Did this bomber exist?

humbley

Manufacturer: Humbley-Pudge Ltd.
Purpose: Four seat, heavyish bomber.

Lewis gun blazing, flour bags cascading down, the pachydermic Gallipoli terrorised practice target ranges across the British Empire from 1933 to 1939. Four Varley "Panjanderum" inline liquid cooled motors screwed her up to a cruising altitude several feet above the legal minimum of the day. Relatively few were built, but more than enough Gallipolis were delivered to the RAF, which handed them over to the Royal Indian Air Force, which handed them over to the Royal Malayan Air Force, which promptly found itself plagued with wholesale desertions of it's flying personnel. The Gallipoli's moment of glory came and, lightening-like, vanished during the surprise Japanese invasion of Singapore in early 1942. Hordes of Nips, swarmed toward the RMAF aerodrome, out went the call, "Warm up the Gallipolis!" And, indeed, 36 of the breed might have risen to meet the foe had not their special boarding ladders been found to be missing. The sobriquet Sitting Duck has clung to the Gallipoli ever since - an unjust cut in view of this perfectly harmless old war horse's clearly worthwhile intentions. The last survivor serves as a chicken house - albeit an impressive one - for the Maharani of Gunjipor. It crash-landed on her lawn in 1944, but the RAF, despite numerous reminders, keeps forgetting to come round and pick it up.

__________________