The quick answer is no for reasons to do with the U boat war and the aircraft available.
There is no mid Atlantic Gap early in the war. Its a consequence of increasing escort and aircraft range from the UK and Ireland and Canada/US and Iceland and the Azores and Gib making the mid Atlantic the only place a U boat could operate that was not an elaborate form of suicide.
Short form of what happens is this. When a ship enters or leaves port you know where it is. As soon as it leaves port it can disperse across the ocean until it concentrates to enter a port ( same applies if you want to hunt U boats). So in terms of finding shipping you want to operate as close to a port as possible so you can find things. You also do not want to attack ships in convoy ships in convoy have escorts who shoot back. That's the other way you can hunt U boats. Also the biggest source of targets is UK coastal shipping which is easy to find, vital and also escorted by and sea and air.
Progressively the number and quality of the escorts increases, air and naval and they spread both the number of convoys the number of escorts and the air coverage further and further out.
Its not until September 41 that attacks on ships in convoy exceed attacks on unescorted ships - of which there a lot, either because the captains choose to and a non British captain can so choose. Because they are so old and slow they can't keep station and are carrying lumber, or because of an engine casualty forcing them out of convoy.
That then stops until about Feb/March 43 - mostly because of the number of targets unescorted with lights at full brilliance off the US coast.
And by then the U boat losses exceed replacement rates. Throughout the war 85% of sailings to Britain are never attacked at all.
So the Stirling. The Stirling is as said a multi purpose aircraft specced in 36/7. Its range when loaded is about 600 miles and there are some issues with the bomb bay. So it could be used as an MPA with some adaptation. BUT so can the Hudson, which has fewer crew and engines and the same range more or less and is the chosen MPA early war. Same with the Wellington. Catalina and Sunderland are better with more range more stores more dakka generally.
The limiting factor on over ocean flying is the quality of the crew to navigate and keep things working over many hours so there is probably a practical limit to the number of crews you can have flying. These are also the guys you want in Pathfinder force and things like 617.
Up to 1943 Stirling is probably best used as a bomber. But then with Halifax and Lancs coming on in numbers its a 4 engined bomber with the capabilities of a 2 engined bomber and some utility as a transport, special ops platform. There is nothing it can do that can't be done at least as well by a Wellington, Beau, Mosquito, Swordfish, Cat, Sud. None of which can tow gliders.
Basically for the range and load characteristics the Wellington is a better platform except as a tug or transport.
There is no mid Atlantic Gap early in the war. Its a consequence of increasing escort and aircraft range from the UK and Ireland and Canada/US and Iceland and the Azores and Gib making the mid Atlantic the only place a U boat could operate that was not an elaborate form of suicide.
Short form of what happens is this. When a ship enters or leaves port you know where it is. As soon as it leaves port it can disperse across the ocean until it concentrates to enter a port ( same applies if you want to hunt U boats). So in terms of finding shipping you want to operate as close to a port as possible so you can find things. You also do not want to attack ships in convoy ships in convoy have escorts who shoot back. That's the other way you can hunt U boats. Also the biggest source of targets is UK coastal shipping which is easy to find, vital and also escorted by and sea and air.
Progressively the number and quality of the escorts increases, air and naval and they spread both the number of convoys the number of escorts and the air coverage further and further out.
Its not until September 41 that attacks on ships in convoy exceed attacks on unescorted ships - of which there a lot, either because the captains choose to and a non British captain can so choose. Because they are so old and slow they can't keep station and are carrying lumber, or because of an engine casualty forcing them out of convoy.
That then stops until about Feb/March 43 - mostly because of the number of targets unescorted with lights at full brilliance off the US coast.
And by then the U boat losses exceed replacement rates. Throughout the war 85% of sailings to Britain are never attacked at all.
So the Stirling. The Stirling is as said a multi purpose aircraft specced in 36/7. Its range when loaded is about 600 miles and there are some issues with the bomb bay. So it could be used as an MPA with some adaptation. BUT so can the Hudson, which has fewer crew and engines and the same range more or less and is the chosen MPA early war. Same with the Wellington. Catalina and Sunderland are better with more range more stores more dakka generally.
The limiting factor on over ocean flying is the quality of the crew to navigate and keep things working over many hours so there is probably a practical limit to the number of crews you can have flying. These are also the guys you want in Pathfinder force and things like 617.
Up to 1943 Stirling is probably best used as a bomber. But then with Halifax and Lancs coming on in numbers its a 4 engined bomber with the capabilities of a 2 engined bomber and some utility as a transport, special ops platform. There is nothing it can do that can't be done at least as well by a Wellington, Beau, Mosquito, Swordfish, Cat, Sud. None of which can tow gliders.
Basically for the range and load characteristics the Wellington is a better platform except as a tug or transport.
