At the time of its appearance in 1936 the Hampden medium bomber was a quite advanced design. With its extremely narrow fuselage and twin fins mounted on an extended boom it inspired a variety of epithets that ranged from the ‘Flying Suitcase’ to the ‘Flying Tadpole’.
Its fine aerodynamic form and advanced slot equipment incorporated into a highly tapered wing imparted a fighter-like manoeuvrability to the new bomber. Two air-cooled Bristol Pegasus motors gave a top speed of 260 mph; equal to the Bristol Blenheim but with the capacity to deliver a bomb load of 4000 pounds; four times that of the Blenheim.
Hampden Handicaps
With such a performance the Hampden offered a great improvement over the previous generation of bombers, yet in the unforgiving arena of combat it did not fulfil its true promise. The narrow fuselage did not permit the fitting of power-operated turrets. Instead it reverted to hand-held Vickers ‘K’ guns; mounted in dorsal and ventral positions. This shortcoming would be forcibly exposed in early daylight operations. Another handicap was the near impossibility of removing a wounded pilot from his situation for another crew- member to take his place.
Its construction was unique in that the fuselage was built in two halves, rather like a split lobster. All wires and control runs were installed prior to joining the two halves; a method that greatly simplified manufacture. English Electric was a major manufacturer who supplied a grand total of 770 aircraft by the time the last one left the line in March 1942. At the same time Short and Harland were involved in the production of a Hampden variant at their Belfast factory.
The Hereford
Instead of the Bristol Pegasus radials, the Hereford as it was named was fitted with the 24 cylinder Napier Dagger. It offered a slightly higher performance, but against that was the doubtful reliability of the temperamental Dagger. Orders were placed for 150 Herefords and fortunately for the prospective crews only one example reached operational service. The high revving Dagger was also incredibly noisy with Ferry pilots complaining of loss of hearing following delivery flights from Belfast to the United Kingdom.
Into Service and Operational
First Hampden deliveries were made in November 1938 to 49 Squadron based at Scampton, a member of the newly formed No.5 Group; eventually the Group was equipped throughout with Hampdens. At the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 Bomber Command had 8 Hampden squadrons on Order of Battle. On the following day 83 Squadron was despatched on a raid on German shipping in the Schillig Roads but poor visibility forced the crews to abort the mission. On September 29 aircraft from 61 and 144 squadrons were engaged in an attack on 2 German destroyers when they came under fighter attack. The Hampden’s defensive shortcomings were forcibly exposed when five were shot down. It was a sobering outcome for Bomber Command; shattering any theory that unescorted bombers could operate successfully in daylight.
Nocturnal Raids
From that point Hampdens reverted to the night role; and one important function was mine-laying sorties in the Baltic and also as far away as Norway. By far their greatest involvement was in late 1940 during the Battle of Britain and Germany’s preparations for operation ‘Sea Lion’, the projected amphibious invasion of Britain. In a relentless series of raids every available bomberwas despatched to destroy landing craft assembling along the Channel ports. The period was remembered as the ‘Battle of the Barges’; with Bomber Command causing much disruption to the invasion plans. Eventually; ‘Sea Lion’ was permanently deferred; Hitler’s new focus would be the future invasion of Russia.
Final Operations
The Hampden’s career with Bomber Command terminated in September 1943, although it still continued to operate as a torpedo bomber with Coastal Command. One of these units was 455 (RAAF) which operated with its TB1s until December 1943 when it converted to Beaufighters and the Hampden’s operational career drew to a close. Air Chief Marshall Harris described the Hampden’s overall performance as ‘inadequate’, but the fact remains that it played no small part in the most trying years of the war until more efficient types came into service. However the Hampden did achieve fame with the award of the Victoria Cross to F/Lt.Learoyd of 49 Squadron and Sgt.Hannah of 83.
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