Post your Lancaster photos here. Here are a few of 460 squadrons G for George. View attachment 138 View attachment 139 View attachment 140 View attachment 141
RAAF S for Sugar 137 Operational Sorties S for Sugar 137 Operational Sorties YouTube - Lancaster 'S for Sugar" 100th mission (Silent) [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Lancaster R5868 ‘S’ for Sugar of 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, taxies in at RAF Waddington on the morning of 27 April, 1944, having completed her 95th operation, a raid on the ball-bearing factory at Schweinfurt, Germany. [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Sporting on her fuselage Goering’s infamous quotation[/FONT] [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]“No enemy plane will fly over the Reich territory….” [/FONT] [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]‘S’ for Sugar went on to complete 137 operational sorties. This famous bomber, restored to her former glory, now resides in the RAF Museum as a lasting tribute to the men of RAF Bomber Command. [/FONT]
One of my favourite Lanc pictures (love the sharks' teeth): Avro Lancaster B Mk X KB772 VR-R 'Ropey' 419 Squadron RCAF http://www.pewteraircraft.com/RAF/LANCASTER X/Lancaster X.htm
Looks like a bog-standard pictures of a Lancaster, doesn't it? Well, these are pictures showing the last take-off and flight of the last operational Lancaster of the RAF (11 years after the war!) http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1956/1956 - 1518.html http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1956/1956 - 1519.html
Some interesting incarnations of Lancaster NX622 http://www.ernmphotography.com/Pages/Aviation/Aircraft/Warbirds/Lancaster/Lancaster.html http://www.warbirdregistry.org/lancregistry/lanc-nx622.html
That's my local! Ain't she pretty?! The first couple of shots are from when she lived out at Perth Airport (she's ex-French) and the noseart shot is how she looks today in the RAAF Museum Bullcreek. I really must get there and get pics of the displays they've put up. Really impressive stuff and lots of reading. If anyone makes it down to Perth, I'll take you there!
I was reading about the Lancaster and noted that Britain/Allies were sending 30 squadrons of Lancasters to the Pacific in July 1945. "Lancasters from Bomber Command were to have formed the main strength of Tiger Force, the Commonwealth bomber contingent scheduled to take part in Operation Downfall, the codename for the planned invasion of Japan in late 1945, from bases on Okinawa."
There's some debate about whether that really would have happened - the logistics of the transfer meant that they may not have arrived in time (in line with the Downfall schedule), and more importantly, MacArthur was very reluctant to use any non-US personnel if he could help it (and closer to the possible invasion he'd probably have made a greater fuss).
Took that info from here: http://www.raafawa.org.au/wa/museum/lanc/history.htm A total of 30 Lancaster squadrons were to be flown from Europe to the Far East between August and November 1945, to raid the Japanese mainland from bases in Eastern India and Okinawa. Their aircraft, designated F.E. (Far East) Lancasters. had modifications which Included more powerful Rolls Royce Merlin 24 engines of 1640 h.p.; Nash and Thompson rear turrets with two 0.5 Inch Browning machine guns instead of the earlier four .303 Brownings; a Martin dorsal turret with two more 0.5's and an additional 1800 litre fuel tank in the rear of the bomb bay. With a typical 3,200 kg bomb load, this extended the aircraft's range from 4,200 to 5,300 kilometres. Special lifeboat-dropping Lancasters would be available for rescue operations on long oversea raids. Other Tiger Force Lancasters were designated to carry Grand Slam and the almost equally destructive 5,300 kg Tallboy bombs over shorter ranges against special targets, or to operate in tactical close-support roles with the British / Indian Army In Burma.
No, I agree that there plans to do so, and these plans were moving along before the A-bombs, but what I meant was that the actual use of these aircraft was debatable - at the level that the plans had progressed by the real end of the war, TAF and RN participation had been included. But these plans were never finalised, and MacArthur being MacArthur (who always wanted it be be completely US show), the inclusion of the RAF in operations is open to question. He certainly vetoed the use of Indian Divisions in the invasion planning.
http://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/ http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/oldstuff/justjane/Justjane.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVb-UG8yJw http://www.lancfm212.ca/
