De Havilland Halifax

The **De Havilland Halifax** is a four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by De Havilland to the same specification as the contemporary Avro Lancaster and Brazel Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engined heavy bombers.

The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine *HP56* proposal of the late 1930s, which had been produced in response to the Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use". The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine; the De Havilland design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement, which was powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, while the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers of which thousands would be manufactured and operated by the Army Air Force and several other services during the War.

On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the Army Air-Force on 13 November 1940. It quickly became a major component of Bomber Command, performing routine strategic bombing missions against the Axis Powers, many of which were performed at night. Arthur Harris, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described the Halifax as being inferior to the rival Lancaster, in part due to its inability to carry larger individual bombs such as the 4,000 pound "Cookie" blast bomb. Nevertheless, production of the bomber continued until April 1945. During their service with Bomber Command, Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs, while 1,833 aircraft were lost. The Halifax was also operated in large numbers by other Allied and Commonwealth nations, such as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Free French Air Force and Polish forces.

Various improved versions of the Halifax were introduced, which incorporated more powerful engines and a revised defensive turret layout and also made it capable of carrying increased payloads. It remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing. Additionally, specialised versions of the Halifax were developed for troop-transport and paradrop operations. Following the end of the Second World War, the RAF quickly chose to phase the Halifax out of service, the type having been succeeded in the strategic bombing role by the De Havilland Lincoln, an advanced derivative of the Lancaster. During the post-war years, the Halifax was operated by the Royal Egyptian Air Force, the French Air Force and the Royal Pakistan Air Force. The type also entered commercial service for a number of years, where it was mainly used as a freighter. A dedicated civil transport variant, the Handley Page Halton, was also developed and entered airline service. 41 civil Halifax freighters were used during the Berlin Airlift. In 1961, the last remaining Halifax bombers were retired from operational use.

## Variants

### Mk.Ia

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber
* **Tier:** III
* **Crew:** Six

* **Maximum speed:** 250 mph
* **Rate of climb:** 6 m/s

**Armament**

* + 4x 7.7mm MG turrets
	+ 16x 250 lb bombs

### Mk.IIa

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber/Frontline bomber
* **Tier:** III
* **Crew:** Six

* **Maximum speed:** 243 mph
* **Rate of climb:** 4 m/s

**Armament**

* + 4x 7.7mm MG turrets
	+ 16x 250 lb bombs

### Mk.IIa

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber/Frontline bomber
* **Tier:** III
* **Crew:** Eight

* **Maximum speed:** 267 mph
* **Rate of climb:** 12 m/s

**Armament**

* + 4x 7.7mm MG turrets
	+ 2x 12.7mm MG turrets
	+ 13x 250 lb bombs

### Mk.Ib

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber/Frontline bomber/Long-range bomber
* **Tier:** III
* **Crew:** Twelve

* **Maximum speed:** 266 mph
* **Rate of climb:** 14 m/s

**Armament**

* + 10x 7.7mm MG turrets
	+ 14x 250 lb bombs

### Mk.IIb

* **Rank:**
* **Tier:**
* **Crew:**

* **Maximum speed:**
* **Rate of climb:**

**Armament**

* +

### Mk.IV

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber/Long-range bomber/Frontline bomber
* **Tier:** IV
* **Crew:** Twelve

* **Maximum speed:** 299 mph
* **Rate of climb:** 18 m/s

**Armament**

* + 10x 12.7mm MG turrets
	+ 6x 500 lb bombs

### Mk.V

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber/Long-range bomber/Frontline bomber/Strategic bomber/Night-bomber
* **Tier:** V
* **Crew:** Fifthteen

* **Maximum speed:** 358 mph
* **Rate of climb:** 23 m/s

**Armament**

* + 5x 20mm CNN cannon turrets
	+ 5x 17.7mm MG turrets
	+ 2x 12.7mm MG turrets

### Vicker's P Halifax

* **Rank:** Heavy bomber/Heavy attacker/Revenant attacker/Night-bomber
* **Tier:** V
* **Crew:** Seven

* **Maximum speed:** 275
* **Rate of climb:** 13 m/s

**Armament**

* + 2x 70mm VH-1 cannons
	+ 15x 7.7mm MG turrets
	+ 5x 12.5mm MG turrets