The Deadliest British Bombers: Top 10 Crew Killers of WWII

Buckle up, my fellow aviation enthusiasts! Get ready for a mind-blowing journey as we dive into the heart-stopping skies of World War II

Join me as we meticulously analyze RAF aircrew losses to unravel the ever-changing list of the deadliest bombers, revealing a surprising twist that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew!

Together, we'll sift through heart-wrenching statistics and embark on an emotional exploration of the brave souls behind each aircraft. Their heroic sacrifices and unwavering determination will leave you in awe. But hold on tight, because I'm about to drop the bombshell—quite literally—unveiling the unexpected contender for the deadliest bomber based on operational sorties.

Join me on this riveting ride through history as we challenge historical perceptions and uncover the shocking truth about the deadliest British bombers of WWII. So, hit that play button, strap in, and let's embark on this adrenaline-fueled exploration that will keep us on the edge of our seats from start to finish!

💰 Want to start an online business with YouTube?

This YouTube channel is no accident and the success I've had so far was no mere fluke, it's all been planned out and executed in a very meaningful way. However, I can't take credit for knowing how to do all that, I had to learn and I learned from the best!

📕 Welcome to my channel where I share my love of history and aviation. I first fell in love with military aviation when reading Biggles books as a boy, then I studied history at university. I like finding interesting stories and sharing them with others.

I also followed this passion into the real world and managed to get a Private Pilot's Licence on 10th May 2014.

🕹️ My gaming equipment for getting footage:

3D print your own gaming controls

⏱️ Timestamp:
0:00 intro

#aviationhistory#history

[julianmhall]

I would ask 'Which aircraft brought back the biggest percentage of its crew?' so the aircraft with varying crew numbers could be assessed equally.

[stephenhall]

Thank you for this. My late father was a 'sparks' who flew in many bomber types as radar was being fitted.
He often said that the almost forgotten Stirling was more likely to get home after even Me-109 damage because it was very tough. Despite being under-powered for the far reach raids he experienced the self-sealing fuel tanks seldom caught fire and skilled pilots used steep diving to extinguish fires. Only if cables and hydraulics were damaged as well would bail out be offered but the wing area and tall fin allowed for quite good steering and gliding, at least to within bailing out off the English coast. Men tended to remain in the plane because cranking the complicated undercarriage needed coordinated muscle power and weight was reduced by removing parts of the bomb bay and doors in some cases. Getting wet feet was not popular!
It was also possible to land on 1 main wheel then tip at very slow speed -- usually on grass.
This 'technique' was not possible on the Lanc and Halifax because of modular fuselage build. The Wellington's structure also aided structural integrity and both of his favourites had sufficient room for egress, sometimes unconventionally!
In my father's judgement the B-17 USAAF was the most dangerous for crew not least because of overcrowding and too much reliance on electrics. RAF ones had manual override on doors and 2 of the turrets.
The Stirling later played a vital part in taking dis-assembled Hurricanes to Murmansk on a long route because Swedish airspace was out of bounds but some flyers ignored that if their 'kites' were fitted with radar to show where "gun alley" was over Denmark.
Keep up the fantastic work.

[peterboulton]

My dad was a Navigator in Lancaster ED620 which was shot down in Denmark in April 1943. Both he and the midupper and Tail gunners survived out of the crew of 7. My mum's cousin was the bomb aimer. Having been on board "Just Jane" I can fully understand how difficult it would have been to escape a crashing Lanc in the dark. I have a lot of admiration for these brave aircrew

[alexwilliamson]

I had a guided tour of the inside of a Lanc last year at Duxford, what struck me, apart from the narrowness of the fuselage, was the amount of equipment you had to scramble around to get to the cockpit, in a hurry at night with gear on, not to mention possible fire on board, one can only imagine the horror, no wonder there were not many Lancaster pilots in POW camps.

[PaulStewartAviation]

Very enjoyable video. Such sobering numbers. :(

[glynngriffith]

A very interesting video. My late uncle flew with Bomber Command as a rear gunner. After completing two tours split by a couple of months as a gunnery instructor he was invited for a third tour but politely declined and remustered as a dog handler with the 'Snowdrops' and was demobbed with his dog Captain in 1947

[fam.arkema]

Great inquiry, I heard the Halifax was well-liked by the crew because of the spacious design, in case of trouble the crewmembers could easily reach an escape-hatch. It wasn't liked by bombercommand; the best engines went to the Lancs, so the lancs could fly higher than the Halifaxes and be less vulnarable to flak. So the quite low casualty-rate of the Halifaxes (0.14) does surprise me a little. The benefit of the spacious design levels out with the higher service-ceiling of the Lancaster.

[nickdanger]

Bomber Command Hastings "Intelligence had been urging Bomber Command that not only was IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) pointless over Germany, but like all transmissions which could be monitored by the enemy, its use represented a positive threat to bombers' safety." page 167
"The night-fighters, diverted by a Mosquito "spoof" raid on Berlin, were slow to grasp the British intentions, but caught up with the last stages of the attack on Peenemunde." page 210

[MarsFKA]

I was in the Air Training Corps in New Zealand in the 1960s. Our national Commandant had been a Blenheim pilot at the start of the War and told us that the casualty rate was so awful that, within 15 months, only he and one other pilot were left of the original aircrew in his squadron.
7:43 A Whitley flown by Leonard Cheshire. Hit by flak on the way to the target and set on fire. The crew managed to put the fire out and then they carried on to the target. The radio operator was badly burned but insisted on staying at his post. He and Cheshire were decorated for this mission.

[jamessharp]

I believe that if you graduated as a pilot from no 1 BFTS at Terrel Texas during late 42 early 43 you had an over 90% chance of being killed. Almost all on bomber missions.

[brakecompo]

I don’t think that the high fatality rate per incident for the Lancaster and the Manchester are all surprising - both had notoriously small escape hatches, that were difficult to use. Read an account by a wartime statistician who fought a long and unsuccessful battle to get this improved in the face of complete disinterest from the Bomber Command hierarchy and the Ministry of Supply. The Halifax had much better exitability. Similarly the total crew loss proportions of the Mosquito are not surprising, partly because they flew a lot of low level missions at high speed, leading to the type of crashes that were not survivable, and as they only had a crew of two, statistically there was a higher chance of complete crew loss. Nevertheless an interesting video thanks for posting it.

[AlexLancashirePersonalView]

The Short Stirling was my father's favorite plane. Albert Bishop Lancashire and his pilot Vernon "Stinky" Miller, from Canada, flew 90 missions. Shot down twice, once by the British Navy.

[ibeatyoutubecircumventingy]

without watching id say the Fairey Battle!

[HoverLambo]

I remember reading that the exit hatch on the lanc was smaller than the halifax and held responsible for fewer men being able to bail out. Surprised to read that 10, 000 Wimpeys only made 28, 000 sorties? Or was that an error in the script..

[DNorthWest]

An intriguing video. Could we consider the complexity and level of difficulty associated with each aircraft’s sorties? For instance, the RAF engaged in daylight bombing missions with the Battle, Wellington, and Hampden aircraft. However, the Whitley was the only aircraft involved in night bombing early in the war. We are also aware of the infamous Wellington daylight raid, which was catastrophic, and the Lancaster Augsburg Raid, also known as Operation Margin, which was an RAF attack on the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN) U-boat engine plant in Augsburg during daylight hours on April 17, 1942. Similarly, the RAF bombing raid against the Schneider Works at Le Creusot, known as Operation Robinson, was conducted during daylight hours on October 17, 1942. As you mentioned, when the Mosquito arrived, it took over the high-level of difficulty operations, whether day or night, often accompanied by the Mustang III or IV. My great uncle, a Flight Sergeant Engineer, was a big fan of the Halifax III because of its Bristol Hercules air-cooled engines, which eliminated the need for glycol and resolved the aerodynamics issues. He preferred it over the Lancaster because it provided the crew with better escape hatches. He never understood why the Lancaster II, equipped with the same Bristol Hercules engines, struggled with performance. However, he recognised that the Lancaster was essential for the war due to its bombing and lifting capabilities.

[NeilFLiversidge]

Bearing in mind the different crew numbers, I would suggest that the way to calculate which was the deadliest bomber is not deaths per aircraft sortie, but deaths per man-sortie. So, first, calculate the number of man-sorties. Say 50, 000 sorties were flown by aircraft type A with an 8-man crew. That would equate to 400, 000 man-sorties (8 x 50, 000). Then you take the total number of men killed in that type and divide it by the total, so 10, 000 men killed in that aircraft type out of 400, 000 man-sortied gives a death rate of 2.5% per man-sortie. If you then have aircraft type B with a crew of 2 flying a total of 30, 000 sorties, with total deaths of say 2, 000, that makes 60, 000 man sorties and a death rate of 6.666% (2000 divided by 60, 000). This method has the advantage of automatically factoring in how safe or otherwise a plane was overall, i.e. whether it was attacked or not, sustained damage or not, and crashed or not, in whatever circumstances.

Hope this helps. Great video. Thank you!

[thierryruellan]

I have read so many books about bomber command so far, including 4 written by Martin MIDLEBROOK in the 90's.
As far as I can remember, no crew members had any parachute strapped on his back, no ventral one either.
All of them had to leave his combat position, open a locker and get himself equipped, clipping the chute on his harness.
I reckon it could take up to 30/40 seconds.
It has been estimated that a second world war bomber could burn for 2 mns, after that it just blew up, heat and light.
Average number of sorties before being shot down:21 out of a standard tour of operations of 30.
I know it after reading "Sarabande nocturne", which depicts the story of 2 free french squadrons, bomber command 4 group between may 1944 and VE DAY.
51% of losses amongst 346 GUYENNE Sqdn and 347 TUNISIA Sqdn, operating Halifaxes after training on Wellingtons.
Thèse guys, whatever operational aircrafts they flew had a life expectancy inferior to foot soldiers during WW1.
The only positive thing of this bombing campaign is that it could fix thousands of flack guns of various calibers that other fronts were short of.
This added to thousands of German fighters for home defense that could have seamed the fate of allied armies in Italy, north Africa in Balkans and Russia.

Cheers

[bofoenss]

The Blenheim's career was only short in North Western Europe. It flew on in the Middle East and Italy until 1943 and in the Far East at least until 1942. It flew bombing missions, ASW and anti shipping patrols and more, only being replaced when the opposition of modern fighters became too intense over Italy. So, it is understandable that so many lost their lives in the Blenheim considering how many units flew it for so long. It even accounted for the first air attack on a Japanese carrier group in April 1942.

[colinmartin]

A big factor in deaths was the Lancaster's awful propensity to burn rapidly, and the near impossibility of escape from the aircraft, which meant that few Lancaster crewmen managed to escape from their aircraft. The Halifax was much better and I believe that around half of Halifax crews that were shot down managed to get out.

[vbprogman]

Was the forward escape hatch of the Avro Lancaster not big enough to allow a crew member to get through it in full flying gear and with a parachute?