United Kingdom in December 1942 The first Lysanders entered service in June 1938, equipping squadrons for army co-operation and were initially used for message-dropping and
artillery spotting. When war broke out in Europe, the earlier Mk.Is had been largely replaced by Mk.IIs, the older machines heading for the Middle East. Some of these aircraft, now designated type L.1, operated with the
Chindits of the
British Indian Army in the
Burma Campaign of the Second World War. Four regular squadrons equipped with Lysanders accompanied the
British Expeditionary Force to France in October 1939, and were joined by a further squadron early in 1940. Following the
German invasion of France and the low countries on 10 May 1940, Lysanders were put into action as spotters and light bombers. In spite of occasional victories against German aircraft, they made very easy targets for the
Luftwaffe even when escorted by
Hurricanes. Withdrawn from France during the
Dunkirk evacuation, they continued to fly supply-dropping missions to Allied forces from bases in England; on one mission to drop supplies to troops trapped at
Calais, 14 of 16 Lysanders and Hectors that set out were lost. 118 Lysanders were lost in or over France and Belgium in May and June 1940, of a total of 175 deployed. With the
fall of France, it was clear that the type was unsuitable for the coastal patrol and army co-operation role, being described by
Air Marshal Arthur Barratt, commander-in-chief of the British Air Forces in France as "quite unsuited to the task; a faster, less vulnerable aircraft was required." The view of army
AOP pilots was that the Lysander was too fast for artillery spotting purposes, too slow and un-manoeuvrable to avoid fighters, too big to conceal quickly on a landing field, too heavy to use on soft ground and had been developed by the RAF without ever asking the army what was needed. Nevertheless, throughout the remainder of 1940, Lysanders flew dawn and dusk patrols off the coast and in the event of
an invasion of Britain, they were tasked with attacking the landing beaches with light bombs and machine guns. They were replaced in the home-based army co-operation role from 1941 by camera-equipped fighters such as the
Curtiss Tomahawk and
North American Mustang carrying out reconnaissance operations, while light aircraft such as the
Taylorcraft Auster were used to direct artillery. Some UK-based Lysanders went to work operating air-sea rescue, dropping dinghies to downed RAF aircrew in the English Channel. Fourteen squadrons and flights were formed for this role in 1940 and 1941. In India, Nos 20 and 28 Squadrons flying Westland Lysanders were listed as non-operational, but part of
No. 221 Group RAF in the army co-operation role from
Jamshedpur and
Ranchi, respectively, on 1 July 1942.
Special duties officer In August 1941 a new squadron,
No. 138 (Special Duties), was formed to undertake missions for the
Special Operations Executive to maintain clandestine contact with the
French Resistance. They were originally designed to carry one passenger in the rear cockpit, but for SOE use the rear cockpit of the Mk III (SD) version was modified to carry up to three passengers in case of urgent necessity as they were fitted with a rearward facing bench for two passengers (with a locker underneath) and a shelf at the rear of the compartment which could also serve as a seat for a third passenger. The pilots of No. 138, and from early 1942
No. 161 Squadron, transported 101 agents to and recovered 128 agents from German-occupied Europe. The Germans knew little about the British aircraft and wished to study one. Soldiers captured an intact Lysander in March 1942 when its pilot was unable to destroy it after a crash, but a train hit the truck carrying the Lysander, destroying the cargo. In the Far East, from 1944
No. 357 Squadron RAF operated six SD Lysanders as C Flight for dropping agents in support of
Fourteenth Army in Burma. Lysanders were also used as target-towing and communication aircraft. Two aircraft (
T1443 and
T1739) were transferred to the
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for training and 18 were used by the
Royal Navy's
Fleet Air Arm. All British Lysanders were withdrawn from service in 1946.
Free French Lysander also joined the ranks of the
Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres (
Free French Air Force, FAFL) when
Groupe Mixte de Combat (GMC) 1, formed at
RAF Odiham on 29 August 1940, was sent to French North-West Africa in order to persuade the authorities in countries such as
Gabon, Cameroon and
Chad, which were still loyal to
Vichy France, to join the
Gaullist cause against the
Axis powers, and to attack Italian ground forces in Libya. As with all FAFL aircraft, Lysanders sported the
Cross of Lorraine insignia on the fuselage and the wings instead of the French tricolour roundel first used in 1914, to distinguish their aircraft from those flying for the Vichy French Air Force. Lysanders were mostly employed on reconnaissance missions, but were also used to carry out occasional attacks. In all, 24 Lysanders were used by the FAFL.
Canada 104 British-built Lysanders were delivered to Canada supplementing 225 that were built under licence by
National Steel Car at
Malton, Ontario (near
Toronto) with production starting in October 1938 and the first aircraft flying in August 1939. The
RCAF primarily operated Lysanders in the
Army Co-operation role, where they represented a major improvement over the antiquated
Westland Wapiti which could trace its origins back to 1916. Initial training was conducted at
RCAF Station Rockcliffe (near
Ottawa,
Ontario) with
No. 123 Squadron running an army co-operation school there. Units that operated the Lysander for training in this role in Canada include
2 Squadron,
110 Squadron (which became
400 Squadron overseas) and No. 112 Squadron RCAF.
414 squadron formed overseas and joined 110 Squadron and 112 Squadron with Lysanders. Prior to going overseas 2 Squadron was disbanded and its airmen reassigned to 110 and 112 Squadrons to bring them up to war establishment (2 Squadron later reformed in England as a Hurricane unit and was renumbered as
402 Squadron). In all there were three squadrons ready to begin operations against the
Axis powers. Although
Operation Sea Lion – the planned German invasion of
Great Britain – was averted by the British victory in the
Battle of Britain in 1940, the high losses suffered by RAF Lysanders in the Battle of France resulted in any plans for cross-
channel offensive operations by Lysanders stopped, although the Canadian squadrons continued training with the Lysanders until suitable replacements were available.
No. 118 Squadron and No. 122 Squadron RCAF were the only Canadian units to use their Lysanders on active-duty operations – 118 in
Saint John, New Brunswick, and 122 at various locations on
Vancouver Island, where they performed
anti-submarine patrols and conducted
search-and-rescue operations. During the same period, No. 121 Squadron RCAF and several
Operational Training Units (OTUs) used Lysanders – painted in a high-visibility yellow-and-black-striped scheme – for target towing duties. For a brief period in 1940 when every available Hurricane fighter had been sent overseas to fight in the Battle of Britain, leaving the RCAF without a modern fighter aircraft at home in Canada, two RCAF Lysander-equipped squadrons which were supposed to convert to fighter aircraft but had none to convert to were re-designated as operational fighter squadrons.
111 Squadron, a
coastal artillery squadron which earlier had replaced its Avro trainers with Lysanders and been reclassified as an army co-operation unit, was again reclassified as a fighter squadron – the only one on the Canadian west coast – in June 1940. Lysander-equipped 118 Squadron was also converted to a fighter squadron. The Lysander completely lacked the capability to operate in a fighter role, and neither squadron saw action as a fighter unit while equipped with Lysanders, but their designation as fighter squadrons did allow RCAF fighter pilots to work up at a critical time without having to wait for the arrival of true fighter aircraft. No. 118 Squadron was disbanded in September 1940, and when it reformed in December 1940, still as a fighter squadron, it was equipped with 15 old, otherwise unwanted
Grumman Goblin fighters produced by
Canadian Car and Foundry. Both 111 and 118 Squadrons soon re-equipped with the
Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, bringing the brief service of Lysanders in fighter squadrons to an end. By late 1944 all Canadian Lysanders had been withdrawn from flying duties. The REAF received 20 aircraft. Egyptian Lysanders were the last to see active service, against Israel in the
1947–1949 Palestine war.
Civilian use After the war surplus ex-Royal Canadian Air Force Lysanders were employed as aerial applicators with Westland Dusting Service, operating in
Alberta and western Canada. Two of these were saved for inclusion in
Lynn Garrison's collection for display in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. ==Production==