The reconnaissance aircraft that made its name as history’s most famous wartime trainer
WHILE the Avro name is best known for the Lancaster and Vulcan, WWII saw the firm mass produce an aircraft that was built to fulfil the role of the RAF’s land-based maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
However, during a working life that extended from the 1930s through to the 1970s, the Avro Anson became primarily a bomber trainer and transporter to name two of the jobs it filled, with only the Spitfire, Hurricane and Wellington produced in greater numbers during WWII; it was May 27, 1952 that the 11,020th and last Avro Anson, WJ561, was handed over to the RAF – 17 years after Avro 652A had conducted its maiden flight at Woodford Aerodrome in Cheshire.
The military version originated from Avro’s twin-engine airliner design, the proposal in response to an Air Ministry tender request for a coastal maritime reconnaissance aircraft to supplement the flying boats already in use. The Avro option was in competition with de Havilland’s Dragon Rapide, Avro 652A conducting its maiden flight on March 24, 1935 at Woodford in Cheshire, before undergoing formal evaluation against its competitor.
During trials at the RAF’s Coastal Defence Development Unit at Gosport in Hampshire, the Avro was deemed superior with Air Ministry Specification 18/35 written on its design, an initial order made for 174 of the aircraft, the Anson named after the 18th century British Admiral, George Anson.
(Avro Anson WD413 on 28 Aug 1983 📸 Dick Gilbert)
The Anson Mk 1 had a welded steel fuselage and low-mounted one-piece wooden wings, a combination of plywood and spruce, powered by Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engines driving metal propellers, with a top speed of around 190mph and a range of 660 miles, around four hours.
When it entered RAF service in March 1936 with No. 48 Squadron, it had a three-man crew – later upgraded to four – comprising of pilot, navigator/bomb operator, and radio operator/gunner. Its armaments consisted a Vickers-type machine gun in a fixed position within the front fuselage and aimed by the pilot, with an Armstrong Whitworth manually operated gun turret located on the dorsal section fitted with a single Lewis gun; additionally, up to 360lbs of bombs could be accommodated in the Anson’s wings. It was also the first RAF aircraft with retractable landing gear, 144 turns of a handle next to the pilot required for a process so arduous that often the landing gear would be left out, especially on short flights, reducing the top speed even further.
In July 1937, a Coastal Command Anson was fitted with experimental airborne early warning radar, able to detect warships in a five-mile radius in poor visibility, and by the outbreak of WWII, 26 squadrons were operating the Mk I: 10 assigned to Coastal Command and 16 with Bomber Command.
However, by the time WWII had begun, the Anson was considered no longer viable for its planned front-line combat role in maritime patrol, a decision previously made to use American-built Lockheed Hudsons instead, aircraft which were faster, had three times the range, and superior defensive armaments.
With the switch to Lockheed Hudsons ongoing, remaining Coastal Command squadrons continued to operate Ansons, its endurance limitations meaning it was mainly deployed on North Sea operations, along with duties around the British coast. An example of its limitations came by accident on December 3, 1939, an Anson mistakenly attacking a Royal Navy submarine, HMS Snapper, which was returning to Harwich in Essex after a North Sea patrol: a friendly-fire direct hit on the conning tower resulted in just four broken lightbulbs on the submarine.
(An Anson of No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron, Coastal Command, about to take off on a patrol mission, circa 1940–1941)
Despite their clear limitations in battle, they were deployed during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 to deter German E-boats – fast craft armed with torpedoes and Flak guns – from attacking Allied shipping in the Channel, but their primary wartime role was not in combat but in training. Pilots were drilled on the Anson ahead of bomber duties, the aircraft later used to train other members of a bomber crew such as navigators, bomb aimers and wireless operators; following training, crews would advance to aircraft such as Fairey Battles, Bristol Blenheims and Vickers Wellingtons, and later in the war to the Avro Lancaster.
While descriptions of the Anson from those that flew it would normally involve the words ‘cold, slow and noisy’, it became the most famous aircrew trainer of all time, and was remembered with affection by WWII aircrew, earning the nickname ‘Faithful Annie’.
As well as Britain, training centres using the Anson were established in Canada, South Africa and New Zealand under the Empire Air Training Scheme, the Avro aircraft seen as the ideal multi-seat trainer and proving so successful in the role that around 3,000 of the aircraft were built in Canada. The aircraft’s Antipodean service saw more than 1,000 operated by the Royal Australian Air Force and a number used as navigation trainers by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, many continuing to be used on military duty up until the mid-1950s.
A problem encountered with the Anson’s wooden wings became apparent with those operating in Australia, with a high rate of failure discovered relating to the phenolic glue bonds separating, a problem linked to the high humidity in which they were flown; by the early 1960s, most of the civilian Ansons still operating in Australia had been scrapped to avoid governmental edict ordering its wooden wings to be replaced.
The war years also saw the British Air Transport Auxiliary, ATA, deploy Ansons as a taxi aircraft, ferrying pilots to and from aircraft collection points, regarded as highly proficient in the role boasting a near blemish-free record throughout the war – not a single recording of a fatal mechanical failure of a RAF Anson on ATA duty.
(The interior of an Anson C Mark XI, looking forward from the passenger compartment towards the cockpit)
While the end of WWII signalled a drawdown of their RAF service, many were converted for civilian use, operated by a number of small charter airliners for light transport roles, among them Railway Air Services flying Ansons on a scheduled service between London Croydon Airport to Belfast via Manchester. And 30 years after the end of WWII, Ansons were still in operation in Britain, flown by a company based in Hampshire, Kemp’s Aerial Surveys flying a fleet of five out of Thruxton.
Today, there remains at least three airworthy examples of the Avro Anson still participating in flying displays: two in the UK, one in New Zealand; a fourth Anson is currently undergoing restoration work in Canada.
