RAF Lysanders on a training flight (IWM neg CH1191)

At the outbreak of the Second World War the RAF's successor to the RE8 in the army cooperation, reconnaissance and artillery-spotting role was the Westland Lysander.

Several units operating Lysanders went to France with the British Expeditionary Force in September 1939 and in November a 'Lizzie' shot down the first Luftwaffe Heinkel bomber to fall in BEF territory. Many Lysanders were lost during the Battle of France (May - June 1940).

It is, however, for its hazardous Special Duties activities later in the war that the 'Lizzie' is best known. Fitted with a long range fuel tank and fixed ladder, these aircraft transported Allied agents in and out of enemy-occupied territory under cover of darkness.