The Vickers Wellesley was a British 1930s light bomber built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Brooklands near Weybridge, Surrey, for the Royal Air Force. While it was obsolete by the start of the Second World War and unsuited to the European air war, the Wellesley was operated in the desert theatres of East Africa, Egypt and the Middle East. It was one of two planes named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellington.
" ...By the time I arrived at Brooklands in July 1937 the Vickers Wellesley was in full production. This aircraft was a "geodectic" forerunner of the Wellington and was a large single-engined monoplane powered by a Bristol radial engine which was sometimes prone to failure. If this occurred on take-off one might fail to clear the banking of the rack-track, and the trees immediately beyond, but if one was lucky enough to do that one was bound for the cemetery just ahead. Presumably all that was necessary then was to shovel the earth over one..."
D. Bradley-Watson's Brooklands recollections appeared in Motorsport magazine in December 1971;
Wellesley, 47 Sqn RAF, East Africa 1941/42,
Wellesley Mark I, L2673 ‘KU-C’, of No. 47 Squadron RAF based at Agordat, Eritrea, in flight over the rugged landscape of Eritrea.
Armourers of of No. 47 Squadron RAF fill Small Bomb Containers with incendiaries before loading them into the underwing panniers of Vickers Wellesley Mark I, K8527, at Kassala, Sudan, for a bombing raid on Italian positions in Eritrea. K8527 was shot down by Italian fighters over Keren on 16 March 1941. Note that this aircraft is fitted with a lengthened cockpit canopy.
Vickers Wellesley " long-range experimental bomber "
Below; A Flight Sergeant gives last minute instructions to an air gunner of 14 Squadron, Royal Air Force, before one of the unit's Vickers Wellesley aircraft takes off from RAF Amman in Transjordan.
