Hello Bill and Andreas
A Whitley aircraft was twice as likely to be lost on ops than any other Bomber Command aircraft, simply by taking avoiding action.
Twice as many Whitleys were lost over the German searchlight belt according to a 1942 Op Research Section report.
I managed to get a copy from the AHB several years ago (still withheld in the UK), but the Canadians have put the report online along with a summary, click on the link for a pdf copy, which you can save.
http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.c...operations.pdf
The RAF Whitley was twice as likely to crash due to simply taking avoiding action, diving, turning, or a combination of both, so there must have been something peculiar to the Whitley aircraft itself, in the design?
Mark