Machines - Stirling

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The advent of the four-engine bombers with their large payloads and greater range  finally gave Britain the tools with which to strike back at Hitler. The first of these to go into service was the Sterling.

 

When introduced in early 1941, the Sterling had a payload twice that of any other bomber operating at that time: 14,000 lbs. It had a maximum speed of 250 mph which increased in later versions to 280 mph -- very fast for a bomber by contemporary standards. It carried eight machine guns for defense: two in the nose, four in the tail and two amidships, whereby the initial retractable belly turret proved impractical and was later replaced with a dorsal turret. At the time of its introduction in early 1941, the Sterling was in a class by itself. 

Yet it proved to have three serious drawbacks: its range when fully loaded was just 590 miles, which did not allow for deep penetration into Germany. It's bomb bay design could not be adapted to accommodate bombs larger than the 2,000 pounder, something that became an increasing disadvantage as larger and larger bombs were introduced in the course of the war. Finally, and arguably most significantly,  it had a service ceiling of just 16,000 feet, which made it extremely vulnerable to flak.

The Sterling was designed for a crew of seven including two pilots sitting side-by-side on the flight deck, supported by a flight engineer with his own station farther down the fuselage. The wireless operator doubled as the forward gunner, and the navigator doubled as the bomb aimer, but the dorsal and tail gunners were dedicated to the defense of the aircraft. 

The Sterling flew surprisingly well. Pilots liked its maneuverability -- including the ability to turn tighter than most German (twin-engine) night fighters! Yet, it had a severe starboard yaw on take-off and a tendency to stall on landing. The starboard yawl required more power from the right engines for roughly twenty seconds during take-off. Failure to compensate in this manner resulted in many "ground loops," damaged aircraft and blocked runways. More dangerous was a tendency to stall during landing because, due to its weight, when a Sterling fell out of the sky without power, it usually wrote itself off entirely.

In the course of the war, Sterlings flew 14,500 sorties and delivered 27,000 tons of explosive, but the losses were severe: 701. Because of the low ceiling of the Sterlings, they flew below the higher flying Halifaxes and Lancasters, "catching" the flak," as it were.  This meant that on large, combined raids the Sterlings took a disproportional number of casualties. 

The Sterlings were withdrawn from front-line service in Bomber Command by December 1943 and relegated to support roles such as mine laying, electronic counter-measures, and towing gliders. 

For the greater part of the war, RAF Bomber Command was viewed by civilians and aircrew alike as the only means of striking back at Hitler for the damage, destruction and misery he had inflicted. 

My novels about the RAF in WWII are intended as tributes to the men in the air and on the ground that made a victory in Europe against fascism possible. 

Riding the icy, moonlit sky, 

they took the war to Hitler. 

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent. 

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved. 

It is intended as a tribute to them all.  

Buy now on amazon

or Barnes and Noble. 

 

Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three heart-wrenching tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles


 

  

 

 

 

 

"Where Eagles Never Flew" was the the winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction and a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

For more information about all my aviation books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com/aviation.html




 

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