Originally Posted by
pax britanica
Looking t that diagram it certainly illustrates how much extra weight the Sterling had to carry a round to deliver fewer bombs -a large part of it in the wheels alone which look enormous and of course it does look extremely ungainly on the ground and must have been a nightmare to land with that extreme deck angle. The Lanc and Halifax look almost exactly the same so where does the Lancs advantage come in there-I think there we some Merlin Halifaxes so perhaps it was structural weight for same bomb load ?
Max weights have been cited as Stirling 71,000 lbs - Lancaster 63,000 - Halifax 65,000 (with Hercs). Stirling had rigid partitions lengthwise in the bomb bay (couldn't carry a cookie), not sure what the Mk 1 Halifax could carry. As I recall, the early Halifax's had some loss of control issues until redesign of the vertical fins. Interesting that it too ws originally designed as a twin with RR Vulture engines, but Handley Page converted earlier then Avro to 4 Merlins. According to Harris, the max altitude in 1942 for the Halifax was 18,000 feet, or lower than the Lanc albeit higher than the Stirling.
But I think Harris' preference for the Lancaster was what ultimately swayed the dynamic. Quoting from his book
Bomber Offensive on page 103:
"The Lancaster far surpassed all the other types of heavy bomber. Not only could it take heavier bomb loads, not only was it easier to handle, and not only were there fewer accidents with this than with other types; throughout the war the casualty rates of Lancasters was also consistently below that of other types." Interesting follow-up to explain the last statement:"It is true that in 1944 the wastage of Lancasters from casualties became equal to, and at times even greater than, the wastage of Halifaxes, but this was the exception that proved the rule; at that time I invariably used Lancasters alone for those attacks which involved the deepest penetration into Germany and were consequently the most dangerous."
I'd suggest that to Harris, a casualty was an aircraft not necessarily crew (and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense). By most accounts I've read, the Halifax was not as difficult to abandon in distress as the Lancaster and Stirling, the Lancaster being particularly cramped and hard to bail out from. He goes on to say he was willing to lose a years production of the Halifax to convert the factories into Lancaster production (he did not win that battle).
Kind of interesting that the PFF started with 12 H2S Stirlings and 12 H2S Halifaxes.