Turbinlite - Service

Service

Approximately 31 Havoc I Turbinlite were so modified, using the Havoc I or Havoc L.A.M. (Long Aerial Mine), which had themselves originally been Boston II's, before the advent of the Havoc II Turbinlite, of which a further 39 were built, this time as conversions from the Havoc II. Turbinlite-Havocs served with No. 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538 and 539 Squadrons during 1942-43. Many of these units had previously operated as specialised Turbinlite "Flights". For example 1453 Turbinlite Flight, which operated in conjunction with No. 151 Squadron RAF and No. 486 Squadron RNZAF.

The concept behind the Turbinlite-equipped Havoc was rendered obsolete with the introduction of centimetric radar along with suitable high-performance night fighters such as the Bristol Beaufighter and the later de Havilland Mosquito, although one of the latter, the Mosquito II, Serial W4087, was itself experimentally fitted with a Turbinlite installation.

The tactic of using single-engined non-radar-equipped fighters at night was later utilised with some success by Germany against RAF Bomber Command later in the war, the tactic being known to the Luftwaffe as Wilde Sau ("Wild Boar"), however the illumination provided by the much larger-scale fires created by the British allowed visual interceptions over the bomber's target by non-radar equipped fighters to be carried out from much longer ranges than had been possible in 1940, rendering the additional illumination that was intended to guide the fighters towards the bombers, and which was to have been supplied for the British by an aircraft such as the Havoc Turbinlite in 1940, superfluous.