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2,317 of the 11,461 Wellington bombers built were of the five types developed for Coastal Command. Radar equipped Wellingtons served as torpedo bombers and anti-Submarine warfare aircraft, both from Britain and in the Mediterranean.
Coastal Command often had a lower priority that it deserved. It did not receive its first Wellingtons until November 1940, when No. 221 Squadron was formed using Mk ICs with anti surface vessel (ASV) radar. These early Mk ICs were followed by the Mk VIII, based on the same airframe. This aircraft came in both torpedo bomber and anti-Submarine warfare versions.
The Mk VIII Torpedo bomber was most often found in the Mediterranean. It flew from Malta from December 1940 to March 1941, and again from the end of 1941. From there the Wellingtons were able to play a crucial part in denying supplies to the Axis forces in North Africa. Two more daylight anti-shipping versions of the Wellington would follow – the Mk XI and the MK XIII, of which over 800 were built.
A Wellington Mk VIII of No. 172 Squadron made the first successful attack using the Leigh Light on 4 June 1942, off the north coast of Spain. The target of this attack was an Italian submarine, the Luigi Torelli. Caught by surprise, and unaware of the true nature of the sudden light, the Italian boat remained surfaced for long enough for the Wellington to drop its depth charges, scoring a near miss, and forcing the submarine to abandon its mission and return to port.
The first confirmed U-boat kill came on 5 July 1942 when U-502 was sunk while crossing the Bay of Biscay.
The Leigh Light removed the cover of night from the U-boats. This had been a safe period, when the submarines could surface to refresh their oxygen and recharge their batteries, almost entirely safe from British attack.
Although the Wellington’s relatively short range limited the areas it could patrol with the Leigh Light, it was so successful in the crucial Bay of Biscay area that in 1943 Admiral Doenitz was forced to order the U-Boats to submerge if they had to cross the bay at night, and only surface during the day, when they had a better chance of spotting any approaching aircraft at a safe distance.
The Leigh Light equipped Wellington remained important to the end of the war. In the summer of 1944 GR MK XIVs flew patrols over the English Channel, helping to prevent the U-boats from interfering with the invasion fleets. By the end of 1944 Coastal Command still had 119 Leigh Light equipped Wellingtons. The Wellington, and its stable mate, the Vickers Warwick, played an important role in the victory over the U-boat.
Wellington in Action, Ron Mackay. A well illustrated guide to the development and service career of this classic British bomber. Mackay looks at the early development of the Wellington and the unusual geodetic frame that gave it great strength, the period when the Wellington was the mainstay of Bomber Command and the many uses found for the aircraft after it was replaced in the main bomber stream.
RAF Coastal Command in Action, 1939-45, Roy C. Nesbit. This is an excellent photographic history of Coastal Command during the Second World War. The book is split into six chapters, one for each year of the war. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction to the events of the year, and the aircraft that equipped the command before moving on to the photos. Each chapter contains a mix of pictures of the aircraft used by the command and pictures taken by the command. [see more]
