On 12 November 1944, Avro Lancaster bombers of RAF squadrons 9 and 617 flying from Lossiemouth and Milltown rendezvoused over Akkajaure and began their approach to destroy the German battleship Tirpitz.
Notable displays on the Western side include a complete and particularly historic Lancaster bomber known as G for George, a Japanese Ko-hyoteki class midget submarine sunk during a raid on Sydney Harbour in 1942, rare German aircraft such as the Me 262 and Me 163, and a restored Japanese A6M Zero, that was flown in combat over New Guinea.
Birchwood used to hold an old airfield from World War Two, RAF Skellingthorpe, which hosted No. 50 Squadron and No. 61 Squadron, both of which were bomber squadrons, equipped with such planes as the Avro Lancaster.
During World War II a factory was built in the disused quarry to make tyres for Avro Lancaster Bomber.
On 17 December 1942 a returning Lancaster bomber was caught up in a raid and shot down in error by the Bofors gunners at Warrenby.
The church contains a memorial to a No. 49 Squadron RAF Avro Lancaster that crashed near the village on 26 November 1944.
In 1951, an Avro Lancaster crashed on Beinn Eighe, a mountain near Slioch on the opposite shore of Loch Maree.
Unfortunately, flak jackets proved to be too bulky for wear within the confines of the RAF's standard bomber aircraft, the Avro Lancaster.
This panel arrangement was incorporated into every RAF aircraft, from the light single engined Tiger Moth trainer, to the 4-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, and minimized the type-conversion difficulties associated with Blind Flying, since a pilot trained on one aircraft could quickly become accustomed to any other if the instruments were identical.
In the early hours of 18 June 1944, Avro Lancaster HK559 of 115 Squadron RAF was shot down near the station on the eastern edge of Gannes, killing all seven crew, who were buried in the village cemetery.
Nine Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster heavy bombers from 106 Squadron were dispatched against her, each one carrying a single "Capital Ship" bomb, a 5,500 lb device with a shaped charge warhead intended for armored targets.
Coincidentally, the type of aircraft that was used to complete the mapping program was the Avro Lancaster, a World War II heavy bomber which had been converted for mapping.
During preparations for the Normandy invasion (Operation Overlord), 346 British Avro Lancasters and 14 de Havilland Mosquitoes of RAF Bomber Command attacked the German military camp situated near the village of Mailly-le-Camp.
However Tromsø was at the limits of the range of an Avro Lancaster bomber carrying a Tallboy.
By this time the "Dambusters" squadron were an elite precision bombing force using Avro Lancasters equipped with the Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight and Tallboy bombs.
In February 1943, a Lancaster bomber hit the cable of a barrage balloon and crashed without survivors on the return from a raid on the U-boat pens at Lorient.
The wartime Avro Lancaster was adapted without great upheaval for anti-submarine and search and rescue duties and RAF Kinloss changed from a bomber training unit, to a Coastal Command base training maritime aircrew.
After pilot training he was sent to Britain and attached to the RAF in which he flew Lancaster bombers with 218 Squadron.
On the night of August 25, the British RAF sent 116 Lancasters into Russelsheim in order to attack the Opel Plant on a bombing mission, dropping 674 2,000-lb bombs and more than 400,000 incendiaries on the city, destroying the plant and damaging the railtracks, more by far any previous air raid in World War II.
Born in 1921 in Surrey, he had been an RAF pilot, flying Lancaster bombers during the Second World War, leaving the RAF in 1946, when he took up accountancy.
First run in 1951 the engine was flight tested during 1953 using an Avro Lancaster provided by Air Service Training, the engine being installed underneath in a nacelle faired-in to the Lancaster's bomb bay.
The topographical similarity between the Upper Derwent Valley and the Ruhr Valley of Germany led to the dams being used as a practice environment for the Lancaster bombers of the 617 Dam Busters Squadron in 1943 before their attack on the Ruhr dams.
Although originally designated to produce the Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber, the Malton plant received a contract on 18 September 1941 to build the Avro Lancaster Mk X heavy bomber.
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Initially the major wartime contract to manufacture Avro Lancaster heavy bombers was to go to the National Steel Car Ltd. headquartered in Hamilton, utilizing the Malton, Ontario factory (near today's Toronto Pearson International Airport).
On 15 September, after repairs, 27 Avro Lancasters flew with Barnes Wallis' 5-tonne Tallboy bombs and experimental 500-pound "Johnny Walker" underwater "walking" mines.
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Thirty-eight Avro Lancasters of 617 and 9 Squadrons, two Liberator transports and a weather reconnaissance Mosquito set off for Yagodnik on the night of 10 September 1944.
Avro had a factory next to Yeadon Aerodrome from 1938 to 1946 which produced many of the company's wartime planes, including the Lancaster, Lincoln, York and Anson.
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He was posted to No. 622 Squadron RAF at RAF Mildenhall in 1945, flying Lancaster bombers, and took part in 16 bombing raids, as well as Operations Manna (delivering food parcels to the Netherlands), Exodus (bringing home British prisoners of war), Baedecker, and Dodge Bari.
As the crew board the Lancaster the large 4,000 lb "cookie" bomb that is part of the bomber's load, slips from the bomb shackles and injures one of the crew.
Adder was flight tested in the rear-turret position of the Avro Lancaster III SW342, the aircraft also having been previously modified and used for icing trials of the Mamba by Armstrong Siddeley's Flight Test Department at Bitteswell.
The long-range Coastal Command Mk VII variants were among the last to see front line service, with the first kill attributed to them being the sinking of the German U-boat U-751, on 17 July 1942 in combination with a Lancaster heavy bomber.
Fighters from Bardufoss also had the task of providing aerial support for naval operations in the area, but failed to scramble in time to prevent the battleship Tirpitz from being sunk by Avro Lancaster bombers at Håkøya near Tromsø.
At this stage of the war RAF Bomber Command only had a regular front line strength of around 400 aircraft, and were in the process of transitioning from the twin engined medium bombers of the pre-war years to the newer more effective four-engined 'heavies' such as the Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster.
On the night of 23/24 September 1943 Darmstadt was bombed by 21 Avro Lancasters and 8 De Havilland Mosquitos of No. 8 Group RAF.
The base is part of Britain’s heritage, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight formed in 1957 to commemorate the Royal Air Force's major battle honours, with a Lancaster, five Spitfires, two Hurricanes and a Dakota.
Therefore, German bombers were smaller than their British equivalents, and Germany never developed a fully successful four engined heavy bomber equivalent to the Lancaster or B-17, with only the similarly sized Heinkel He 177 placed into production and made operational for such duties with the Luftwaffe in the later war years.
G for George is an Avro Lancaster Mk.I bomber, squadron code AR-G and serial number W4783, operated by No. 460 Squadron RAAF during World War II.
Bigalk died on 17 July 1942 when U-751 was sunk with all hands by depth charges dropped by a Whitley bomber from No. 502 Squadron RAF and a Lancaster bomber from No. 61 Squadron RAF in the North Atlantic north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain.
The Manchester, like the A-series Greif (with its coupled DB 606s and 610s) had depended on two very powerful but in practice troublesome 24-cylinder powerplants, the British Rolls-Royce Vulture, but by 1941 had been redesigned with four Rolls-Royce Merlins, as the Avro Lancaster.
Among them was a Royal Air Force (RAF) Avro Lancaster from No. 57 Squadron piloted by Pilot Officer Jan Bernand Marinus Haye on a mission to bomb the Škoda Works at Plzeň.
Thus on 17 April 1942 Squadron Leader Nettleton was the leader of one formation of six Avro Lancaster bombers on a daylight attack on a diesel engine factory at Augsburg, near Munich Germany flying Lancaster Mk I, R5508, coded "KM-B" .
On 15 April 1946, No. 214 Squadron RAF at Fayid was renumbered No. 37 which flew Avro Lancaster bombers until it was disbanded again on 1 April 1947.
Squadrons based here include: 76 Squadron, which flew Halifaxes, 78 Squadron, which flew Whitleys, 419 Squadron RCAF, which flew Wellingtons, Halifaxes, and Lancasters, 420 Squadron RCAF, which flew Wellingtons, and 428 Squadron RCAF, which flew Wellingtons, Halifaxes, and Lancasters.
Various testing took place at Staverton, including a plan for Lancasters to tow Spitfires from their airfields to targets such as Tokyo.
Along with his navigator, Calvert was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in October 1942 for his part in several combat missions over hostile territory including the 94-bomber raid on the Le Creusot armament factory, whilst flying both Manchesters and Lancasters.
Avro Lancaster (introduced 1942) – heavy bomber; 4-gun Nash & Thompson tail turrets: some late-war aircraft received Village Inn automatic radar aiming and others were fitted with a Rose turret.
Towards the end of World War II an airbase was set up outside the village at RAF Wratting Common, and part of No. 195 Squadron RAF was based there flying Avro Lancasters.