WOW392 Beaufighter Anti Shipping Variant

Description

The Bristol Beaufighter was a derivative of the successful Beaufort design. It was used effectively as a night fighter but it came into its own in the anti shipping role, often carrying torpedo’s and rockets and using them with great effect against Axis shipping. RAF coastal command at one point was the largest operator of the Beaufighter.

Our version of the Beaufighter is the the TF Mark X (torpedo fighter), commonly known as the “Torbeau”. The Mark X became the main production mark of the Beaufighter. The strike variant of the Torbeau was called the Mark XIC. Beaufighter TF Xs could make precision attacks on shipping at wave-top height with torpedoes or rockets. Early models of the Mark X carried centimetric-wavelength ASV (air-to-surface vessel) radar with “herringbone” antennae on the nose and outer wings, but this was replaced in late 1943 by the centimetric AI Mark VIII radar housed in a distinctive thimble nose” radome, enabling all-weather and night attacks.

The North Coates Strike Wing of Coastal Command, based at RAF North Coates on the Lincolnshire coast, developed tactics that combined large formations of Beaufighters, using cannons and rockets, to suppress flak, while the Torbeaus attacked at low level with torpedoes. These tactics were put into practice in mid-1943 and in ten months, 29,762 tons (84,226 m³) of shipping were sunk. Tactics were further refined when shipping was moved from port during the night. The North Coates Strike Wing operated as the largest anti-shipping force of the Second World War and accounted for over 150,000 tons (424,500 m³) of shipping and 117 vessels for a loss of 120 Beaufighters and 241 aircrew killed or missing. This was half the total tonnage sunk by all strike wings between 1942 and 1945.