The Washington can probably be described as the RAF’s ‘forgotten bomber’.  Most dedicated aviation enthusiasts will know that Britain used a small number of Boeing B29 Superfortress’ briefly as a ‘stop gap’ in the early 1950s, prior to the build up of the Canberra force but any further discussion about its service will usually be extremely limited. 

By the late 1940s the RAF had a serious gap in its offensive capability; it would be several years before the new jet bomber came in to service and Bomber Command was down to about 160 aircraft still operational (48 Lancasters, 96 Lincolns and 16 Mosquitoes).  Both the Americans and the Russians were operating nuclear capable B29s (the latter coming from the ‘Chinese Copy’ Tupolev Tu4s – NATO codename ‘BULL’) although there were very few atomic weapons to arm them.  USAF B29s were already using British bases and in order to further close the gap, in January 1950 it was agreed that Britain would receive 70 B29s (to be entitled Washington B. Mk. 1 in RAF service) on loan under the Mutual Defence Assistance Programme (MDAP).  This figure eventually rose to 87 which would equip eight squadrons and facilitated the retirement of the remaining Lancasters. Most of the airframes were taken out of storage and many were virtually new, having been delivered at the end of the Pacific War, although a small number came from operational units.  This was an excellent arrangement from the RAF’s point of view as it provided experience of operating relatively modern equipment without diverting any of the development effort and investment from the Canberra and the V-Bombers. Some senior RAF officers had reservations however as the new high level bomber needed ten aircrew and this would exacerbate the service’s already serious manning problems. 

The B29 was a major advance from the Lancaster/Lincoln that most of its crews were familiar with.  It took off at twice the weight and had about twice the range of its predecessors.  Deployment of the new force not only gave a quantum leap in offensive capability but it also lead to major improvements in the British Isles air defence system.  As the Luftwaffe’s capability to penetrate British defences had declined towards the end of the war the RAF ran its radar network down and in the early 1950s the system concentrated almost exclusively on threats from the south and east.  In October 1952, a mixed force of Washingtons and USAF B29s and B50s were pitted against NATO fighters in Exercise ‘Ardent’.  Over one hundred bombers rendezvoused over the north west Atlantic at night, sneaked over Cape Wrath and turned south over central Scotland.  The raid then split into two and attacked Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester and the intruders were well on their way back to their bases in southern England before they were finally intercepted.  They had never appeared on the screens of the east coast radar stations and the Sector long range boards remained empty. Royal Observer Corps groups had only received a few uncoordinated reports such as ‘Heard 15, distant, south, five plus at no height, piston, out.’ If the RAF and USAF could achieve this, so could the Soviet Air Force with their Tu4s.  All of this information was fed into the planning for the new ROTOR air defence system and ROC coverage was improved over the west coast.

The new aircraft first arrived in Lincolnshire in October 1950 and operated for the next three years.  The crews trained at RAF Marham and eventually eight squadrons were formed – 15, 44, 57 and 149 Sqs which operated from Coningsby while 35, 90, 115, 207 Sqs remained at Marham.  Sgt. ‘Pat’ Epsom was an air gunner on 57 Sq and he was going through the Washington Conversion Unit at Marham when some of their new aircraft were delivered by USAF crews.  He recalled an emergency call from one inbound aircraft having engine trouble and the incident was handled by a female Air Traffic Controller, something that the Americans found a novelty in itself.  In response to her query ‘….. do you have a problem?’ he replied ‘Lady – I got nineteen tons of pulsating aloominum strapped to my ass and you ask do I have problem!’  The lady ATCO’s response is not recorded.  (Interestingly, the Air Britain ‘Washington File’ includes a picture of WF437 on its delivery flight landing with one propeller feathered – apparently this problem was not uncommon.)  Pat and his colleagues were also highly envious of the Americans’ leather flying jackets as compared to their own flying overalls and they were quite disappointed to find that they did not come as standard issue with their new mounts. 

At that time, the Wing Commander Flying at Marham was Wing Cdr. J B Tait who had led 617 Sq. against the Tirpitz.  The Washingtons were considerably heavier than the Lincolns they replaced and any form of ‘marginal’ circuit was discouraged so, in the event of losing an engine, go-arounds were avoided at all costs.  If flying was planned but the weather conditions were close to the limits and there was any doubt about being able to land back, Tait would turn up with his flying gear, dismiss the captain of the first aircraft due away and take over his mission.  Once airborne he would make a decision as to whether the visibility would permit emergency landings back at base and if not, he would fly the sortie and then land at the nearest diversion.  Because of the range of some of these operations (flights of 4,000 miles – 15 hours duration were possible), this could be in the north of Scotland, St Mawgan or in RAF Germany.  The hapless crew could be left in their flying gear to await better weather to get home which meant that they were often stranded in a strange Officers’ or Sergeants’ mess without proper clothes and with limited cash.  Along with the aircraft, the RAF imported quite a few USAF procedures, including the practice of lining up for a crew inspection before flights and Pat recalls that in the early days they even had a mat laid out with all of their positions marked on it. Despite the shortage of aircrew the Washington had both a captain and a co-pilot although Bomber Command had operated its four engined aircraft throughout the War with just one qualified pilot as it was considered that the training organisation could not have turned out sufficient pilots to provide two for each ‘heavy’.  However, they often did not carry a tail gunner as the position was difficult to access and the guns could be fired from the remote positions.

A fine study of a Washington in flight

After training, 57 Squadron moved to Waddington with its eight Washingtons and one Oxford on 1^st June 1951 and remained there until April 1952 when they moved to Coningsby.  The crews spent their time practising radar bombing, GCA letdowns at Bassingbourn and high level bombing using Gee.  A typical solo sortie was conducted in August when one aircraft made blind bombing attacks on the airfields at Luqa in Malta and Catania in Sicily.   Engine problems persisted and on 29^th September WF555 force landed at Amiens after a propeller fell off due to an over-speed. Because of the height at which they operated, it was not uncommon for the electrical solenoids on the bomb releases to freeze up.  The bomb bay was split into two and there was a manhole in the bulkhead which gave access from the cockpit to a walkway.  Pat recalled one particularly ‘hairy’ trip when he was ordered to crawl into the un-pressurised bomb bay with a large screwdriver to free off a 500 lb bomb that had hung up, since he was the smallest member of the crew and could get through in his flying overalls.  The captain did not want to risk landing with it after the release might have thawed out at lower altitude.  Pat clipped on a lifeline and took an intercom connection; once he reached the recalcitrant release the bomb doors were opened and the noise and the buffeting were tremendous however, after several attempts, he was relieved to see it part company with the aircraft and fall into the sea. He also remembers Soviet fighters formating on them at a respectable distance when they flew near to the East German border.  At Coningsby the Squadron came under the command of ‘Gus’ Walker who was held in very high regard by the ordinary aircrew. 

Flight Sergeant John Waldron was a member of one of the last Washington crews at RAF Marham.  He originally qualified as an air gunner in 1944 and completed a tour on Lancasters with 90 Sq. at RAF Tuddenham then, following post war service on Lincolns at RAF Upwood he joined 115 Sq in April 1953.  He was passed fit to operate the Central Fire Control system after completing four training trips, including a sortie on Exercise ‘King Pin’ with the Squadron C.O.  He recalls that working the gunnery control sights inside the pressurised fuselage behind the bomb bay was sheer luxury after the draughty Lincoln turrets that he was used to and the aircrew were able to enjoy their coffee and sandwiches in comfort on lengthy sorties.  Once qualified he was assigned to Flying Officer Joe Loughran’s crew and they settled down to a pattern of four or five sorties a month, mainly on WF559.  There was a busy period of operations in August including three sorties for Exercise ‘Momentum’ which ended at Wunstorf or Wahn in Germany and September was another good month with several high level bombing missions punctuated with visits to Burtonwood and Colerne for Battle of Britain Day.  No doubt these operational sorties were intensive training as at the end of the month John’s crew flew two sorties in the Laurence Minot Trophy competition.   This prestigious award was first contested in 1927 and it is appropriate that it was won by 115 Squadron in its last year operating the big American bomber.

115 Sqn pictured after winning the Minot Trophy

However this seems to have been their last major effort as the crew only completed another twelve operations up to the end of the year as the Washington squadrons progressively stood-down to be replaced with Canberras.  After the Christmas break John’s crew picked up their regular mount for the last time and on 5^th January they flew to Prestwick to clear Customs.  The next leg was to Laejes in the Azores then on to Kindley Field, Bermuda and they delivered ‘559 back to the USAF at Dover AFB, Delaware on the 8^th after a total flying time of 25 hrs.  Following a transfer to the MATS base at Westover AFB, they returned home on a R6-D (DC6) courtesy of the US Navy.

Having studied John’s log book, I assumed that Dover must have been the graveyard for some of the RAF’s redundant aircraft and this was the end of WF559 but I have recently been introduced to the ‘Washington Times’ newsletter.  You can imagine my surprise while reading an article entitled ‘Home Run’ by an ex 207 Sq. air gunner to find that his crew picked it up and took it on to Davies-Monthan.  Although he doesn’t mention it in his logbook, Loughran’s crew had lost an engine inbound to Dover and it had languished there until WF513 was delivered along the same route about a month later.  On this occasion an engine had failed inbound for Bermuda, and although they had obviously patched it up sufficiently to get to the mainland, the Washington was categorised as ‘too tired to continue’.  The flight from Delaware to Arizona took ten hours and they arrived at night so the next morning the crew were astounded to see the rows of redundant aircraft stretching into the distance.  The aircraft was formally handed back to the USAF and within minutes the guns and other loose equipment had been stripped out, all of the plexiglass was cocooned and she was up on jacks.  The original crew of ‘559 were quite put out as, instead of a few days in the sun, they were snowbound in Delaware for several days before they could get to the MATS base.

With the exception of a small number Washingtons that were used by 192 Sq. for ELINT operations until 1958, this was the end of the RAF’s involvement with Boeing’s big bomber.  Two RAF Washingtons (WW345 and WW353) were turned over to the Royal Australian Air Force and were assigned the serials A76-1 and A76-2, six were written off following incidents or crashes and the majority of the remainder were returned to the United States and went back into storage before eventually being converted into radio controlled targets or scrapped.

I am obliged to Pat Epsom and John Waldron for sharing their memories of the Washington with us. Additional information and photos taken from the Air Britain Washington File, ‘Attack Warning Red’ by Derek Wood and the ‘Washington Times’ newsletter published by Chris Howlett.