Duxford workshops and hangar with Beaufighter under long-term restoration.

Duxford - Spit & Harvard arrive then tour round workshop

One of the most potent aerial destroyers was the Bristol Beaufighter. We see them getting ready for an anti-shipping sortie accompanied by Mosquitos. This is truly amazing footage which must have been specially filmed because you can see beneath the camera plane the attacking planes loosing off rockets and shooting up the enemy ships. Brave is not the word. OK it looks fun to us but this was deadly work with little chance of surviving a mistake at such low level. What you might call the real deal '633 Squadron' IMHO.

Making of a Beaufighter, one of the most powerful/versatile planes of WW2

The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design. The name Beaufighter is a portmanteau of "Beaufort" and "fighter". Unlike the Beaufort, the Beaufighter had a long career and served in almost all theatres of war in the Second World War, first as a night fighter, then as a fighter-bomber and eventually replacing the Beaufort as a torpedo bomber By fighter standards, the Beaufighter Mk I was rather heavy and slow. It had an all-up weight of 16,000 lb (7,000 kg) and a maximum speed of only 335 mph (540 km/h) at 16,800 ft (5,000 m). Nevertheless this was all that was available at the time, as the otherwise excellent Westland Whirlwind had already been cancelled due to production problems with its engines. The Beaufighter's main claim to fame would be that it was coming off the production lines at almost exactly the same time as the first British airborne radar sets. With the four 20 mm cannons mounted in the lower fuselage, the nose could accommodate the radar antennas, and the general roominess of the fuselage enabled the AI equipment to be fitted easily. Even loaded down to an even heavier 20,000 lb (9 t), the plane was still fast enough to catch the even slower German bombers. By early 1941, it was an effective counter to Luftwaffe night raids. The various early models of the Beaufighter soon commenced service overseas, where its rugged build and reliability soon made the aircraft popular with its crews. A night-fighter Mk VIF was supplied to squadrons in March 1942, equipped with AI Mark VIII radar. As the faster de Havilland Mosquito took over in the night fighter role in mid to late 1942, the heavier Beaufighters made sterling contributions in other areas, such as anti-shipping, ground attack and long-range interdiction in every major theatre of operations. In the Mediterranean, the USAAF's 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons received 100 Beaufighters in the summer of 1943, achieving their first victory in July 1943. Through the summer the squadrons conducted both daytime convoy escort and ground-attack operations, but primarily flew defensive interception missions at night. Although the Northrop P-61 Black Widow fighter began to arrive in December 1944, USAAF Beaufighters continued to fly night operations in Italy and France until late in the war. By the autumn of 1943 the Mosquito was available in enough numbers to replace the Beaufighter as the primary night fighter of the RAF. By the end of the war some 70 pilots serving with RAF units had become aces while flying Beaufighters.1941 saw the development of the Beaufighter Mk IC long-range heavy fighter. This new variant entered service in May 1941 with a detachment from No. 252 Squadron operating from Malta. The aircraft proved so effective in the Mediterranean against shipping, aircraft and ground targets that Coastal Command became the major user of the Beaufighter, replacing the obsolete Beaufort and Blenheim. Coastal Command began to take delivery of the up-rated Mk VIC in mid 1942. By the end of 1942, Mk VICs were being equipped with torpedo-carrying gear, enabling them to carry the British 18-inch or the US 22.5-inch torpedo externally. The first successful torpedo attacks by Beaufighters came in April 1943, with No. 254 Squadron sinking two merchant ships off Norway. The Hercules Mk XVII, developing 1,735 hp at 500 feet was installed in the Mk VIC airframe to produce the TF (Torpedo Fighter) Mk X - commonly known as the "Torbeau." The Mk X became the main production mark of the Beaufighter. The strike variant of the Torbeau was designated the "Mk XIC." Beaufighter TF Xs would make precision shipping attacks at wave-top height with torpedoes or rockets. Early models of the Mk Xs carried ASV (air-to-surface vessel) radar, but this was replaced in late 1943 by AI Mark VIII radar, house