"A Tough Old Bird..."

Heroes Remember

"A Tough Old Bird..."

Transcript

The old Wellington was, is one of the oldest military aircraft during the war, was a tough old bird. It was the only plane, was constructed by, with a geodetic construction, which is you know, a metal framework and then fabric is sewn onto that metal framework. And a lot of people say, oh well the metal, metal fabric is... the metal sheet planes are better. We never found that, we found that the old Wellingtons were tough as could be. In fights, they could be shot at and holed and banged and bruised and blown to pieces and they still flew, as long you didn't knock out an engine or something of that nature. They were, we found them, great aircraft. Pilots liked them, they were a nice plane to fly and they were, as far as I'm concerned, they, by the time they got to where we were, they were really getting to be a really excellent plane, they really were. The engines had become much, much more powerful. The old engines, they had in the planes when they were mark-1s and mark-2s and it was on bomber command, were, they were slow, underpowered and by the time they got to our aircraft, we carried a pair of Hercules mark-17 engines and they carry, they were 1750 horsepower a piece and they were just absolutely, they were sleeve valve engines and they were just absolutely super. And they carried a three bladed variable pitch propellor and I can never recall an occasion where we had an engine failure. It's surprising you know, here are these big engines, now thundering away and of course that's why I should have my hearing aids in, which I don't have. They make a, a great racket and you're only sitting a few inches away from the engine. And, but you just hear one go, do a little burp, "Hey skipper was that the engine?" He said, "Yeah, everything's ok." But boy I'll tell you, that was the one thing that everybody had. Always a major concern for, is having an engine start developing problems because Wellingtons don't fly on one engine.

Description

Mr. Allen discusses the structure and modifications which made the Wellington into an excellent bomber.

Bruce Allen

Mr. Allen was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1923. His father worked in the foreign service of the Royal Bank, and returned to Toronto, Ontario, in 1930. Mr. Allen enlisted at the age of eighteen, completed basic training, and shipped overseas to England where he joined 172 Squadron, Coastal Command. His wartime experience involved convoy protection and submarine patrol. After returning to Canada, Mr. Allen pursued a career in various facets of television broadcasting. He remains very interested in Veterans' issues, and belongs to several Veterans organizations; 403 Sarnia Wing Air Force Association, Royal Canadian Legion, Veterans Club of Sarnia, and the Bomber Command Association.

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