Britain's Most Mass-Produced Bomber | Vickers Wellington (Part 1) 

Get an exclusive NordPass deal plus 1 additional month for FREE here: nordpass.com/rex or use code rex the checkout! F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible. Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)

I recently found out that my Uncle was a Wellington pilot when he died on a mission, apparently over Germany. The plane made it home and he's buried in a cemetary in Northeast England. I had thought he'd been Lancaster pilot until I found his RCAF record online.

Thoroughly enjoyed that. I'm very proud of the fact my Dad was a WW2 Lanc pilot. But he was also a Wellington pilot, when he and his crew were training up at an OTU based at Silverstone. On one particular training flight, cloudbase was very low and they had to stay at about 1000ft AGL. One of the engines lost power then stopped, and they were concerned about the other one as they struggled to maintain height. The navigator was also concerned that high ground might soon be ahead in the form of the Peak District. Suddenly my Dad saw an airfield appear out of the gloom and made an immediate decision to put the Wellington down, wheels up as they needed to act very quickly plus the extra drag of the deployed u/c gear could have had fatal consequences. And because Wimpy's could catch fire easily when sparks were flying, he opted for the grass alongside the tarmac runway as his landing option. it all worked perfectly and the only injury to crew was a torn shoulder lapel on the jacket of one of the crew. For his valiant action, he was bawled out by the station commander for having damaged one of His Majesty's aircraft. His crew though, thought he was a bloody hero as they had no doubt they would probably otherwise have been killed. The airfield turned out to be Castle Donnington. The navigator was Len Smee who, if you google him, went on to have another extraordinary crash survival adventure after the war. My Dad and his crew remained lifelong friends after the war.

I knew someone who served as a tail gunner on a Wellington bomber in ww2. He said “you don’t know fear until you experience trained soldiers who are good at what they do and are there for the sole purpose of trying to kill you” Thanks for your service R.I.P. Pat Quinn 😢

Intersting Fact: A Vickers Wellington LN514 holds the record of fastest construction in 23 hours and 50 minutes, and took off 24 hours and 48 minutes!

Excellent - really enjoyed this one. The longer format gives us something to really get our teeth into. The odd thing about this plane is that I thought I knew so much about it but not that it was built by Vickers! Even weirder when you consider that my dad worked there. Thanks to your channel, I now also have a very different understanding of where a plane like this came from. As an immediate postwar child, I grew up with all the famous WW2 planes as just being there, as if they'd just appeared out of nowhere. But now, thanks to watching hours of your videos, I now understand how such planes evolved from those that came before them.

Fascinating stuff. My dad was a Wimpy pilot from 1943, completing a 35-sortie tour over Burma. I've always found it remarkable and so disappointing that none survive even close to airworthy.

After a lecture given by Barnes Wallace in the 60's I had the honour of meeting him. He had shook hands with every apprentice, some 100+. He was a quiet unassuming gentleman, grey haired but still so full of vitality. We don't seem to breed men like him anymore or maybe they are stifled.

I had seen in bios and other texts that pilots considered the Welly to have the very best, most comfortable pilots seat, positioning and how easily the controls fell to hand, unsurpassed by any other aircraft, back then. Small detail, but it did reflect the generally overall good ergonomics of this cockpit. Also, unlike, say a DC3, the glazing didn’t leak. The Welly was also praised for minimal vibration, unlike a four engine bomber which shook like a dog shitting razor blades. Queenslander.

Brilliant. I can attest to the strength of the Wimpy even in model form! I was building an Airfix kit of the Mk 1C in the Late 1970s when I came across a problem of fitting the front Turret. No matter how Hard I tried I couldn't get it to fit properly (of course the turret had to swivel and the guns had to be able to raise and lower). After a long time messing about with it my preteen anger (I was 12 years old) got the better of me and I launched it across my bedroom where it hit the wall and bounced across the bed. I stormed off and left it where it landed. Later I came back a little ashamed of my actions and picked it up and inspected it. No Damage! I couldn't believe it and the most mysterious thing of all was the front turret slotted in without problem. I completed the model and painted it and it hung from the celling of my bedroom on its nylon fishing line hangers where it "flew" for many years until I left home in my late teens. I think my mum passed it onto someone after I left home with all my other models. (Or dust gathering junk as she used to refer to them!) I still have a huge soft spot for the indestructible Wimpy!

Yay one I requested! My maternal grandfather was a navigator in one of those. Thank you!

An Canadian friend told me a story about himself and his father and their visit to England to see his old base where he had flown out of during the war. His father had flown Wellingtons. He started his story by saying "my dad was king over there". They took a taxi to some museum and the driver was keen to hear about his father's recollections and expressed Britains thanks to Canada for their help and loyalty. When he dropped them off the driver said that it was a small museum and he would wait for them and he did. He returned them...no charge. When it was time to visit his old base (which was still an RAF base) they arrived out front and my friend asked security if his father could possibly get to see airfield he flew from and was told by the guard that he had no authority but would make enquiries. They waited a while and he then he saw an officer with an NCO marching towards them. The NCO opened the door and then to quote my fried "then that officer saluted my dad". They got the full treatment and his father was greeted enthusiastically by all. I will never forget that phrase "my dad was king over there".

The story of 'Jimmy' Ward is almost too much to comprehend. What those kids had to go through...what they took on...just incredible and frightfully humbling.

Something to note: In this video you talk about an attack on the 'battlecruiser' Nürnberg. Nürnberg was about the furthest thing from a battlecruiser, being instead a light cruiser.

Wow I am astonsihed! I am German and always just heard something like this in historical accounts: after the first disastrous day-time attacks, the Welly got relegated to second-line duty. End of story. There one can see the effect of gross simplification, didn't expect the Welly to have had such a distinct service career! Can't wait to hear about the Humpback-Welly! :D

My uncle flew two tours over Europe for the RCAF in Wellingtons. He was a tail gunner.

A very good and in depth look at the Wellington medium bomber. I have a book on the Wellington and one of the things mentioned repeatedly in aircrew memories was of the reliability of the engines and I think that the radial Hercules engines played a significant role here because a radial engine didn't require the radiators and plumbing that an in-line engine did. Loss or damage to the cooling system of an in-line engine would result in the loss of the engine and this could result in the loss of the aircraft. So the geodetic structure and radial engines combined to make a legend of the Wellington's capacity to absorb considerable battle damage and still return home when others would have been lost. This is not to say that the Wellington was immune to losses, it wasn't but if you could survive the attack or the flak then you had a good chance of getting back home. Another thing that pilots would rave about was just how comfortable the pilots seats were. Mark from Melbourne Australia

Jimmy Ward, what an absolute mad bastard hero!

Rex, the Wimpy was the catalyst for the 60 series Merlins as fitted to the Spitfire Mk9 and the P51D Mustang. Vickers were developing a high altitude version of the Wellington and required an engine that could operate at 30000 ft. Rolls Royce rejected the use of a turbocharger and went for the two stage two speed route utilising the Vulture centrifugal supercharger as the second stage. The high altitude bomber went nowhere but Lord Hives suggested that they put the resultant engine into a Spitfire and the rest is history

OMG you are covering something a bit more mainstream... I could but dream! Your attention to detail on the better known aircraft of this era = colour me pleased :) Looking forward to part 2 - excellent work!

The Wellington would save Barnes Wallis's life. He was a passenger in one which was flying along the south shore of the River Humber one night when one of the wings hit the cable from a barrage balloon. The pilot tried all he could to break lose but to no avail. While at the same time the cable was cutting through the wing. Now the wings were held on by a spar and once it cut through the spar the wing would come off and the aircraft would crash. But as it turned out the spar was rather substantial than the cable and it was the cable which was cut through not the wing. The managed to make and emergency landing and once it was repaired the aircraft flew home.

This is not the first time or last I will will have watched this episode. How you manage to squeeze so much detailed information into such a short time (I know 52:37, but that is short for this aircraft) never fails to astound me. Your research is so thorough and your comments so appropriate it puts many documentaries with better resources into the shadows. I believe when Barnes Wallis was asked why he should be given a Wellington to test his bouncing bomb for the Dam Buster raid he replied something like, "Will it make a difference if I say I designed the bomber?". He got the bomber. He and the bomber most certainly made a difference, as he did, and I believe most people who know history would agree. I agree with JP's comment as a retired teacher.

When I was young my mum said to me that our local vicar flew in Wellingtons, so I said to her why didn't he wear flying boots like everybody else?

That was extremely interesting! As I had two uncles in WWII! One a pilot, the other a navigator! Sadly, the navigator died in his first 1000 bombing raid! the other, survived the same raid! I do not know which Wellington they flew! So thank you, for the extremely detailed account of that make! I certainly appreciated it! I will add this! The uncle that survived, flew Torpedo bombing raids down in the med and he told me what that was like! it made my blood run cold at what he had to do! R.I.P to the both of them! Sigh!! The uncle that survived WWII died of cancer! Thank you to all those that flew this aircraft otherwise I would not be here today talking to you all!!

My Grandad was employed making these aircraft during WW2 he never had a bad word for them and I can remember as a kid him trying to explain the geodesic frame to me. He also told me about fitting the Frazer Nash turrets. My only regret is that I didn't ask him more questions because this is a great often overlooked aircraft that was a credit to our Airforce.

In Oct 1971, I was posted from training, to RAF Little Rissington. A local pub, The Duke of Wellington became my local. It was run by an ex-Sqn Ldr called Jack ‘Baggy’ Sach, DFC, Wellington (amongst others) pilot. Fascinating bloke, look him up, he had an amazing career.

My father was RCAF but as an early arrival in Europe was posted to RAF squadrons as a navigator thus he served with RAF 150 and 196 squadrons for most of the war before heading to RCAF Lancasters in late 1944 through 1945. He loved the Wellingtons he flew in and often spoke of them so just no operational details.

Geez. Never realised that the Wellingtons were produced in even greater numbers than the Lancaster. Quite a robust aircraft to be able to receive so many hits from whatever ammunition.

The only known surviving Brooklands-built Vickers Wellington is N2980, known as "R for Robert". Built in late 1939, this Mk.1A ditched in Loch Ness in a blizzard on the last day of 1940. Sinking to the bottom of the deep Loch, the aircraft was found by "Nessie" hunters in the 1970s and salvaged in 1985. It has been restored to show the geodetic structure and is on permanent static display at Brooklands Museum in Surrey.

The actual unsung hero plane of Bomber Command , tough as all buggery .

These are really good videos! No music, no nonsense, but very thorough and complete!

I can't imagine how much time you spent on research for this. I've learned more about WW2 in the last six months than the previous 40 years, a large part of that because of your channel. Thank you for another look into the history of aviation.

Since my childhood airplane picture collecting days a favorite photo is one of a Wellington. I noticed you have in Part 1 a half dozen photos of anti-submarine radar equipped Wellingtons. Those of course were part of the major campaign to protect the convoys from the wolf packs. I hope you cover those in detail in Part 2. Thanks for a great story.

Around 1970, one of the characters around the Flying Club I frequented was a former Wimpey pilot. I think he visited Kiel at least once.

Jimmy Ward VC Now that is a story!

Really enjoyed this longer format. I would love to see similar videos on the B26 Marauder and B25 Mitchell, especially the models fitted with the 75mm cannons. I have seen numerous videos on them but none in such detail and of such good presentation quality.

At 44:00 minutes I was stoked to see my father Frederick J "Popeye" Lucas (third from right) and my Godfather Air Commodore Maurice Buckley (seventh from right) who was CO of 75 Sqn at that time. Dad finished the war as a Wing Commander DFC & Bar having completed 57 ops with 75 (NZ) Sqn RAF and 25 ops with 487 Sqn RNZAF (Mosquitos). His 36th op (and the end of his first tour) was the first 1000 bomber raid over Berlin. My family are very proud of him.

I noticed the NZ markers on some of those bombers + kiwis were/are ferocious fighters

Great doc so far...the humourous story of moving from the biplane to Wellington illustrates the massive technical advancements made in those war years.

One hour is perfect for this type of video, looking forward to part 2.

I recently discover this channel a like it because you go beyond the usual subjects like that P-51, Spitfires, Lancaster and B-17. Keep on doing it.

A friend of my mothers flew Wellingtons in Egypt , Noel Toms joined the RAF after travelling from New Zealand after working on a farm in his youth. After the war he came back and flew DC3s with Air New Zealand into the 50s but did not want to transition to jets so left.

I'm constantly amazed at the incompetence and arrogance of those who made decisions whether writing totally impractical specifications or tactical decisions. It speaks volumes about the men who rose above this and got on with the job of winning the war, even with those handicaps....A friend of my family won a VC flying Wellingtons, Sgt Pilot James Ward. His exploits are well documented. Sadly he was killed a couple of months later over Germany. My parents were obviously very proud of him....(Should have written this AFTER watching to the end). Thank you for acknowledging James.

Rex, thanks so much for mentioning Sgt Ward’s heroics.

One of my favourite aircraft of all time. I have had the pleasure of visiting the Wellington Aviation Museum in Moreton-in-Marsh on more than one occasion. A small but extremely interesting attraction to any fan of the bomber. It's highly recommended. As are your videos Rex. I await part two, thanks a lot.

A great plane for when all you had was geodesic frames covered in doped fabric.

A longer video that describes the history of the bomber Wellington very well. I look forward to Part 2, when its versatility in other roles, already mentioned, will get the same treatment. Excellent work.

Really enjoyable, love the long format, can't imagine the work that went into this! Good stuff!

Wow! That was 53 mins, and it was great.... I don't know if all planes deserve the longer format, but the Wellington certainly does..... and I can't wait for part two....

Thank you for keeping your channel focused on educational values rather than financial ones. Thank you ever so much.

Another wonderful video. Your content is exactly what this air plane nut wants to see. Thank you for all your hard work and keep them coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent video and presentation, Rex. You have clearly done a great deal of research and dug out a range and variety of films and photos that I don't think I've seen before, so well done. I'd also like to praise your style and pace of delivery; you speak clearly with a good variation of pitch and pace, with the odd sprinkling of humour to maintain the listener's interest. Great content, I sincerely hope that your channel continues to grow. I'm looking forward to Part 2 of the Wellington story.

Great effort! Vickers is often forgotten when wartime bombers are talked about. My only personal experience was a passenger on the one of the last Air Canada flights of the Viscount. (my ears are still ringing)

Fantastic in depth video, thank you. The Wellington is perhaps a little overlooked. Your video makes it clear that it was in fact a true workhorse. The design was brilliant as it allowed efficient mass production and plenty of scope for development and modification.

I did not expect such a long, in-depth video going over so much fascinating history. This was quite a treat, thank you!

Buckminster Fuller’s favorite bomber! Dropping all the likes and up thumbs.

Just looking at the length of the video I know its gonna be good.

My uncle was a Squadron Leader and flew Wellingtons on missions in Egypt, Crete and Italy. He's no longer with us but spoke with affection about the aircraft and especially how tough it was under fire.

Fantastic video. The Wimpy is one of my favourite bombers of WWII and this video really did it justice. Looking forward to part 2!

Excellent presentation Rex. I honestly didn’t notice that nearly an hour had trotted by. You successfully filled in a couple of areas I was missing on very early variants & am certainly looking forward to your ‘one-offs’ video. I do hope you include the Mk.VII, the one with almost certainly the most powerful automatic weapon to ever be fitted in a dorsal turret on a bomber. Keep up the good work!

Knew a little about Barnes Wallace and the Wellingtons' geodesic structure via some architectural projects I wrote-up, as a journalist, long ago. But this, wonderfully detailed and authoritative insight is something else, altogether. Congratulations, well done!

My father trained as a navigator on the Wimpy in the war. Luckily for him / me, the war ended before he had to fly in action. He loved this plane. God bless his soul.

This channel is so awesome!

This is one of the best videos you put out so far, very enjoyable and - most probably - well researched. Nevermind the complaints regarding the long format, (if there are any) if the ample source material demands it, so it be. Great job. 👏

Don't pander to the goldfish! Very good video - and there are so few well produced and researched videos up to this standard. Top job.

My Father delivered the first Wellington to the RAF (he being a serving RAF Officer). Somewhere, I have a Photograph of the Aircraft in Question which was White in colour. I also have a Photo of my Father debriefing Guy Gibson with a Wellesley in the Background. Thank you, a very interesting and comprehensive Film.

Thanks for a new video Rex

That's one insane Kiwi... balls of steel.

Very interesting and well done. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Climbs out on the wing to put out a fire. At 100mph. Well done Kiwi. Kia Kaha. I'd never heard that story before. I doubt many Kiwis have. Great doco.

The most underrated bomber of ww2

Well they had to scrap the R100 when the airship scheme failed, so they shrank it down and put wings on it. And Bob's your uncle we had us a very versatile aeroplane. Talking of, I know Rex's schtick is heavier-than-air-craft, but it might be fun to see a video about R100, and maybe some of the other lesser known airships. I.e, the Detroit ZMC-2, Shutte-Lanz airships, the French efforts in semi-rigids.

Thank you for making this happen

A great documentary! Very informative, entertaining & humorous! Look forward to watch more of your work!

It’s amazing that with so many produced only two surviving examples remain, and one of those was dredged up from Loch Ness and is being left as it was found, the other is slowly being restored for static display.

Thank you Rex! I was always curious about the seemingly undersung Wellington and this documentary was fascinating . . . looking forward to Part 2!

My Dad flew in Wimpy's through thWW2 in Coastal Command as W/Op AG. One of his more memorable missions was over the Bay of Biscay on Anti U-boat patrol. They lost an engine and spent 3 1/2 hours getting back to St Eval and were diverted due to heavy fog. The field they were diverted to (Portreath) was fogbound but on long finals the runway lit up with tall flames but they landed safely. Seems they were an impromptu test of FIDO

Very good documentary about the Wimpey. Can't wait for part 2.

Impeccable as ever. Thank you.

Thanks for the video Rex. Nearly 20 years years ago I met a guy who was a sergeant pilot on Wellingtons. He wrote an hilarious book about his life too.

I knew nothing about this plane. Well done video. Bring on no. 2.

Good show Rex! It's been a treat watching your channel mature. Keep up the good work!

Great info, very well presented. Hows about a summary of the Hercules? Not remembered like the Merlin but a great workhorse engine all the same.

Welcome to the history of the 4th Airfix kit I built when I was a kid. ;)

My Dad was a sergeant navigator in a Wellington in North Africa (he was lucky to avoid the missions over Germany). He used to sing a little ditty to the tune of Waltzing Matilda; "Ops in a Wimpy, Ops in a Wimpy, Who'll come on ops in a Wimpy with me? And they sang in the flames As they crashed on the desert shore Who'll come on ops in a Wimpy with me.

Loved this longer format deep dive into the Wellington.

First class pal. I loved it. Thanks.

This has to be one of the best videos yet, Rex. Nicely done. 👍

Love the longer format. Keep 'em coming.

I met an old RAF fireman once and he told that because of its construction, if one crashed and caught fire it was almost impossible to get the crew out. Even more shocking was when he told me he "didn't care" much

Nice to see one of the two-engined bombers get some love!

As usual, a very interesting video, plus it's almost an hour long, love it. I was able to escape the world's tensions for awhile, and enjoy an informative video about one of my favorite interests, aviation. Thanks Rex, I can imagine the cost to produce a video this long, but I hope you make more of these longer video's. Adios

Best yet! Thanks!

My father was a navigator/bombardier on Wellingtons in the Desert Air Force during 1942-1943. His first two missions were dropping bombs on the first night of El Alamein. He told me some interesting facts about the Wellington: 1) in flight the tail would corkscrew, and you could observe this phenomenon looking aft to the tail gunner's position from the navigator station, 2) the geodetic structure also meant that the aircraft would stretch several inches in flight, 3) parts of the geodetic structure were marked so that they could be chopped out with the fire axe, removed and tossed out of the plane to reduce weight if the aircraft was losing altitude. He also told me a rather amusing story about flying in Wellingtons. On every mission the crews were supposed to take a photo of the target, and since they were flying at night they had to drop a magnesium flare. This was done by attaching a wire to the cotterpin that acted as the safety for the flare, then rapidly shoving the flare down a tube. The weight of the flare would pull the pin, thereby activating the fuse, and it would drop free of the aircraft, going off and illuminating the target. On one mission, the crew were a bit tired and being a bit stupid. There were three guys at the flare station (I cannot now recall which positions they were, probably engineer, radio operator and one other), and they started goofing around. Anyway, they attached the wire, and placed the flare at the mouth of the tube. Then they started chanting, "A onesy, a twosie, a threesie, flare ... OH @*&#!" as the person dropping flare didn't hit it hard enough and the flare stuck partway down the tube with the pin half-pulled. As my father described it, one man, with great aplomb, ran screaming towards the cockpit. The second man, showing great presences of mind, pulled out his pocket knife and began trying to cut the steel wire. The third man, thinking quickly, grabbed the fire axe and, with a hefty swing, cut both the top of the tube and the wire holding the pin on the magnesium flare. The flare dropped free of the plane and exploded close enough to the aircraft to shred all the fabric on the underside of the fuselage.

WELL! That was a ton of information.

This channel rocks.

There are films on YT from early WW2 showing the RAF rearming a Welington bomber.

(Wellington pilot, looking at his wing with 6 feet missing off the end, talking to ground crew): "Flight! Have you got a spare wingtip?" (Flight Sergeant): "I think you're supposed to fly OVER barns, sir - not through them . . . "

Brilliant work. That was an absolute pleasure to watch.

As a historical aircraft lover, it is amazing that you take your time to make these amazing videos.