Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle
The Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle was a British twin-engined aircraft designed as a medium bomber that could be built from wood and steel without light alloys. It first flew on 20 March 1940, but production — principally by A.W. Hawksley Ltd, using parts from more than 1,000 subcontractors — ran only to December 1944, with 602 built. By the time it reached the RAF in quantity in January 1943, it had been passed over as a bomber, and it spent its career as a transport and glider tug with the airborne forces, taking part in the Sicily, Normandy and Arnhem operations before retirement in February 1946. No example is known to survive.
Why It Mattered
The Albemarle was designed to a specification for a medium bomber built from wood and steel, so that it would not draw on the light alloys Britain expected to be short of in a major war. It reached the RAF in January 1943, and the bomber role was abandoned almost as soon as it arrived. Its real career was with the airborne forces: flown by No. 38 Group squadrons towing Horsa gliders and dropping paratroops, it took part in the invasions of Sicily and Normandy and in the Arnhem operation. History of War calls it "a good example of the many aircraft that saw more service in an unexpected role during the Second World War than in the role they had originally been designed for".
Design Notes
The design began at Bristol to specification B.9/38, which sought a twin-engined medium bomber of wood and metal construction that firms outside the aircraft industry could build. When Bristol stopped work, Armstrong Whitworth's AW.41 was taken up instead. Its structure was unstressed plywood over a steel tube frame, built in sections small enough to be carried on a standard Queen Mary trailer. Two Bristol Hercules XI radials of 1,590 hp powered it, and, as aviation author Oliver Tapper notes, its retractable nose-wheel undercarriage was the first on a British-built aircraft produced in quantity for the RAF. Only the first 32 aircraft were completed in the six-crew bomber layout; the rest were built as transports, with a glider-towing hook at the tail and room for ten paratroops.
Operational History
A.W. Hawksley Ltd of Gloucester, a Gloster subsidiary formed to build the Albemarle, produced 602 aircraft using parts from more than 1,000 subcontractors, and production ended in December 1944. History of War counts six hundred constructed, of which 359 served as transports, including in the paratroop role, and 197 as glider tugs. The type reached the RAF in quantity in January 1943, with No. 295 Squadron at Harwell; Nos. 296, 297 and 570 Squadrons also flew it. The bomber ambition was dropped almost at once, since the Albemarle offered no improvement over the Wellington and could not match the four-engined heavy bombers then entering service. Its first large-scale use came in July 1943, towing gliders for the invasion of Sicily. On the night of 5/6 June 1944, Albemarles of Nos. 295 and 296 Squadrons flew with the pathfinder force to Normandy, and No. 295 Squadron claimed to be the first to drop Allied airborne troops that night; on 6 June four squadrons towed Horsa gliders to Normandy, and the next day its squadrons towed 220 Horsas and 30 Hamilcars. At Arnhem on 17 September 1944, 28 Albemarles of Nos. 296 and 297 Squadrons towed 54 Horsas and two Waco Hadrians, and 45 more aircraft followed the next day. The Soviet Union had ordered 200 in October 1942, but after only a handful had been delivered it suspended deliveries in May 1943 and cancelled the order in favour of the Douglas C-47. The last RAF unit, the Heavy Glider Conversion Unit, replaced its Albemarles with Halifaxes in February 1946.
Afterlife
The Albemarle disappeared quickly once the war ended: transferred from front-line squadrons to training units shortly after Arnhem, it was finally retired in February 1946, less than a year after the war's end. No Albemarle is known to survive. What remains is its place in the airborne forces' record: the Airborne Assault Museum presents the type as part of 38 Group's war, and its archive holds the photograph of officers of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company synchronising their watches in front of an Albemarle.