After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's short-field performance enabled clandestine missions using small, improvised airstrips behind enemy lines to place or recover agents, particularly in occupied France with the help of the French Resistance.

Royal Air Force army co-operation aircraft were named after mythical or historical military leaders; in this case the Spartan admiral Lysander was chosen.

The result of Petter's pilot enquiries suggested that field of view, low-speed handling characteristics and STOL performance were the important requirements.

The large streamlined spats also contained a mounting for a Browning machine gun and fittings for removable stub wings that could carry light bombs or supply canisters.

The wing itself was fabric covered and its thickness was greatest at the strut anchorage, similar to that of later marks of the Stinson Reliant high-winged transport monoplane.

Despite its appearance, the Lysander was aerodynamically advanced; being equipped with fully automatic wing slats and slotted flaps and a variable incidence tailplane.

The Air Ministry requested two prototypes of the P.8 and the competing Bristol Type 148, quickly selecting the Westland aircraft for production and issuing a contract in September 1936.

The high-lift devices gave the Lysander a short take off and landing (STOL) performance much appreciated by the Special Duties pilots such as Squadron Leader Hugh Verity.

Some of these aircraft, now designated type L.1, operated with the Chindits of the British Indian Army in the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.

[11] Nevertheless, throughout the remainder of 1940, Lysanders flew dawn and dusk patrols off the coast[12] and in the event of an invasion of Britain, they were tasked with attacking the landing beaches with light bombs and machine guns.

[13] They were replaced in the home-based army co-operation role from 1941 by camera-equipped fighters such as the Curtiss Tomahawk and North American Mustang carrying out reconnaissance operations, while light aircraft such as the Taylorcraft Auster were used to direct artillery.

[14] Some UK-based Lysanders went to work operating air-sea rescue, dropping dinghies to downed RAF aircrew in the English Channel.

138's aircraft, the Lysander could insert and remove agents from the continent or retrieve Allied aircrew who had been shot down over occupied territory and had evaded capture.

For this role the Mk.IIIs were fitted with a fixed ladder over the port side to hasten access to the rear cockpit and a large drop tank under the belly.

Two aircraft (T1443 and T1739) were transferred to the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for training and 18 were used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm.

One hundred and four British-built Lysanders were delivered to Canada supplementing 225 that were built under licence by National Steel Car at Malton, Ontario (near Toronto) with production starting in October 1938 and the first aircraft flying in August 1939.

The RCAF primarily operated Lysanders in the Army Co-operation role, where they represented a major improvement over the antiquated Westland Wapiti which could trace its origins back to 1916.

121 Squadron RCAF and several Operational Training Units (OTUs) used Lysanders – painted in a high-visibility yellow-and-black-striped scheme – for target towing duties.

After the war a number of surplus ex-Royal Canadian Air Force Lysanders were employed as aerial applicators with Westland Dusting Service, operating in Alberta and western Canada.

A total of 1,786 Lysanders were built, including 225 manufactured under licence by National Steel Car in Malton near Toronto, Ontario, Canada during 1938 and 1939.

In 1963, BBC TV transmitted a series of dramas called Moonstrike about the insertion of clandestine SOE operatives into occupied France.