitted with those engines, as well as the extended engine nacelles that required from the enlarged diameter cowling needed for the Wright engine. However that variant were not proceeded as it was taken as a safeguard measure against a possible short-supply of the Hercules engine, which never took place as Britain managed to supply them in enough numbers, making an 'Australian-built Mk. VI' a much simpler alternative.
That was the inception of the Mk. 21.
It should also be considered that from 20th April 1942 to 20th August 1945 a total of 218 Beaufighters of various marks were shipped straight to Australia to be employed by the RAAF, however we wrote about those in our previous post.
The DAP Mk. 21 flew for the first time on 21st May 1944, two years later than its intended initial start. It was registered as A8-1. This delay was caused because a total of 55.000 microfilm drawings had to the be sent from the United Kingdom, without which production couldn't start.
The Mk. 21 was powered by the Hercules Mk. XVIII engines that were shipped from Great Britain, but the remaining parts were entirely built in Australia. Manufacture was undertaken by sub-contractors throughout Australia with final assembly being made at DAP's factories at Mascot and Fishermen's Bend.
The Mk. 21 was armed with four 0.5 in (12,5 mm) Browning machine guns in the wings, instead of the six 0.303 in (7,7 mm) versions of the British-built machines.
The type could also carry a 250 lb (113 kg) bomb under each outer wing or eight 3 in (75 mm) rockets. The most noticeable difference was the addition of a Sperry autopilot housed in a bulge on top of the nose, just forward of the cockpit. However, the Sperry was rarely fitted inside the bulge.
The Mk. 21 was basically an Australian-built Mk. X powered by the Hercules Mk. XVII and the later ones with the Mk. XVIIIs. The later series had supercharged speeds operational, unlike their British counterparts, which were fixed in the M-gear, making their performance marginally better.
As we have already written, the prototype, A8-1 flew for the first on 21st May 1944 and was delivered to the RAAF on 26th May.
No. 30 Squadron RAAF was the first unit to operate the Mk. 21. It was commanded by Wg. Cdr. Brian Walker. However, as this unit flew mostly British-built Beaufighter, was covered in our previous post.
No. 31 Squadron also operated the Mk. 21 together with other Beaufighters. It was formed at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales on 14th August 1942 and became fully operational at Coomalie Creek, south of Darwin, performing their first operational sortie against shipping targets in the Timor Sea on 17th November 1942.
While those two squadrons were operating, further sixty-two Mk. VICs, sixty-two TF. Mk. Xs and twenty Mk. XICs were shipped directly from the United Kingdom. The first squadron to receive the Australian-built Mk. 21 was No. 31 in September 1944 with No. 30 following soon, operating the type until the end of hostilities.
A third squadron, No. 22 transitioned to the type, replacing their Douglas Bostons at the end of 1944. Two additional RAAF squadrons operated the Beaufighter during World War 2, for two weeks only, Nos. 92 and 93 squadrons, with No. 93 achieving just two operational sorties from Labuan, North Borneo, while assigned to the No.86 (Attack) Wing in the last two weeks of the war.
During the post-war the RAAF modified a number of Beaufighters to target-tug duties. The prototype, A8-265 was followed by additional fifteen similarly converted machines. Those tugs were operated by the Target Towing and Special Duties Flight based at Richmond, New South Wales. This unit was disbanded and their tasks were undertaken by the No. 30 squadron, becoming thus, No. 30 (TT) Squadron. The last operational usage of the Beaufighter in Australia was performed by the Air Trials Flight at the Woomera missile test range, which employed the type until at least 1956.
Initial production estimations expected a total of at least 500 Mk. 21 to be built but, as the war ended, so did manufacture process in September 1945 with 364 airframes completed.
Sources:
1st Scale Aircraft Modellers Datafile 6 - Bristol Beaufighter
2nd Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 153 - Bristol 'Beaufighter' in Action
