A heavily armed twin-engined 'Beau' proved deadly as an airborne-radar night fighter during the Blitz, then as a shipping-strike aircraft in the Mediterranean and Coastal Command, where torpedo- and rocket-armed variants hunted Axis convoys. Its quiet sleeve-valve Hercules engines are said to have earned it the nickname 'Whispering Death' from Japanese troops in Burma, though the attribution rests on British reporting alone.
A Beaufighter Mk.IC A19-43 belonged 31 Squadron of RAAF. It is now on displayed at National Museum of USAF as T5049 (JPG version of the file)Umeyou · CC BY-SA 3.0 · sourceBeaufighter Mk Ic A19-43 – On public display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio since October 2006. Although flown in combat in the south-west Pacific by 31 Squadron Royal Australian Air Aaron Headly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · sourceIWM caption : Interior view of the instrument panel and flying controls in the cockpit of a Bristol Beaufighter Mark IF of No. 252 Squadron RAF at Chivenor, Devon.Daventry B J H (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer · Public domain · source
