Machines - Lancaster
The Lancaster has become the iconic RAF bomber of World War Two. It almost doesn't matter if it was better than the rest. At this stage, it has wormed its way into memories and hearts and histories. Yet like the equally familiar and beloved Spitfire, its place of honor is not entirely undeserved.
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The Lancaster began its "career" as a twin-engined, medium bomber that failed miserably. Dubbed the Manchester, the twin-engined bomber was severely under-powered and so one of the designers at the manufacturer Avro suggested expanding the wing-span and adding two more engines. The resulting four-engined aircraft powered by the legendary Merlin engines was renamed Lancaster, and soon proved to be an outstanding aircraft.
Even more surprising, perhaps, was that the initial design proved so satisfactory that although later models were built, the original Mark I remained in production throughout the war. It had a maximum speed of 282 mph and a service ceiling of 21,400 feet -- both less than the later versions of the Halifax but better than the early Halifaxes and far superior to the Sterling.
The range of 2,530 miles was, furthermore, substantially greater than the Halifax (1,860 miles) and the versatility of the Lancaster's 33 foot bomb bay proved the decisive factor in winning the affection of Bomber Harris. Although the Lancaster usually carried a bomb load between 14,000 and 16,000 lbs composed of various components, it could also be modified to carry the extremely large 12,000 lb "Tallboys" and eventually the 22,000 lb "Grand Slam" or earthquake bomb. Lancasters were also used in the raid on the Ruhr dams, using a cylindrical "bouncing bomb" officially code-named the "Upkeep" bomb.
The Lancaster was manned, like the other four-engine bombers, by a crew of seven. The bomb aimer/forward gunner occupied the very nose of the aircraft that was a couple of steps down from the flight deck. On the flight deck the pilot sat on the left, and the flight engineer had a fold-down seat to his right and a little behind him. The flight engineer's panel of instruments was on the right-hand side of the fuselage and behind this came, on the left, the navigator's curtained-off cubicle. The navigator's table was affixed to the port side of the aircraft so the navigator sat facing to port. Just behind the navigator came the wireless operator, also on the left-hand side of the aircraft but facing forward. Then came the rest bed and main spar before the bomb bay, beyond which a fold down step led to the dorsal "mid-upper" turret. Finally, in the very tail of the fuselage sticking out beyond the vertical stabilizers, sat the rear gunner. Altogether, the Lancaster was armed with eight machine guns: two forward-firing, two in the mid-upper turret, and four in the rear turret.
The Lancaster did not go into service until early 1942 and made its first operational flight in March of that year. Lancasters would eventually equip 66 front-line squadrons and 20 training and conversion units in Bomber Command. They were used as both daylight and nighttime bombers and engaged in both high-level and low-level bombing as well as being deployed as Pathfinders. A number of raids, particularly raids in the eastern part of Germany, were "all Lancaster" raids, since neither the Halifax much less the Sterling had sufficient range to take part in these raids until the later models of Halifaxes were deployed. Usually, however, the Lancasters made up an ever increasing proportion of mixed raids, often with Mosquitos performing diversionary attacks or leading as Pathfinders, while the Lancaster provided the "muscle" of the raid alongside the improving Halifaxes. By 1943, Lancasters were involved in virtually every major heavy raid on Germany.
However, Lancasters were also the preferred aircraft for many of the small, surgical raids using experimental weapons. Famously the bouncing bombs used in Operation Chastise, an attack on three dams in the Ruhr on the night of the 16/17 of May, were flown to the target by Lancasters. Likewise, Lancasters were the aircraft used in Operation Hydra, an ultimately successful -- if costly -- effort to destroy the German's V2 rocket development and testing site at Peenemuende on the night 17/18 August. Lancasters, not mini-subs or torpedo bombers, delivered the fatal blows to the battleship Tirpitz. Lancasters also delivered the ordnance capable of penetrating the meters-thick protective walls of U-boat and E-boat pens. In a dramatic attack, they breached the 14-23 meter thick bunker walls of a factory building the new super-submarines with underwater speeds greater than most merchantmen of the era. The Lancasters dropped bombs that first penetrated the concrete and then detonated inside the bunker to destroy the equipment that had already been installed. Lastly, the Lancaster took part in the spectacular bombing of Hitler's retreat at Berchtesgaden in one of the last raids of the war on April 25, 1945.
Four days later, Lancasters started flying what would amount to a total of 3,298 sorties to deliver desperately needed food to the starving people of northwest Holland. The Lancasters flew in low and dropped the food, rather than attempting to land and off-load. This operation lasted until May 8, the day of Germany's surrender. Meanwhile, Lancasters had already been converted into crude passenger planes and tasked with repatriating thousands of released prisoners of war to the U.K.
By the end of the war, more than a thousand Lancasters were in service with front-line squadrons. In the course of the war, they had flown more than 156,000 sorties and dropped over 600,000 tons of high explosive. A total of 3,249 Lancasters were lost to enemy action.
The Lancaster design became the basis for a larger post-war bomber, the Lincoln, and for a civilian airliner called the Lancastrian as well as a cargo aircraft. The freight-version of the Lancaster was dubbed -- as was only fitting -- the York. Yorks played an important role during the Berlin Airlift.
My novels about the RAF in WWII are intended as tributes to the men in the air and on the ground that made a victory in Europe against fascism possible.
they took the war to Hitler.
Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent.
Their average age was 21.
This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved.
It is intended as a tribute to them all.
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"Where Eagles Never Flew" was the the winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction and a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew
For more information about all my aviation books visit: https://www.helenapschrader.com/aviation.html
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