Jump to content

Use of H2S on late-war lancasters


warhawk

Recommended Posts

Hello,

I would like to hear Your opinions on use of H2S ventral radome one late-war Lancasters
Was there a rule-of-thumb (e.g. within a certain production block), or was it a matter of front-line installation and/or retrofitting?

The machine I am building is a 619th Sqn machine, and looking at photos of other birds in this squadron, some do seem to have it, while others don't...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IT is my impression that by the end of 1944 early 45 virtually ever Lancaster had the H2s, Exceptions being No3 Group and certain squadron in No5 Group such as 617 and 9  as they used aircraft to carry Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interestingly as a small aside to the question of H2S usage, the latest edition of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight magazine has an article about the aircraft of 1426 Enemy Aircraft Flight, in which they discuss the Ju88 G1 4R + UR captured after landing at Woodbridge. The article mentions tests carried out which showed the homing ability of night fighters to find Monica tail warning and H2S using FuG227 & FuG350 sets. As the article states within 10 days of 4R+UR's capture a new type of 'Window' was developed to defeat FuG220 'Lichenstein' radar, "while Monica sets were quickly removed" being a semi official MOD publication it's noticeable there is no mention of the Luftwaffe's continuing ability to home in on H2S, presumably as there is a sensitivity of aircraft loses to a known issue which wasn't resolved. If H2S was in lesser use due to Pathfinder Force, or only carried by a percentage of the Bomber Command aircraft I would have expected it to be mentioned perhaps?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gordon,

 

Just to muddy the waters a bit, according to the inspection report, 4R+UR was not equipped with Naxos. I haven't seen the article you're referring to but perhaps it's conflating investigation of 4R+UR with more general investigation into H2S vulnerability? Which doesn't answer your question.....

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Ju_88_woodbridge.pdf

 

Pete

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The article appears pretty comprehensive about the aircraft used, not sure how much 'official' access the author had to reports from Farnborough, Boscombe Down etc he had?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...