Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle was a British single - engine light bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company in the late 1930s for the Royal Air Force . The Battle was powered by the same Rolls - Royce Merlin piston engine that gave contemporary British fighter s high performance ; however , the Battle was weighed down with a three - man crew and a bomb load . Despite being a great improvement on the aircraft that preceded it , by the time it saw action it was slow , limited in range and highly vulnerable to both anti - aircraft fire and fighters with its single defensive . 303 machine gun . During the " Phoney War " , the Fairey Battle recorded the first RAF aerial victory of the Second World War but by May 1940 was suffering heavy losses of well over 50 % per mission . By the end of 1940 the Battle had been withdrawn from combat service and relegated to training units overseas . For such prewar promise , the Battle was one of the most disappointing of all RAF aircraft . Design and development . The original Fairey Battle was designed to Air Ministry Specification P . 27 / 32 as a two - seat day bomber , to replace the ageing Hawker Hart and Hind biplane bombers , and to act as an insurance policy in case heavier bombers were banned by the 1932 Geneva Disarmament Conference . At the time , Britain expected any future war would see France as its enemy and so the distance to Paris was a factor in determing the range it needed . The Battle emerged as a single - engine , all - metal , low - wing cantilever monoplane , equipped with a retractable tail wheel landing gear . Its clean design with its long and slim fuselage and cockpit for three ( pilot , navigator and gunner ) seated in tandem with a continuous glazed canopy , was similar to a large fighter rather than a bomber . The armament and crew were similar to the Blenheim : three crew , 1 , 000 lbs bombload and two machine guns , although the Battle was a single - engine bomber , with less horsepower available . The Battle ' s standard payload of four bombs was carried in cells inside the wings and an additional of bombs could be carried on underwing racks . As the engine took up the nose area , the bomb aimer ' s position was under the wing centre section , sighted through a sliding panel in the floor of the fuselage using the Mk . VII Course Setting Bomb Sight . The prototype Battle first flew on 10 March 1936 . When the RAF embarked on the pre - war expansion programme , the Battle became a priority production target , with 2 , 419 ordered and an initial production order placed for 155 Battles built to Specification P . 23 / 35 . The first of these aircraft was completed at Hayes , Middlesex in June 1937 but all subsequent aircraft were built at Fairey ' s new factory at Heaton Chapel , Stockport and tested at their Manchester ( Ringway ) facility . Subsequently the Shadow factory operated by Austin Motors at Longbridge manufactured 1 , 029 aircraft to Specification P . 32 / 36 . Total production was of 2 , 185 machines , as production lines were closed in advance , in September 1940 . Production Battles were powered by the Rolls - Royce Merlin I , II , III and V . Replacing the RAF ' s Hawker Harts and Hinds when it entered service in 1937 , the Battle was obsolescent even then as fighter technology had outstripped the modest performance gains that the light bomber possessed over its biplane antecedents . The Battle was armed only with a single Browning . 303 machine gun fixed ahead and with a trainable Vickers K in the back ; this was desperately inadequate . Moreover it lacked an armoured cockpit and self - sealing fuel tank . Operational history . The first RAF squadron to be equipped with Fairey Battles was No . 63 Sqn . in June 1937 . The Battle had the distinction of becoming the first operational aircraft to enter service with a Merlin engine , beating the Hawker Hurricane ' s debut by a few months . The Battle was obsolete by the start of the Second World War , but remained a front - line RAF bomber owing to a lack of a suitable replacement . On 2 September 1939 , during the " Phoney War " , 10 Battle squadrons were deployed to France to form a vanguard of the Advanced Air Striking Force . On 20 September 1939 , a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 was shot down by Battle gunner Sgt . F . Letchard during a patrol near Aachen , marking the RAF ' s first aerial victory of the war . Nonetheless , the Battle was hopelessly outclassed by " Luftwaffe " fighters , being almost slower than the contemporary Bf 109 at . The Battle ' s defence consisted of a single . 303 in ( 7 . 7 mm ) Vickers K machine gun mounted in the rear cockpit and a single forward - firing . 303 in ( 7 . 7 mm ) Browning machine gun in the starboard wing . When the Battle of France began , Battles were called upon to perform unescorted , low - level tactical attacks against the advancing German army . This put the aircraft at risk of attack from " Luftwaffe " fighters and within easy range of light anti - aircraft guns . In the first of two sorties carried out by Battles on 10 May 1940 , three out of eight aircraft were lost , while , in the second sortie , a further 10 out of 24 were shot down , giving a total of 13 lost in that day ' s attacks , with the remainder suffering damage . Despite bombing from as low as , their attacks had little impact on the German columns . On 11 May , nine Battles of the Belgian Air Force attacked bridges over the Albert Canal on the River Meuse , losing six aircraft , and in another RAF sortie that day against a German troop column , only one Battle out of eight survived . During the following day , five Battles of 12 Squadron attacked the bridges ; four of the aircraft were destroyed with the final aircraft crash - landing back at its base . Two Victoria Cross es were awarded posthumously for the action , to Flying Officer Garland and air observer / navigator Sergeant Gray of Battle " P2204 " coded PH - K , for pressing home the attack in spite of the heavy defensive fire . The third crewmember , rear gunner Leading Aircraftsman Lawrence Reynolds , did not share the award . Both fighters and flak proved lethal for the Battles . Although Garland ' s Battle destroyed one span of the bridge , the German army quickly erected a pontoon bridge to replace it . On 14 May 1940 , in a desperate attempt to stop German forces crossing the Meuse , the Advanced Air Striking Force launched an " all - out " attack by all available bombers against the German bridgehead and pontoon bridges at Sedan . The light bombers were attacked by swarms of opposing fighters and were devastated . Out of a strike force of 63 Battles and eight Bristol Blenheim s , 40 ( including 35 Battles ) were lost . After these abortive raids , the Battle was switched to mainly night attacks , resulting in much lower losses . A similar situation befell the German " Luftwaffe " during the early days of the Battle of Britain , when the Junkers Ju 87 " Stuka " dive bomber suffered equivalent losses in a similar role . With the exception of a few successful twin - engine designs ( e . g . de Havilland Mosquito , Bristol Beaufighter and Douglas A - 20 ) , low - level attack missions passed into the hands of single - engine , multi - role fighter aircraft , such as the Hawker Hurricane , Hawker Typhoon and Republic P - 47 Thunderbolt . On 15 June 1940 , the last remaining aircraft of the Advanced Air Striking Force were evacuated to Britain . In six weeks almost 200 Battles had been lost , with 99 lost between 10 and 16 May . After the return from France , for a short period of time , the RAF continued to rely on the light bomber . Reforming No . 1 Group and later equipping four new Polish squadrons with the type , it continued to be deployed in operations against shipping massed in the Channel ports for Operation Sealion . Their last combat sortie was mounted on the night of 15 / 16 October 1940 by No . 301 ( Polish ) Squadron in a raid on Boulogne , and Nos 12 and 142 Squadrons bombing Calais . Shortly afterwards Battle squadrons of No . 1 Group were re - equipped with more potent Vickers Wellington bombers . Battles were operated into 1941 by 88 and 226 Squadrons in Northern Ireland and 98 Squadron in Iceland , for coastal patrol work . Meanwhile , the South African Air Force had been supplied with some Battles . In August 1940 , No . 11 Squadron took possession of at least four Battles , which were flown north to be operated in the Italian East Africa ( Ethiopia , Italian Somaliland and Eritrea ) campaign . They conducted bombing and reconnaissance operations . Whereas in France the RAF ' s Battles had encountered modern German fighters in large numbers , the South Africans faced a smaller number of Italian biplane fighters ( Fiat CR . 32 and CR . 42s ) , which enabled the aircrews to contribute more effectively to the campaign ; but not without several losses , especially when surprised above some predictable targets ( air bases , ports etc . ) , since Italian biplanes dived as fast as possible over the bombers , trying to shoot them down in the first pass . The last combat operations carried out by Fairey Battles were during the Italian and German invasion of Greece , from the end of 1940 until April 1941 . A few Fairey Battles of the RAF and about a dozen belonging to the RHAF - serial numbers starting from B274 - participated in secondary bombing roles against enemy infantry . Most of them were destroyed on the ground by " Luftwaffe " air attacks upon the airfields of Tanagra and Tatoi north of Athens between end of March and mid April 1941 . No significant contribution of this type was reported during this period , although some losses were recorded by the Greek Air Force . Before World War II , in spring 1939 the Polish government ordered 100 Battle bombers , but they had not been delivered before the war . First 22 aircraft were sent in early September 1939 on two ships to Constanta in Romania , to be received there by the Polish crews , but the ships were ordered back , while in Istanbul , due to inevitable fall of Poland . They were next offered to Turkey . Additional roles . While the Battle was no longer used as a combat aircraft , its benign handling characteristics made it an ideal platform for testing engines , and it was used in this rôle to evaluate engines up to including the Fairey Prince ( H - 16 ) . As the dual - control Fairey Battle T , it served as a trainer . As the winch - equipped Fairey Battle TT ( target tug ) it was used as a target - towing aircraft for training in air gunnery . The Battle served as a trainer with the Royal Australian Air Force , the Royal Canadian Air Force , and the South African Air Force . From August 1939 , 739 Battles were stationed in Canada as trainers in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan . Most were used for bombing and gunnery training with a small number equipped as target tugs . Some aircraft had the rear cockpit replaced with a Bristol Type I turret for turret - gunnery training . Although the Battle was retired from active use in Canada after 1945 , it remained in RAF service in secondary roles until 1949 . Battle K9370 was used to test the Fairey Monarch 2 , 000 + hp ( 1 , 490 + kW ) aero - engine with electrically - controlled three - blade contra - rotating propellers in 1939 . According to Jane ' s All the World ' s Aircraft 1946 - 47 , the aircraft was shipped to the U . S . A . after 86 hours test time . Production . In total , 2 , 185 Fairey Battles were built during the machine ' s production life ; 1 , 156 by Fairey and 1 , 029 by the Austin Motor Company . A further 18 were built under licence by Avions Fairey at Goselies , Belgium for service with the Belgian Air Force . The 18 Battles were delivered early in 1938 and were differentiated from British - built examples by having a longer radiator cowling . Operators . In addition to the units listed , a many Battles were operated by training schools , particularly for bombing and gunnery training . Accidents and incidents . On 2 August 1940 , Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth , a racing motorist , aviator and prolific collector of veteran cars and aircraft was killed when Fairey Battle " L4971 " of No . 12 Operational Training Unit RAF Benson crashed into a hill during a solo night flying exercise . Survivors . < br > There are only five examples of the Fairey Battle held by various museums , but none of them is in flying condition .