The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War.
After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's short-field performance enabled clandestine missions using small, improvised airstrips behind enemy lines to place or recover agents, particularly in occupied France with the help of the French Resistance. Royal Air Force army co-operation aircraft were named after mythical or historical military leaders; in this case the Spartan admiral Lysander was chosen.
Design and development In 1934 the Air Ministry issued Specification A.39/34 for an army co-operation aircraft to replace the Hawker Hector. Initially Hawker Aircraft, Avro and Bristol were invited to submit designs, but after some debate within the ministry, a submission from Westland was invited as well. The Westland design, internally designated P. 8, was the work of Arthur Davenport under the direction of "Teddy" Petter. It was Petter's second aircraft design and he spent considerable time interviewing Royal Air Force pilots to find out what they wanted from such an aircraft. The army wanted a tactical and artillery reconnaissance aircraft to provide photographic reconnaissance and observation of artillery fire in daylight – up to about behind the enemy front. The result of Petter's pilot enquiries suggested that field of view, low-speed handling characteristics and STOL performance were the important requirements.
Davenport and Petter designed an aircraft to incorporate these features. The Lysander was to be powered by a Bristol Mercury air-cooled radial engine and had high wings and a fixed conventional landing gear mounted on an innovative inverted U square-section tube that supported wing struts at the apex, and contained internal springs for the faired wheels. The large streamlined spats also contained a mounting for a Browning machine gun and fittings for removable stub wings that could carry light bombs or supply canisters. The wings had a reverse taper towards the root, which gave the impression of a bent gull wing from some angles, although the spars were straight. It had a girder type construction faired with a light wood stringers to give the aerodynamic shape. The forward fuselage was duralumin tube joined with brackets and plates, and the after part was welded stainless steel tubes. Plates and brackets were cut from channel extrusions rather than being formed from sheet steel. The front spar and lift struts were extrusions. The wing was fabric-covered and its thickness was greatest at the strut anchorage, similar to that of later marks of the Stinson Reliant high-winged transport monoplane.
Despite its appearance, the Lysander was aerodynamically advanced, being equipped with fully automatic wing slats and slotted flaps, and a variable incidence tailplane.Flight 1938 p. 572 These refinements gave the Lysander a stalling speed of only .Taylor 1969, p. 443. The tube that supported the wings and wheels was the largest Elektron alloy extrusion made at the time. Due to the difficulties involved in manufacturing such a large extrusion Canadian-built machines had a conventionally fabricated assembly. The Air Ministry requested two prototypes of the P.8 and the competing Bristol Type 148, quickly selecting the Westland aircraft for production and issuing a contract in September 1936.
The high-lift devices gave the Lysander a short take off and landing (STOL) performance much appreciated by the Special Duties pilots such as Squadron Leader Hugh Verity. The wings were equipped with automatic slats which lifted away from the leading edge as the airspeed decreased towards stalling speed. These slats controlled automatic flaps. Slow speed flight was therefore greatly simplified, "and it was possible to bring a Lysander down to land, if not like a lift, at least like an escalator".Verity 1978 p. 15 The inboard slats were connected to the flaps and to an air damper in the port wing which governed the speed at which the slats operated. The outboard slats operated independently and were not connected and each was fitted with an air damper. On a normal approach, the inboard slats and the flaps would begin to open when the airspeed has dropped to about and be approximately half down at . The only control that the pilot has is a locking lever which he can set to lock the flaps down once they have been lowered automatically.Wake-Walker 2014 p. 64
Operational history United Kingdom
The first Lysanders entered service in June 1938, equipping squadrons for army co-operation and were initially used for message-dropping and artillery spotting. When war broke out in Europe, the earlier Mk.Is had been largely replaced by Mk.IIs, the older machines heading for the Middle East. Some of these aircraft, now designated type L.1, operated with the Chindits of the British Indian Army in the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.Masters, John. The Road Past Mandalay. London: Bengal-Rockland, 1961. .
Four regular squadrons equipped with Lysanders accompanied the British Expeditionary Force to France in October 1939 and were joined by a further squadron early in 1940. Following the German invasion of France and the low countries on 10 May 1940, Lysanders were put into action as spotters and light bombers. In spite of occasional victories against German aircraft, they made very easy targets for the Luftwaffe even when escorted by Hurricanes.Air International, January 1984, pp. 26–27.March 1998, p. 243. Withdrawn from France during the Dunkirk evacuation, they continued to drop supplies to Allied forces from bases in England; on one mission to supply troops trapped at Calais, 14 of 16 Lysanders and Hectors that set out were lost. Of 175 Lysanders that took part in the campaign, 118 were lost in or over France and Belgium in May and June 1940.James 1991, p. 247.
With the fall of France, it was clear that the type was unsuitable for coastal patrol and army co-operation, being described by Air Marshal Arthur Barratt, commander-in-chief of the British Air Forces in France as "quite unsuited to the task; a faster, less vulnerable aircraft was required."Air International January 1984, p. 27. The view of army Air observation post (AOP) pilots was that the Lysander was too fast for artillery spotting purposes, too slow and un-manoeuvrable to avoid fighters, too big quickly to hide on a landing field, too heavy to use on soft ground and had been developed by the RAF without ever asking the army what was needed. Throughout the remainder of 1940, Lysanders flew dawn and dusk patrols off the coast and in the event of an invasion, they were to attack the landing beaches with light bombs and machine guns.Rickard, J. "No. 613 Squadron (RAF): Second World War", HistoryOfWar.org, 6 April 2012."RAF Museum: Westland Lysander III." Royal Air Force Museum, 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2012. They were replaced in the home-based army co-operation squadrons from 1941 by camera-equipped fighters such as the Curtiss Tomahawk and North American Mustang carrying out reconnaissance operations, while light aircraft such as the Taylorcraft Auster were used to direct artillery.Air International February 1984, p. 81. Some British-based Lysanders flew air-sea rescue sorties, dropping dinghies to RAF aircrew in the English Channel.Air International February 1984, p. 82. Fourteen squadrons and flights were formed for this in 1940 and 1941.
In India, 20 Squadron and 28 Squadron flying Lysanders were listed as non-operational but part of No. 221 Group RAF for army co-operation from Jamshedpur and Ranchi, respectively, on 1 July 1942.Air Historical Branch, R.A.F. Narrative (First Draft), The Campaigns in the Far East, Volume III, India Command, September 1939 to November 1943, Appendix 2, 167..
Special duties
In August 1941 the new 138 (Special Duties) Squadron, was formed to undertake missions for the Special Operations Executive to maintain clandestine contact with the French Resistance. Among its aircraft were Lysander Mk.IIIs, that flew over and landed in occupied France. While general supply drops could be left to the rest of 138 Squadron aircraft, the Lysander could insert and remove agents from the continent or retrieve Allied aircrew that had evaded capture. Mk.IIIs were fitted with a fixed ladder over the port side to hasten access to the rear cockpit and a large drop tank under the belly. To slip in unobtrusively Lysanders were painted matte black overall (some early examples had brown/green camouflaged upper surfaces and later examples had grey/green upper surfaces). Operations almost always took place within a week of a full moon, as moonlight was essential for navigation. The aircraft undertook such duties until the liberation of France in 1944.
Lysanders were based at airfields at Newmarket in Suffolk and later Tempsford in Bedfordshire, but used regular RAF stations to fuel-up for the crossing, particularly RAF Tangmere. Flying without any navigation equipment other than a map and compass, Lysanders would land on short strips of land, such as fields, marked out by four or five torches or to avoid having to land, the agent, wearing a special padded suit, stepped off at very low altitude and rolled to a stop on the field. They were originally designed to carry one passenger in the rear cockpit but for SOE use, the rear cockpit of the Mk III (SD) version was modified to carry up to three passengers in case of emergency as they were fitted with a rearward facing bench for two passengers (with a locker underneath) and a shelf at the rear of the compartment which could also serve as a seat for a third passenger.
The pilots of 138 Squadron and from early 1942 161 Squadron, transported 101 agents to and recovered 128 agents from German-occupied Europe.Gunston, Bill. Classic World War II Aircraft Cutaways. London: Osprey, 1995. . The Germans knew little about the British aircraft and wished to study one. Soldiers captured an intact Lysander in March 1942 when its pilot was unable to destroy it after a crash but a train hit the truck carrying the Lysander, destroying the cargo.Breuer 2000, pp. 135–137.
In the Far East, from 1944 357 Squadron operated six SD Lysanders as C Flight for dropping agents in support of the Fourteenth Army in Burma.Mason, Profile 146
Lysanders were also used as target-towing and communication aircraft. Two aircraft (T1443 and T1739) were transferred to the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for training and 18 were used by the Fleet Air Arm. All British Lysanders were withdrawn from service in 1946.
Free French Lysander also joined the ranks of the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres (Free French Air Force, FAFL) when Groupe Mixte de Combat (GMC) 1, formed at RAF Odiham on 29 August 1940, was sent to French North-West Africa in order to persuade the authorities in countries such as Gabon, Cameroon and Chad, which were still loyal to Vichy France, to join the Gaullist cause against the Axis powers, and to attack Italian ground forces in Libya. As with all FAFL aircraft, Lysanders sported the Cross of Lorraine insignia on the fuselage and the wings instead of the French tricolour roundel first used in 1914, to distinguish their aircraft from those flying for the Vichy French Air Force. Lysanders were mostly employed on reconnaissance missions, but were also used to carry out occasional attacks. In all, 24 Lysanders were used by the FAFL.
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