DBWI: 4 Engined Manchester

hammo1j

Donor
I know the Avro Manchester is regarded as one of the worst bombers of WW2, with most of the 200 built being lost to engine faults, until Beaverbrook with his rationalisation program forced Avros to build Halifaxes.

But surely the problem was the two Vulture engines required by the specification. If the Manchester had been converted to use four proven engines, Hercules or Merlins, maybe it could have become a competitor to the Halifax.

The Germans tried the same layout with their He177 with no success and were looking to convert to 4 reliable engines towards the war end.

I wonder how this would affect the bombing war?

OTL Harris was fired in Sep 1943 after 101 Halifaxes were lost over Berlin. The Halifax was thereafter used in a tactical role in support of D-Day only were air superiority could be guaranteed.
 
With a good long range 4 engine bomb truck instead of concentrating on the heavy industry in the Ruhr valley and pounding the likes of Krupps and Rheinmettal till the whole area resembled a brick strewn desert, RAF Bomber Command might have been tempted to swan off all over Germany trying to tick off all major cities.
 
Sounds like a bad idea. Those Hercules and Merlins were needed for Beaufighters and Mosquitos, not to mention Spitfires. You'll just end up scattering twice as many engines around the German countryside.
 

hammo1j

Donor
Sorry, on looking at the data about the Manchester, this deserves to go into the Asb forum.

The only way this Pod could happen, is if Avro underwrote the cost of redevelopment themselves, given the political pressure to standardise on a proven design: Very unlikely in the capitalist economy of the time!

The wingspan would have to be extended and the awkward handing characteristics eliminated, which would have required an almost superhuman belief from their chief designer, Roy Chadwick.

It is widely acknowledged that standardising on the few types , proposed by Loard Beaverbrook, saved Britain from a tangle of types, the worst of which was a proposal from de Havilland for an unarmed wooden [sic] bomber which surely would have been matchwood for Jerry's fighters.

I am sorry I ever suggested this ludicrous Pod. Please forgive me.
 
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