The Handley-Page Halifax Bomber

The Halifax was the second of Britain's four-engined bombers to enter service with the RAF in the second World War, and was the first RAF four-engined bomber to drop bombs on Germany in an air-raid on Hamburg on the night of the 12-13 March 1941. 

Along with the Lancaster, the Halifax shared the major burden of Bomber Command's prolonged night offensive over Germany. Unlike the Lancaster, however, which was used solely as a bomber during the war, the Halifax earned fame in other fields, both as glider-tug with Airborne Forces and as a general reconnaissance aircraft with Coastal Command.

All of the heavy bomber squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force were equipped with the Halifax for at least part of the war and it was a well respected aircraft amongst Canadian aircrew. As Lancaster production increased, in particular the production of the Lancaster Mk X's being manufactured in Canada, the squadrons were converted to Lancs.

But at war's end, the majority of operations carried out by #6 Group (the RCAF squadrons) had been flown in Halifaxes.

Sadly, not a single example of the aircraft was placed in a museum following the war. However, in 1996 a Canadian group successfully raised Halifax NA-337 from 750 feet below the surface of Lake Mjosa in Norway. It is now being restored at the RCAF Memorial Museum at Trenton, Ontario as a tribute to the Canadians who flew Hali's.