The story of the Brigand begins in 1942 when the Royal Air Force (RAF) issued Specification H.7/42, seeking a fast, long range torpedo aircraft to replace the Bristol Beaufighter. In response, Bristol’s design team, led by Leslie J. Frise, submitted their Type 164 for consideration. The Type 164 Brigand was derived from the Bristol Buckingham bomber, using the same wings, tail and undercarriage designs as the Buckingham. Furthermore it would also use the Bristol Centaurus engine just like the Buckingham. Specifically the Brigand would utilize the Centaurus 57 engine. Initially, the design team had considered the possibility of upgrading the Beaufighter design, but it was quickly realized that the Hercules power plant of the Beuafighter would be inadequate to reach the 300 knots at sea level that had been requested by the Air Ministry. Thus, the Centaurus engines were chosen.
In April 1943, a prototype was ordered. On the 4th of December 1944, with Captain Cyril Unwin at the controls, the prototype Brigand MX988 took to the skies for its maiden flight. Testing followed suit, and upon completion of this Bristol received an order for 200 examples. The Brigand was envisioned as a long-range strike aircraft to serve in the Far East against Japanese shipping. However, when the Second World War came to an end in August 1945, the Brigand was yet to have entered service. Furthermore, the end of the Second World War resulted in the original order of 200 being cut back to 120 aircraft. A subsequent order for fifty-two Brigands B.Is did arrive at a later stage but eight were cancelled and sixteen delivered as Met.3s (detailed later).
Entry into Service:
In 1946, the first eleven Brigands, designated TF.Mk.I, were delivered to the RAF, where they were earmarked to serve with Coastal Command. These eleven aircraft would never see proper service as by now the RAF had concluded that Coastal Command no longer needed a torpedo strike aircraft. However the RAF remained interested in the Brigand, seeing potential for it to be a bombing/strike aircraft, and as such the Brigand B.Mk.I emerged. The B.MK.I lost the ability to carry torpedoes, removed the rear gunner position and the cockpit windshield piece was redesigned. A crew of three would remain: Pilot, navigator and wireless operator. The B.Mk.I was equipped with four 20mm forward firing cannons, and bomb racks were fitted allowing it to carry up to eight rockets or 2000lbs of bombs. Some sources will claim that the B.Mk.Is were the first model of the Brigand to be fitted with rocket racks, although there is photographic evidence of TF.Mk.I aircraft equipped with torpedoes and rockets.
The Brigand B.Mk.I started being delivered to RAF units in 1948, with the firs frontline squadrons receiving the aircraft in 1949. Three operational squadrons- Nos.8, 45 and 84 - would fly the Brigand. No.84 Squadron, based in Habbaniya, Iraq, was the first to take stock of the new type when the first one arrived in February of 1949. No.8 Squadron, based at Khormaksar, Aden, was next in April 1949, and finally No.45 squadron, based at Negombo, Ceylon (current day Sri Lanka), in June.
Combat Tested:
As the Maylan Emergency unfolded, by November 1949, No.45 Squadron had been relocated to Singapore to undertake combat operations over Malaya. The Brigand’s first combat mission came on December 19, 1949. Over Malaya the type was utilized as a strike aircraft to hit communist insurgent targets, to provide air support for troops and air cover for convoys. In 1950, the Brigands of No.8 squadron were moved to Singapore, joining No.45 Squadron in the skies above Malaya. However, during operations a number of serious and in some cases fatal flaws were discovered with the Brigand design.
The first problem that arose, and perhaps the least serious of all, was that it was never guaranteed on landing that the main undercarriage would lower, forcing the pilot to make a belly landing. This was caused by the seals in the hydraulics deteriorating due to the hot and humid conditions the aircraft were serving in.
The next issue arose during fighting in Malaya, where the cannons on the nose of the aircraft would sometimes explode while on strafing runs, usually causing significant damage to the aircraft. This was believed to be due to the long cannon blast tubes sometimes trapping the propellant gases. Thus if using high explosive rounds the gases had a tendency to ignite and then explode. The solution to this was to minimise the usage of high explosive rounds and limit how much ammunition was loaded and there were periods of time when the Brigands were prohibited from utilizing their cannons all together.
Next, the hot and humid conditions resulted in issues with the propellors. Specifically, the propellor blade would come off mid-flight, triggering the propellor to fail, resulting in the unbalance engine detaching from the wing and the plane crashing. This issue caused Brigands to be grounded during mid 1951 as answers and solutions were sought. The humidity was said to be causing the propellor locking rings to corrode, and the only solution devised for this scenario was a stricter maintenance schedule.
Finally, the tropical humidity would also cause havoc for the air brakes utilized for diving bombing. Specifically the leather bellows would deteriorate in such conditions resulting in the dive brakes failing. For this the air brakes were wired shut. It is worth mentioning that the Brigand was never originally envisioned to be a dive bomber further complicating its use in this role.
The Brigand was not well suited for the tropics. Throughout the type's service over Malaya, some of the higher officers within the Brigand squadrons did put forth concern around continuing operations with Brigands but ultimately until new aircraft types came available, they had to soldier on with what they had. A strict maintenance schedule was brought in to try to minimize the array of issues, but as ex-Brigand pilot Terry Stringer writes on his website : “In time we found it difficult to suppress at least a tinge of fear as we climbed aboard the ‘brutes’ and wondered if we would subsequently emerge safely through the same hatch and all of us, at time, felt uneasy about flying them.” Hardly a description of an aircraft that inspired confidence in its crews.
Interestingly most secondary sources will state that the Brigand was a pleasant and relatively good aircraft to fly. Some even describe it as robust. Perhaps, it was when things worked as it should, but throughout its operational career things went wrong far too often for it to be considered a robust aircraft.
The Brigand would fight on in Malaya for a few years. No.45 Squadron gave them up for the de Havilland Hornet in January 1952, after having flown close to 1600 sorties with the type. Their last strike flying the Brigand occurred on the 7th of February 1953. In February the following year 84 Squadron was disbanded in Malaya having conducted some 1650 sorties in Malaya. For No.8 Squadron their time on the Brigand would come to an end at the end of 1952 when they transferred onto the de Havilland Vampire.
Variants:
The Brigand was mainly built in the B.1 variant, however there were a handful of other variants produced.
The Brigand Mk. II was a planned training version, but none wherever built.
The Met.III was next, these being sixteen built specifically to undertake meteorological flights. Brigand Met.3s had all armament removed and were set up with special weather recording equipment. An oxygen system and long-range fuel tanks were added in addition to an array of equipment designed for high altitude flights. Sixteen were taken on charge by the RAF between November 1948 and February 1949 although six would only ever be used. These six were sent to Malaya where with the No.1301 Flight they flew approximately 600 weather sorties.
The Brigand T.4 was a trainer version designed as a radar trainer to assist the training of radar operators with these appearing at 228 OCU at RAF Leeming in 1950. These were unarmed and only nine T.4s were built on the production line, with the other thirty-three being converted B.1s. Finally, there was the Brigand T.5 which housed updated equipment when compared to the T.4, resulting in a slightly longer nose and was utilized for the same role. Furthermore many B.1 were converted to use as trainers.
Conclusion:
The Brigand would be officially retired from service during March 1958, with one final flypast of six T.5s over North Luffenham occurring during that month. There was interest from the Pakistan Air Force and two examples were flown there for evaluation, but orders were not forthcoming. The Brigand would be the last of the RAF’s piston bombers to enter service, and its service in Malaya was valuable until more reliable aircraft became available. Still its service career was plagued with an array of problems that perhaps meant that it never properly fulfilled its potential.
Sources:
Books:
Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II
The Bristol Brigand (Squadrons!): 41 by Phil H. Listemann
Websites:
The Brigand Boys: https://brigandboys.org.uk/
Warbird Aviation Resource Center: http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/BARC/brigand-design.html
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