Veteran Lancs: A Photographic Record of the 35 RAF Lancasters that Each Completed One Hundred Sorties

By Norman Franks

Aviation historians will know that the Avro Lancaster bomber is the most famous aircraft to have fought with RAF Bomber Command during World War Two. They will know too that, of the 7,366 that were built, over 3,400 were lost on operations and a further 200 plus were destroyed and written-off in crashes. Operational sorties flown totalled more than 156,000, carrying over 600,000 tons of bombs to targets all over Europe. But this came at a terrible cost. With extensive losses on some night operations, occurring when bombers were pitted against a dedicated German night-fighter arm (as well as anti-aircraft fire) it is not surprising, or even incredible, that just 35 Lancasters managed to complete 100 or more sorties during the course of the war. A number of them actually achieved well over one hundred sorties, and a few were tragically lost after reaching this amazing figure.This book covers the history of these 35 incredible Lancasters, featuring many photographs of both aircraft and crew members drawn together in an effort to create a photographic record of these veterans. In addition, there is a section dedicated to many Lancasters that, whilst not achieving this almost magic total, either through eventual loss or the ending of the war, did achieve a large number of operations. Pictures of these have been added so that their achievements, as well as the achievements of the crews who flew in them, can be viewed together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473847279

Norman Franks

Norman Franks is a respected historian and author. Previous titles for Pen and Sword include InThe Footsteps of the Red Baron (co-authored with Mike OConnor), The Fighting Cocks, RAF Fighter Pilots Over Burma, Dogfight, The Fallen Few of the Battle of Britain (with Nigel McCrery) and Dowdings Eagles. Over the course of his career, Frank has published some of the most compelling works on First World War fighter aviation, being one of the worlds leading authorities on the subject. He lives in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Book preview

2016

Introduction

At the start of the Second World War RAF Bomber Command had only twin-engined bombers, such as the Hampden, Whitley, Blenheim and the Wellington plus, of course, the single-engined Fairley Battle. All had very limited capabilities, not only in their bomb loads but, more importantly, their range.

Nevertheless the bomber crews struggled manfully with these types and did their utmost to deliver their bomb loads to their assigned targets, despite poor navigational and bombing aids. As the war progressed it became obvious that larger bomber types were needed, meaning longer range and larger bomb capacity. This could only be achieved by using aircraft with four engines. The first design was the Short Stirling, followed by the two that were to become the mainstay of Bomber Command, the Handley-Page Halifax and the Avro Lancaster. The latter was a development of the Avro Manchester, designed with two engines. Later, of course, the twin-engined DH Mosquito joined the ranks of long-range bombing aircraft.

Of the three ‘heavies’ the Lancaster, the subject of this book, achieved the greatest fame. It carried a crew of seven: pilot, navigator, bomb-aimer, engineer, wireless operator, mid-upper and tail gunners. It had a range of 1,660 miles, carrying 14,000lbs of bombs or 1,040 miles with 20,000lbs. Bomb load make-up varied according to the target, but generally comprised General Purpose High Explosive bombs of 500 or 1,000lbs, and incendiaries. The most common was one 4,000lb bomb, known as the ‘cookie’ and a mix of 4lb or 30lb incendiaries. The object was for the 4,000-pounder to cause massive damage while the incendiaries would ignite and burn anything inflammable within the debris. Against heavy industrial targets they might carry one 8,000lb bomb and six 500lb bombs with either instantaneous or delay fusing.

The Lancaster made its first flight in May 1941 and 44 Squadron became the first to re-equip with the type. Bomber Command was of course committed to night bombing although one of the first daylight raids came on 17 April 1942, an attack in the Messerschmitt factory at Augsburg, deep into German territory.

With various modifications, a total of 7,366 Lancasters was built during the war and, as will be seen within these pages, only thirty-five achieved 100-plus operations. There is no mystery why there are so few. It took several months to achieve this, sometimes a year or more, and one has to take into account that every Lancaster needed periodic minor and major servicing, engine changes, and repair of battle damage, and so could be off operations for long periods. Lancasters which did manage to record 100 or more operations lived charmed lives, for each bomber could just as easily fail to return from its very first mission as, say, its fiftieth.

It would be nice to know who first began to record operations by painting a bomb symbol on an aircraft’s nose section, or even began to paint some sort of emblem too. One suspects that in the early days a squadron commander might have frowned upon the latter practice but very soon the vast majority of bombers, Lancasters, Stirlings or Halifaxes, began to be adorned with the fanciful whims of either aircrew, or ground crew personnel. Each aircraft, of course, ‘belonged’ to its ground crew. They serviced it, cleaned it, patched up any damage, and each night some crew or other flew it into a dark or darkening sky, and the ground crew would wait anxiously for ‘their’ aircraft to return to its servicing bay.

It was also the ground crew who would paint the bombs on the fuselage, and the more they were able to add the better they felt about it. Most bombers would be assigned to a regular crew, but other crews could also be assigned. If their Lancaster was being serviced or being repaired, the crew would be assigned a spare aircraft. They might also be away on leave, meaning another crew would fly it on the next operation. Very few, if any, crews would fly one particular aircraft on every trip of their tour. A tour of operations generally hovered around thirty trips, but this figure was not hard and fast. If a flight or squadron commander felt a crew had had a particularly rough period, he might decide to end that crew’s tour at twenty-eight or twenty-nine. Some crews who, at certain times during the war, were asked if they would do a few more trips, might carry out some thirty-five operations, but again, not all on one Lancaster. There were crews who even volunteered to do a double tour of forty operations.

Another problem with this numbers game was that, within the seven-man crew, each member might have flown a different number from the others. A new skipper had generally to fly one or perhaps two trips with an experienced crew before taking his own out over Germany. Therefore, when he had flown thirty most of his crew had only flown twenty-eight. Or perhaps a navigator or bomb aimer might fly a trip or two with another crew when his crew were on rest but this other crew was down a crew member through ill-health or injury. So he would reach his thirty while others of his crew were still in their late twenties. A man who felt he wasn’t going to chance his luck for anyone might elect to leave a crew when he had done his thirty, even though his pals had one or two more to do. He had every right to do so. Sometimes a death or serious injury would necessitate a replacement on a permanent basis, and that man would be way below the number of trips of the rest, in which case, when the rest reached their thirty, he would need to be a spare body or crewman, completing his tour with one or two other crews who were suddenly short of a man.

In the meantime, the ground crew, usually an NCO and two airmen, riggers or fitters, would soldier on with ‘their’ aircraft. As the total of bombs grew into a rather respectable number, they would be even keener to add another painted bomb on the nose. And there would be mistakes. If they had seen their aircraft go off, and return, they might add another bomb even though officially that raid had been aborted. It was not unusual for the ground crew’s tally not to agree with the squadron record keeper’s.

The time it took for these high-scoring Lancasters to ‘do the ton’ is clear by knowing that the first to reach that total did not do so until May 1944 – about a year before the war came to an end. Others were well on the way but the end of hostilities did not allow that figure to be reached. Yet others survived many operations but time and everything else shortened their effective lives and they had to be taken off operations. In other words – they were clapped out.

So let us look at these thirty-five and at some of the others that achieved a high volume of operational sorties.

Chapter One

May to August 1944

R5868: Queenie/Sugar

Two main reasons why Lancaster R5868 is very well known are that she was the first to achieve a hundred operational sorties, and because she is preserved and may be seen at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, north London. She is also most probably the most photographed Lancaster.

She was built as a Mark I by Metro Vickers at Trafford Park, Mosley Road, Manchester, and was the twenty-seventh off the production line. Delivered to Avro at Woodford she went through final assembly and testing on 20 June 1942. Just nine days later R5868 was delivered to No. 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, assigned to B Flight and had the code letters OL-Q painted on the fuselage sides. For the next several months the Lancaster became known as ‘Q’ for Queenie. The aircraft was given her own ground crew who would look after her during its time with 83: Sergeants Jim Gill and Harry Taylor, and Leading Aircraftmen Arthur Page and Ron Pollard.

This squadron began re-equipping with Lancasters in May 1942 and Queenie’s first crew was captained by an experienced officer, Squadron Leader Ray Hilton DFC. He was about to begin his second tour of operations, his first having covered thirty-four sorties with both 214 and 83 Squadrons. Their first mission together came on the night of 8/9 July, a raid upon Wilhelmshaven. A couple of nights later they went ‘Gardening’, the code word for laying sea mines, off the port of Danzig. In total Hilton flew eighteen operations in R5868, out of a total of thirty-two, showing that fourteen other crews had taken off in her on raids between July and 19 February 1943. By that date Hilton had been promoted to wing commander and received a Bar to his DFC. An unusual fact is that Ray Hilton had complained that Queenie always seemed to fly one wing low and, despite several attempts by the ground crew, they never succeeded in rectifying it.

No. 83 Squadron had become part of the Command’s Pathfinder Force in 1942, tasked with not only bombing, but marking the targets with a variety of target indicators (TIs). PFF squadrons also had crews who would linger over the target to ensure it had been marked correctly, and Queenie did this on occasion.

The next regular skipper was Flying Officer F. J. Garvey in February 1943. Rick Garvey, a Canadian, went on to complete nineteen operations in Queenie. He was the first RAF pilot to complete sixty operations, and earned both the DSO and DFC. Sadly he was later killed in a flying accident. Ray Hilton also completed over sixty bomber operations and was lost over Berlin in November 1943, whilst commanding 83 Squadron.

Rick Garvey flew R5868 for the last time with 83 on 14/15 August 1943, a trip to Milan, Italy, which brought the bomber’s total to sixty-eight. Having completed a total of 368 operational flying hours, a major overhaul was needed. Once this was completed she was assigned to another squadron, No. 467 RAAF. Despite the refit, R5868 had a few problems which were sorted out before operations commenced with the new squadron on 27 September to Hanover. On the next raid she was piloted by Pilot Officer N. M. McClelland, who then became a more regular skipper. The man in charge of the ground crew was Ted Willoughby.

With 467 Queenie became S for Sugar with the codes of PO-S. Sugar also flew a single operation with 207 Squadron, that unit obviously being short of aircraft. That winter saw the Battle of Berlin, Sugar going to the Big City five times between November 1943 and February 1944, but on the night of 26/27 November she collided with a Lancaster of 61 Squadron. Flying Officer J. A. Colpus was at the controls and, despite severe damage, losing five feet from one wing, got her home, for which he received the DFC. However, Sugar was out of action for repairs till February.

Once back on operations, Pilot Officer J. W. McManus became the regular skipper, taking her on nine raids and, on completing his tour, he was awarded the DFC. By this time, R5868’s total of missions was nearing the 100 mark. Ted Willoughby had read Hermann Göring’s famous boast about British aircraft flying over Germany and got permission to update the bomb log, under which was painted: ‘NO ENEMY PLANE WILL FLY OVER REICH TERRITORY’.

Sugar was now showing signs of her age and had