Bristol Beaufighter

The Bristol Beaufighter built was in Filton and Weston -Super-Mare,England,the MK1 was first taken into service in July 1940.It was a twin engine 2/3 seater strike and torpedo aircraft,with a wing span of 18 meters,and almost 13 meters in length,armed with bombs,torpedoes or rockets,4x20mm Hispano cannons and machine guns in the wings.Usinga gyro angling device and a radio altimeter the Beaufighter could make precision attacks at wave top height with her torpedoes or rockets,add to this her long range and able to undertake combat during darkness made her a formidable fighter aircraft.On the 17th March 1943,nine Beaufighters of 272 Squadron took off to join up with nine other from 39 Squadron on a shipping strike off Point Stelo,on the same day the convoy MW23 arrived safely in Malta from Alexandria with much needed supplies for the islands.Beaufighter N with her pilot,Sgt.Donald Frazze,and his observer,Sgt.Sandery,started to climb to 1500 fee tand turned left to search for other aircraft to form up with.At this time the aircraft began to vibrate violently.The observer reported smoke coming out of his heating pipe,the pilot throttled back each engine in turn-this did not help,and by this time he could hardly read his gauges due to the vibration.Their air speed was around 130 mph and they were losing height at three to four hundred  feet  a minute.At 600 feet the pilot informed his observer they would have to ditch,he tried to keep a steady course while throttling back completely shortly before impact.There was a slight swell and the aircraft hit the water at about 100 mph,they both managed to get out and apart from minor bruises they were both uninjured.By the time they had both floated away from the aircraft,within 15 seconds she had disappeared beneath the waves.Within five minutes they were picked up by a Maltese fishing boat and five minutes after that their rescue launch arrived.