The Avro Lancaster has its roots back in the mid-1930s. The Air Ministry issued a Specification, P13/36, in September 1936 for a twin-engined bomber, and in response to this, A.V. Roe and Son designed the Avro Type 679 - later to become known as the Manchester. The prototype was ready to fly for the first time on July the 25th 1939, just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, and initial reports were generally favourable, although there were some concerns relating to the lateral stability of the aircraft. The aircraft made it as far as the production stage, and in November 1940 207 Squadron took delivery of the first ones, flying the first operational sortie, to attack shipping at Brest, in February 1941. However, from the outset the Manchester was doomed to failure. The airframe was sound - the problem lay with the engines.
Rolls-Royce was an engine manufacturer of some fame, even, indeed perhaps particularly, in the 1930s. Aside from the luxury end of the car market, in which they had been involved for some years, they also invested vast resources in the performance and endurance end of the aero-engine market - an investment that was to pay great dividends in the dark days of the Bomber War to come. However, even an engine designer and manufacturer as renowned as Rolls-Royce cannot be pefect all of the time, and in the Manchester's power-plant they produced what can realistically only be termed a spectacular failure. The Rolls-Royce Vulture was an engine that was simply ahead of its time. Given the necessary development time, I have no doubt that the Vulture would have become one of the great aero-engines of our time, as synonomous with power, ability, and speed as the Merlin later became. But it was denied this one vital aspect of a performance engine's gestation period, and was rushed into service on the Manchester to help lift Bomber Command's sinking fortunes back in 1940. Essentially, the Vulture was two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines bolted together, one on top of the other, the two "V" type engines essentially producing an "X" type engine. A complicated arrangement by anyone's standards, but when it was destined for an aircraft that was going to be thrown around the sky by flak, pushing to the limits the already huge strain on the wings and airframe bought about by huge payloads of ordnance, it was going to be an unhappy alliance. The coolant pipes, an essential part of any liquid cooled engine (and which on a bomber you might think would be hidden away as much as possible, out of range of enemy flak and gunfire), lay exposed on the underside of the engine. Receive a direct hit on one of those and at best your engine is feathered, at worst you had a fire to deal with. And this was where the Manchester's weakness was vividly exposed. I have heard pilots remark that on two engines it was a constant battle of wits to keep a Manchester in the air, flying straight and level. On one engine it was a battle of wits that even the most skillful pilot would find himself woefully ill-equipped for. Quite simply, the Manchester would not maintain altitude on one engine, and all the pilot could do was get as close back to friendly soil as he could before ordering his crew to bail out. Even Avro themselves had given up all hope of solving the problems with the Vulture, and started to look at ways of improving the Manchester by drastic means.
In July 1940, displaying uncharacteristic foresight, the Air Ministry issued a new specification, B1/39, which called for a four engined bomber capable of carrying 10,000lbs of ordnance to a range of 2,500 miles, and should be capable of cruising at 280mph at 15,000 feet. Roy Chadwick and his team at Avro responded to this Specification with plans for the Avro Type 683 - essentially a modified Manchester with four Rolls-Royce Merlin Mark Xs in place of the troublesome Vultures.
Roy Chadwick saw this Specification as the chance to change the ugly duckling that was the Manchester and turn it into something that he believed would make for a succesful bomber. Chadwick and his design team made a few simple changes to the basic design of the Manchester airframe, which included some modifications to the fueslage and the extension of the wings. From these wings were removed the two troublesome Vulture engines, and in their place four Merlins added. Even this aspect of the development of the Manchester Mk 3, as the new plane had been christened, had more than a small element of the John Bull about it. Told by the Air Ministry that no spare Merlin engines were available for his Avro Type 683 project, Chadwick had to rely on "contacts" he knew at Rolls-Royce in Derby to secure the prime movers for his project. The four Merlin Mk Xs arrived, and were duly married to the modified airframe.
The transformation was beyond remarkable. First flown on January the 9th 1941, the Lancaster , as the new plane was by now known , immediately ingratiated herself with the Avro test pilots. She handled better than any other heavy bomber of the period, and with the four Rolls-Royce Merlins purring away on the wings, she had the power to respond to any demands a pilot might place on her. She would fly happily on three engines. She would get by on two engines. And she would get you home on one. It has been said over the years that it was possible to "roll" the aircraft through 360 degrees, no mean achievment for an aircraft of her size. Two more protypes followed the first one off the production lines , DG595 (the first prototype had been given the serial number BT308), which was fitted with Merlin XX engines, and was built as close to the specifications of the production version as possible, and was to all intents and purposes a standard Mk.I Lancaster. A third prototype (DT810) was also built, fitted with Bristol Hercules Mk.VI radial engines. At the time, it was envisaged that due to the large number of aircraft being powered with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines there may become a shortage of that power plant, and it was thought wise to test the Lancaster with an alternative engine in case the envisaged shortage became reality. This prototype was the precurser of the Lancaster Mk.II, which did go into production and eventually totalled 300 aircraft. An intended fourth prototype was never built, although oddly it was allocated a serial number - DT812.
By the time the third prototype had been built and made its first test flight on November the 26th 1941, the first production Mk.I had already made its first flight, and the first squadron to receive the Lancaster did so shortly afterwards when 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron took delivery of its first three on Christmas Eve 1941. Several more followed shortly after, and the Squadron was the first to use the type on operations when it sent four on a mine laying trip to the Heligoland Approaches. The first loss of a Lancaster on operations followed shortly afterwards, when 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron lost one on a mining trip to Lorient. It is believed to have been the victim of flak, and all the crew lost their lives. However, it was on April the 17th 1942 that the first severe mauling of the Lancaster on operations took place, on a raid that will forever be etched on the minds of those with more than a passing interest in Bomber Command.
Augsburg was a small town 1,000 miles into Southern Germany, and it played host to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nurnberg Aktiengesellschaft (MAN) Diesel engine factory, supplying the U-Boat industry with diesel engines. Up until that point it had not been considered a high priority target for Bomber Command, but Sir Arthur Harris, the newly installed Commander-in-Chief of the Command, wanted to see how accurately the Lancaster could bomb a target in daylight from low level. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon on April the 17th 1942, twelve Lancasters (six each from 44 and 97 Squadrons) took off from Lincolnshire. Despite diversionary raids by other Bomber Command squadrons to draw fighter activity away from the twelve Lancasters, some of them were attacked by the Luftwaffe on their way to the target, and by the time they reached Augsburg, only eight from the original twelve Lancasters remained. A severe mauling from the ground defences followed, although the Lancasters succeeded in "hitting their target", and much damage was done despite the flak claiming three more victims. As the Lancasters landed back at base later on that evening, the full extent of the "blooding" became apparent - only five from the original twelve Lancasters had returned, four from 97 Squadron, and just one, that of Squadron Leader John Nettleton, from 44 Squadron. Squadron Leader Nettleton would receive the Victoria Cross for his leadership of this raid, the first of ten Lancaster crewman to be awarded this highest of decorations, but he would lose his life on a much less hazardous trip to Turin the following year.
As the Spring and Summer wore on, the number of squadrons in Bomber Command equipping with the Lancaster steadily grew, as did the number of Lancasters taking part in raids.The number of Lancasters taking part in a raid first surmounted the 100 figure on July the 31st / August the 1st 1942 when 113 Lancasters contributed their worth toward a Main Force total dispatched of 630 aircraft against Dusseldorf. During the Spring and early Summer of 1943, the number of Lancasters participating in operations was generally around the 200 figure, although 343 made the trip to Dortmund on May the 23rd/24th for a heavy night attack on the target during the "Battle of the Ruhr". Later on in the year, in the opening stages of the "Battle of Berlin", 469 Lancasters, part of a Main Force of 764, attacked the "Big City", and the total number of Lancasters participating in a raid pushed through the 500 barrier in early 1944, when 561 Lancasters went to Berlin in the final stages of the concentrated campaign against the German Capital, during the night of February 15th/16th 1944. However, the record for the total number of Lancasters dispatched on a single raid was still a year away, but when it came, it was during perhaps the most controversial raid of the entire war - Dresden, when 796 Lancasters dropped their share of explosive hardware on the city, part of a Main Force of 805 planes (the other 9 planes were Mosquitoes of Pathfinder Force, who carried out very sucessful target marking on this night), that made the long trip to this East German city that had at one time been considered as an alternative capital to Berlin, had that city been bombed to the point where it would cease to function as an administritive centre.
The last substantial raids of the war both included Lancasters. On April the 25th 1945, two large raids were mounted, 482 aircraft including 158 Lancasters attacked attacked the coastal gun batteries at Wangerooge, whilst 359 Lancasters took part in the raid on "Hitler's Nest" at Berchtesgaden. That night, 107 Lancasters took part in an attack on the oil refinery at Tonsberg, whilst a further 14 Lancasters were minelaying in the Oslo Fjord. These sorties bought to an end the Lancaster's contribution to the war in Europe.
As the war in Europe was drawing toward a close, Lancasters contributed their might, not toward a continued Bombing Campaign, but to a more humanitarian effort. "Operation Manna" was the name given to the Allied food drop over Holland, to bring that country back from the brink of starvation. Lasting from April the 29th 1945 to May the 8th, "Manna" undoubtedly saved the lives of many Dutch people, and to this day they remain grateful. My Grandfather, who flew with 100 Squadron on Lancasters and took part in Operation Manna, remembers flying over the Dutch countryside at quite low level, and on the roof of one of the houses below, a Dutch family had laid out stones in the shape of letters and words - they read "Thank You Tommy". It brings a tear to my eye, how must it have made those Aircrews feel? "Operation Exodus", the repatriation of Allied Prisoners of War from Europe commenced on May the 2nd 1945, once again utilising many Lancasters, and "Operation Dodge" a Prisoner of War repatriation operation from Italy and the Mediterannean, began at the same time, also utilising Lancasters.
However, this was not the end of the road for the Lancaster - indeed they were still in production and the very last one would not come off the production line at Yeadon until December 1945. As soon as the war in Europe ended, thoughts turned to the war in the Pacific. "Tiger Force" was the name given to the 10 Squadrons that would utilise modified Lancaster Mk.Is for the continuing war in the Far East. These Lancasters would only be used as a stop gap until the Lancaster Mk.IV (subsequently renamed the "Lincoln") became available, but even that plan became no more than academic with the dropping of the "A-bombs" on Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the Americans and the subsequent curtailing of the war with Japan. This really marked the end of the Lancaster in a truly offensive role, but it was by no means the end of the Lancaster in RAF service.
Four squadrons served in the Middle East in the immediate post-war years, predominantly during the Suez Crisis, but in 1947 they were also used to help in the prevention of illegal immigration by European Jews, who were trying to get to Palestine by way of the Mediterannean. The Middle East also played host to Photo Reconnaissance and Air Sea Rescue Lancasters, whilst the North of Scotland and Cornwall continued to reverberate to the sound of the Merlin with Air Sea Rescue and General Reconnaissance equipped squadrons serving there until the entry into service of the Lancaster derivitive, the Shackleton. Perhaps remarkably, the Lancaster continued in service with the RAF until October 1956. On the 15th of that month the last one left the School of Maritime Reconnaissance and flew to Wroughton, where she was scrapped. However, this was not quite the end of the Lancaster's association with the RAF, for fate was to intervene eight years later.
PA474 had left the production line at Vickers Armstrong in Chester in 1945, destined to become part of "Tiger Force". Instead, she went to 82 Squadron when Tiger Force was disbanded, and served in Africa on photo surveying duties. Via the civil register and Flight Refuelling Limited, and the Royal College of Aeronautics at Cranfield, PA474 returned to RAF ownership in 1964, and was originally intended to be a part of the RAF Museum at Hendon, then in its planning stages. The Commanding Officer of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron heard of this, and offered to house PA474 in one of his hangars at Waddington, an offer that was accepted. Ultimately passing to the ownership of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in November 1973, she still flies with the Flight today, to the joy of young and old alike. Since 1941, when a Lancaster was first accepted onto RAF charge, there has only been a period of eight years when the RAF have not had a Lancaster "on their books", and with PA474 set to remain airworthy with the Memorial Flight well into the next century, it looks like a partnership that is set to continue. Perhaps it might be pertinent to let Sir Arthur Harris, wartime Commander of Bomber Command and the man who oversaw the introduction of the Lancaster into Squadron service, have the final word:-
"The Lancaster surpassed all other types of heavy bomber. Not only could it take heavier bomb loads, not only was it easier to handle, not only were there fewer accidents with this than with any other type throughout the war, the casualty rate was also considerably below other types. I used the Lancaster alone for those attacks which involved the deepest penetration into Germany and were, consequently, the most dangerous. I would say this to those who placed that shining sword in our hands - Without your genius and efforts we could not have prevailed, for I believe the Lancaster was the greatest single factor in winning the war."
Excerpt from a letter, from Sir Arthur Harris to Sir Roy Dobson of Avro, the company which designed and built the Lancaster.