Corgi AA39504 RAF Short Stirling Mk. III Heavy Bomber - "The Gremlin Teaser", No.199 Squadron, RAF North Creake, England, 1944 (1:72 Scale)
"I'll make the English Coast. I'll get you home".
- RAF Captain Rawdon Hume 'Ron' Middleton VC to his wounded air crew, Turin Raid, November 1942
The Short Stirling was the first four-engined British heavy bomber of the Second World War. The Stirling was designed and built by Short Brothers to an Air Ministry specification from 1936, and entered service in 1941. The Stirling was fated to have a relatively brief operational career being relegated to second line duties from 1943 onwards when other four-engined RAF bombers, specifically the Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster, took over its role.
Although smaller than the US and Soviet experimental designs, the Stirling had considerably more power and far better payload/range than anything then flying. The massive 14,000 lb (6.25 long tons, 6,340 kg) bombload put it in a class of its own, double that of any other bomber. It was larger than the Handley Page Halifax, and the Avro Lancaster which would replace it, but both of these were originally designed to have twin engines. The Stirling was the only British bomber of the period to see service designed from the start with four engines. (The Avro Lancaster was a re-engined Avro Manchester while the Halifax was originally planned to be powered by twin Vulture engines but was re-designed to use four Merlins in 1937 as the problems with the Vulture engines became clear.
The design mounted nose and tail turrets (the latter was notable for the wide angles of fire), and included a retractable ventral ("dustbin") turret just behind the bomb-bay. This proved almost useless due to cramped conditions, with the added distraction that the turret tended to drop and hit the ground when taxiing over bumps. It was removed almost from the start and temporarily replaced by beam hatches mounting pairs of machine guns, until a twin-gun dorsal turret could be provided. However, this installation also had problems; it had a metal back fitted with an escape hatch which turned out to be almost impossible to use. The later Stirling Mk.III instead used a fully glazed turret (the same FN.50 as in Lancaster) that had more room and an improved view. Later Stirlings could also carry an improved, low-drag remotely controlled FN.64 ventral turret.
Attention was paid to reducing drag - all rivets were flush headed and panels joggled to avoid edges - but the application of camouflage paint probably negated the benefit. The wing was fitted with Gouge flaps similar to those of the flying boats. The first few Mk.Is received the Hercules II engines, but the majority received the 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) Hercules XIs. The Mk.III, introduced in 1943, was similar with the exception of the new dorsal turret and the improved 1,635 hp (1,200 kW) Hercules VI or XVI engines, which improved maximum speed from 255 to 270 mph (410 to 435 km/h).
Even before the Stirling went into production, Short had improved on the initial design with the S.34 in an effort to meet requirement B.1/39. It would have been powered by four Bristol Hercules 17 SM engines, optimized for high-altitude flight. The new design featured longer span wings and a revised fuselage able to carry dorsal and ventral power-operated turrets each fitted with four 20 mm Hispano cannon. However, despite the obvious gains in performance and capability, the Air Ministry was not interested.
Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a RAF Short Stirling Mk. III heavy bomber that was nicknamed "The Gremlin Teaser" and attached to No.199 Squadron, then deployed to RAF North Creake, England, during 1944. Now in stock!
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 17-inches
Length: 11-3/4-inches
Release Date: June 2022
Historical Account: "The Gremlin Teaser" - Back during the early days of World War II, British RAF pilots often blamed so-called "gremlins" for any malfunctions their aircraft experienced in combat. For purposes of discussion, a gremlin is a mischievous mythical creature that's said to cause trouble to machinery, particularly in airplanes. When you're a nervous flyer, the last thing you want to think about is gremlins messing with the plane's engines or other mechanical components.
The word gremlin first appeared in print in 1929. It emerged from the U.K.'s Royal Air Force aviator slang (possibly influenced by goblin), and it became especially popular during World War II, as pilots were forced to contend with FLaK, enemy fighters, poor weather and even night time flying to perform their missions.
Of course, there's no such thing as a Gremlin yet pilots persisted in blaming the mythical tricksters on otherwise inexplicable accidents - convenient scapegoats, if you will, for any odd issues they faced that couldn't be explained away or overcome.
As if thumbing its nose at the supposed gremlin infestation plaguing other RAF aircraft, Stirling Mk.III LJ542 was unusual in that it sported rather elaborate nose artwork - a feature which wasn't quite as prevalent on British aircraft as it was on those flown by the USAAF, but was particularly impressive nonetheless. Named "The Gremlin Teaser", the artwork featured a pin-up girl wearing what appears to be strap-on angel wings, the inference thought to be that this angelic figure was flying in defiance of evil, in this age-old wartime struggle of good against evil, something its crew must have felt they were doing on a nightly basis.
While the Lancaster would go on to become synonymous with the RAF's bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe, aircraft such as the Short Stirling soldiered on alongside the Lancs in a somewhat less glamorous role. Indeed, the impressive stature of the Stirling was a result of the massive, lengthened undercarriage the aircraft employed, a design modification needed to give the Stirling a greater angle of attack during take-off.
The Stirling's huge bomb bay allowed the aircraft to carry three times as many bombs as the Vickers Wellington and almost nine times the weight carried by a Bristol Blenheim, presenting the RAF with a potent new weapon with which to take the war to the enemy and pointing the way towards the future of night bombing operations.
"The Gremlin Teaser" would end up being a veteran of 60 operational sorties and during her time with No.199 Squadron, was involved in undertaking vital electronic countermeasures missions, particularly around the time of D-Day, confusing enemy defenses in advance of the Allied invasion.
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