Some say the Lancaster was the most dangerous place to be for Allied servicemen. Flying a Lancaster was incredibly ‘physically and mentally demanding’, needing ‘constant concentration…for many hours at a time,’ according to the Imperial War Museum, which goes on to add that as well as the enemy, bad weather and flying at night, airmen also faced things like lack of oxygen, frostbite and high altitude. The seven man crew, including a pilot, a flight engineer, a navigator, a bomb aimer, a wireless operator, a mid upper gunner and a rear gunner, diced with death night after night, facing projectiles launched by anti aircraft guns, enemy aircraft, bad weather, or the risk of crash landing on land or sea. Troops loading a 400lb Cookie bomb onto a Lancaster Bomber circa 1940 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) (Image: Getty Images)
In practice, this meant huge dangers for the mostly volunteer crews, whose average age was just 22. When they did, they came up with the same frame, but powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.īut the newly christened Lancaster totally revolutionised the war in 1942 because it could fly heavy bombs deep over Germany for the first time. The much anticipated earlier bomber, called the Avro Manchester, boasted two Rolls Royce Vulture engines which basically failed, forcing the engineers back to the drawing board. Roe & Company Ltd, a company set up more than three decades earlier by Manchester brothers Humphrey and Edwin Alliott Verdon-Roe. The Lancaster was born of a failed attempt to create a heavy bomber in 1936 by A.V. Unlike the niftier Spitfire fighter aircraft, the Lancaster was not linked with the glory of the Battle of Britain, but was instead the flagship of Bomber Command, and part of Allied operations which ended up killing up to 600 000 on the ground in Germany and 55,573 of Bomber Command airmen. Read more: Fitting send off for 99-year-old Oswaldtwistle war hero who lived 'charmed' lifeĪlso known as the Avro Lancaster, it was a highly effective, durable, flying bombing machine - but its staggering success was to prove contentious even at the time. Here, Lancs Live takes a look here at the history of the iconic yet controversial aircraft which took its name from Lancashire's county town and changed the course of a world war.
LANCASTER BOMBER CREW NAMES ARCHIVE
This was thanks to its sheer strength, which meant Britain could suddenly strike back at the heart of Nazi Germany after the sustained bombing of British cities.Ī new documentary film, ‘Lancaster,’ examines the heart-rending stories of the few remaining souls who flew in her, with moving testimonials and remastered archive and aerial footage.
The Lancaster bomber was something of a game changer when it arrived in early 1942, fast becoming Britain’s main heavy bomber until the end of the war. It was named after Lancashire’s county town - and dubbed ‘the single greatest factor in winning the Second World War.’
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