Lysander, The RAF’s World War 2 Clandestine Maid of All Work

The Westland Lysander is one of Britain’s, if not the world’s, most easily identifiable aircraft and during its heyday the plane spotter’s mantra was simply divided into two categories: ‘aircraft and Lysanders’. Originally designed for army co-operation duties, the Lysander was actually a failure in this role through no fault of the aircraft or its outstanding design which met the original specification A.39/34. Instead, the blame lay with senior Air Staff who were so focussed on the strategic concepts of air warfare they completely overlooked the importance of aerial liaison and support with ground forces as a result only four army co-operation squadrons were sent to France with the BEF in 1939.