The Vickers Wellington was designed and built at Brooklands, but it was the infamous Battle of Heligoland Bight that was the true making of this bomber aircraft.
Words: Mike Forbes and Alisdair Suttie Photos: Brooklands Museum Collection
The Heligoland raid showed the RAF would need those planes as the air force’s thinking at the time was its bombers would always get through to their target. There was some justification for this as the Wellington was able to carry a bomb load up to 4500lbs (2045kg). It was also quicker than most other planes of the period and heavily armed to defend itself with four Browning 0.303in machine guns. They were positioned in pairs in twin turrets in the nose and tail. There were three raids on the Heligoland Bight in December 1939. The first took place on 3 December and
was aimed at the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven and the bight which is the stretch of water between the German mainland and island of Heligoland. This was where many German ships were anchored and this first bombing raid sank a mine- laying ship and shot down a single German fighter plane with no losses for the RAF. Emboldened by this, a second daylight raid was launched on 14 December to attack the ships called Nurnberg and Leipzig. On this occasion, six out of the 12 Wellingtons were lost, half to German fighter planes and the other half to anti- aircraft batteries.
At this point, the RAF believed daytime operations were still preferable to night raids. The events of 18 December altered that thinking forever. Wellingtons from 9, 37 and 149 Squadrons were briefed to attack German ships in Heligoland Bight moored outside of the harbour. However, when the bombers arrived over the target, the ships were inside the harbour and the decision was made to turn for home without attacking as the British wanted to avoid civilian casualties. Unfortunately, the heavily laden
Wellingtons were fair game for the German fighters, which continued to attack the
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2020 | BROOKLANDS BULLETIN 21
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