Hereford ops

[James A Pratt III]

Did the H.P. Hereford fly any ops durings WW II?

[Icare9]

Unless someone comes up with another answer, a quick Google revealed:
The Handley Page Hereford was a variant on the successful Handley Page Hampden, but powered by Napier Dagger engines. These engines were the downfall of the Hereford. They tended to overheat when used to take off from the grass runways common in the RAF at the time, then cool down too much in the air. Engine failure were too common, and even when the engine worked it was both noisy and high pitched!

The first prototype Hereford flew in June 1937. A production order was placed with Short Brothers and Harland in Belfast, for 100 aircraft, and the first production aircraft flew on 17 May 1939. In all 152 Herefords were built. When the engines worked, performance figures were similar to those for the Hampden, but the engine problems meant that the Hereford never became operational. A small number were used by training units in 1940, but many were converted back to the Hampden standard by swapping the Dagger engines for the more reliable Bristol Pegasus radial engines.

[Graham Boak]

The Hereford is not included in the sorties/bombs dropped statistics at the back of Bomber Squadrons of the RAF - although the Mustang is! (Cheshire's example in 617 Sq, presumably.)

However, under 185 Sq it states that a single operational sortie was flown.

The same statement is made in Putnam's Handley Page Aircraft, although the unit is not named.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Graham/James

Air Britain's Hampden File is equally adamant that no ops were flown by the Hereford. Checking the number of deliveries to 185 Sq there are eight in all. 185 Sq was a Training Squadron when equipped with the Hereford and disbanded in April 1940 and became the basis of 14 OTU.
No mission is reported in the Bomber Command raids list on page 193 either. So unless someone has another ace up his sleeve I believe the conclusion should be, no operational missions.

Cheers
Stig