Canadian Warplanes 3: Handley Page Hampden

Handley Page Hampden

(RCAF Photo via Chris Charland)

Handley Page Hampden (Serial No. P5428), of No. 32 Operational Training Unit at RCAF Patricia Bay, British Columbia, in the torpedo-bomber training role between May 1942 and February 1944.

Handley Page HP 52 Hampden Mk. I (96), (Serial Nos. L4142, 45, 57, L6069, P1167, P1200, 30, P1311, P2067, P2133, P5298, P5336, 37, 99, P5400, 21-36, X3137, 49, AD751, 54, 67, AD961, AE258, 95, AE363, AJ988-99, AN100-22, 28-36, 38-47, 50, AT147)..

RCAF On Strength (96), Canadian Aircraft Losses (242). RCAF On Strength(20), Canadian Aircraft Losses (5). Detailed records of all known RCAF and Canadian casualties in the RAF during the Second World War may be viewed on line in the Canadian Aircraft Serials Personnel Information Resource (CASPIR). The  CASPIR website is researched, coded, maintained entirely by Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM) volunteers with only one staff assisting periodically. This work has taken several years, and is unlikely to be finished as continuing research leads to “new finds” and rediscovered Canadian aviation heritage and history.  The CWHM volunteer team looks forward to continuing to update and correct the record as additional information and photos are received. Check here.

Handley Page developed a modern stressed-skin mid-wing monoplane, powered by Bristol Pegasus radial air cooled engines, with its first flight in 1936. It had the most advanced wings available at the time, giving it a remarkably low landing speed of 73 mph for an aircraft of its size, with a top speed of 265 mph. The Hampden had a short, narrow but tall main fuselage with a very slender tail unit. This configuration led to the nicknames "Flying Panhandle" and "Flying Suitcase". At the end of the war, no complete or partial Hampden aircraft were retained for museum display.

The Hampden served in the early stages of the war, bearing the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and in the first 1000-bomber raid on Cologne. In Canada, Hampdens were built by six companies that formed Associated Aircraft. There were three in Ontario and three in Quebec, hence they were identified as the Ontario Group and Quebec Group. They supplied all the the components to the two assembly plants. The Ontario Group's assembly plant was at the Malton Airport, while the Quebec group's assembly plant was at the St. Hubert Airport. (Canadian Museum of Flight)

The Hampden in RCAF service included the 160 examples manufactured in Canada by the Victory Aircraft consortium.  Of the total built, 84 were shipped by sea to Great Britain, while the remainder came to Patricia Bay (Victoria Airport) BC, to set up No. 32 OTU (RAF) used for bombing and gunnery training.  Typical exercises at 32 OTU consisted of patrolling up the West Coast of Vancouver Island at night or flying out into the Pacific to a navigational map co-ordinate, often in adverse and un-forecast inclement weather.  Due to attrition from accidents, about 200 "war weary" Hampdens were later flown from the UK to Pat Bay as replacements.  The following RCAF units flew the Hampden:

No. 408 (Goose) Squadron, RCAF, with RAF Bomber Command between July 1941 and September 1942, Codeletters EQ.

No. 415 (Swordfish) Squadron, RCAF, as a torpedo bomber with RAF Coastal Command between February 1942 and November 1943, Codeletters GX.

No. 420 (Snowy Owl) Squadron, RCAF, with RAF Bomber Command between December 1941 and August 1942, Codeletters PT.

No. 32 Operational Training Unit RAF/RCAF, in Canada between May 1942 and February 1944, Codeletters DK, LB, OP and RO.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 5029693)

Handley Page Hampden, coded EQ, No. 408 Squadron, RCAF, with Sgt. A.W. Wood, Sgt. H.D. Murray, Sgt. D.L. Henderson and Sgt. W.M. Fraser, 30 Sep 1941.

(RCAF Photo via Chris Charland)

Handley Page Hampden (Serial No. AN118) from No. 32 Operational Training Unit (OTU)at RCAF Station Patricia Bay, British Columbia, between May 1942 and February 1944. The Handley Page HP 52 Hampden was a British twin engined bomber flown by the RCAF during the Second World War in Canada and overseas.  The Hampden served in the early stages of the war, bearing the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and in the first 1000-bomber raid on Cologne.

In Canada, Hampdens were built by six companies that formed Associated Aircraft. There were three in Ontario and three in Quebec, hence they were identified as the Ontario Group and Quebec Group. They supplied all the the components to the two assembly plants. The Ontario Group's assembly plant was at the Malton Airport, while the Quebec group's assembly plant was at the St. Hubert Airport. (Wikipedia)

The Ontario Group built the following: Fuselage - Fleet Aircraft Limited. Wings including the center section - Aircraft Division National Steel. Empennage - Ottawa Car Manufacturing Company which became the Ottawa Car & Aircraft Limited in 1940.

The Quebec Group's companies were responsible for building the following: Fuselage - Canadian Vickers Limited. Wings including the center section - Canadian Car & Foundry (Turcot Plant). Empennage - Fairchild Aircraft Limited. The first Canadian-built Hampden (Serial No. P5298) from the Quebec Group first flew at St. Hubert on the 8th of August, 1940. (Chris Charland)

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 5029691)

Handley Page Hampden, with four members of a Canadian Bomber Squadron, possibly No. 408, are shown leaving their  Hampden after a test trip. Left to Right: Sgt. D.M. Ross, Sgt. K.W. McGrail, Sgt. H.E. Marshall and Sgt. J.K. Fraser, 30 Sep 1941.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 5029690)

Airmen with a Handley Page Hampden B Mk. I (Serial No. AE196), No. 408 Squadron, RCAF, in England, looking over an inflated liferaft/dinghy. W/C N.W. Timmerman, P/O T.W. Dench, Cpl. Bangs, F/O Houston, F/L A. Clayton, G/C R.T. Taaffe and S/L H. Fowler, 12 Aug 1941.

British bombers would carry one or two carrier pigeon onboard, so that if the crew had to ditch their aircraft in the water, the pigeon could be sent off to their home base carrying their last known coordinates and improving their chances of being recovered by search & rescue.  It seems that in the early days of the war, before going for the pigeon option, they would carry a cocker spaniel.  (Andre Berdais)

In the event of a ditching, where the aircraft is forced to land on a body of water, one of the crew members pulls a dinghy release cable which releases the dinghy from its stowage compartment.  In the Hampden, it was stowed in a compartment behind one or both engines.  One can see the panel ajar behind the engine, near where the cowling fairs with the top of the wing. The raft would automatically inflate and remain secured to the aircraft by a line so that it wouldn’t drift away from the aircraft. When the aircraft sank, the line would break, as it was weaker than the buoyancy of the raft.  The process was fraught with chokepoints that could derail survival efforts: The pilot has to be able to control the aircraft throughout the ditching process to maximize survival; The crew has to be able to activate the dinghy, grab a life jacket if not wearing one, release escape hatches, swim to, and board the raft; The raft has to inflate sufficiently well to carry survivors (no serious bullet or flak holes, burns from engine fire, etc); Injuries have to allow survival; Someone has to know where to look; The searchers have to see the raft and survivors, and direct rescue resources to them.  If they spend too much time in the water, they die from hypothermia. In the North Atlantic you had only a few minutes - rarely enough time to swim to the dingy and get in.  The aircraft also had to remain upright or it got really complicated, and some aircraft such as the Liberator were almost impossible to safely ditch.  (James Todd Rolfe)

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 5233778, and PL4705)

Handley page Hampden, No. 408 (Bomber) Squadron, with Sgt Pilot W.M. Fraser of Vancouver, British Columbia in the cockpit in the UK in 1942.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650859)

Handley-Page Hampden Mk. I, RCAF (Serial No. P5336), at Canadian Fairchild Ltd., c1942.

(SDASM Photo)

Handley Page HP 52 Hampden Mk. I bomber.  

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3650859)

Handley-Page Hampden, navigators aft position layout.  RCAF Station Sidney, British Columbia.

(RCAF Photo via Mike Kaehler)

Handley Page Hampden torpedo bomber, wireless operator air gunner Sgt. W.E. Bill Norquay, RCAF.  This RCAF Squadron Hampden brought a German U-boat to a standstill while on an anti-submarine patrol over the Bay of Biscay.  The U-boat was subsequently destroyed by a Consolidated Liberator of RAF Coastal Command,which had been sent out in response to the Hampden's signals.  Sgt Norquay is manning a Vickers K .303-inch machine gun.

(RAF Photo)

Handley Page Hampdens of No. 408 Squadron, RCAF, being loaded with mines, 1942.

(IWM Photo, HU 107822)

Handley Page Hampdens of No. 408 Squadron RCAF being loaded with mines, 1942.

(RAF Photo)

Handley Page HP 52 Hampden Mk. I bomber.  

(RAF Photo)

Handley Page HP 52 Hampden Mk. I bomber, coded X-KM, 1942

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3202993)

Handley Page Hampden Mk. I with groundcrew loading a torpedo into the bomb bay of an aircraft of No. 32 Operational Training Unit (Royal Canadian Air Force Schools and Training Units), Patricia Bay, British Columbia, 2 October 1942.

(RAF Photo)

Handley Page HP 52 Hampden Mk. I bomber.  

(RAF Photo)

Handley Page Hampden (Serial No. L4302).

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3571148)

Workers securing a Handley Page Hampden aircraft to the deck of a merchant ship en route to England. Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 1941.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3396590)

Workers securing a Handley Page Hampden aircraft to the deck of a merchant ship en route to England. Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 1941.

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