G for George Lancaster Bomber AWM

Discussion in 'Australian' started by Southaustralian5108, Mar 24, 2012.

  1. Southaustralian5108

    Southaustralian5108 Junior Member

    I was talking to a member of staff who works at restoration and up keep of Artifacts at the Australian War Memorial annex in Mitchell, ACT. One thing has the staff a little puzzled.
    Under the paint of the flags of G George's Bombing missions is found a mystery. I was told that Georges 33rd bombing mission has a most unusual original flag painted for this mission.
    The upper most recent painted flags looked like the Russian flag with hammer and sickle in different configuration. BUT the original flag was a RED rectangle (usual flag size for the missions) with a yellow circle in the center with also an inverted yellow "Y" aka a yellow sign what we would recognize as a yellow peace sign today. From what I can remember of my discussion with this staff member the 33rd mission was Dresden or Cologne???

    The question is - what is the significance of this original painted flag for the mission?????
    :confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:
     
  2. Austin k2y

    Austin k2y Member

    Hi
    the only red triangles i remember for bombing missions was on a Lancaster, using the Bass Brewery Badge, as the mission log.
    regs
    Rupert
     
  3. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    A rectangle, like a flag, not a triangle.

    Could the "upside down Y" possibly be similar to the drawing of "The Saint" (Leslie Charteris)?
    The history of G - George mentions this... A History of "G" for George
    W4783 was delivered to No. 460 (R.A.A.F) Squadron on 27 October 1942, where it became "G" for George. It went on the first of its ninety operations on the night of December 5/6th, 1942 to Mannheim. During its sixteen months of operations, it was flown by 29 different pilots and taking into account the various crews, some 200 different men, mostly Australians, flew in this Lancaster during its 664 flying hours with the Squadron. Several crews completed their tours on this machine. Its first pilot was Flight Sergeant J.A. Saint Smith and alongside the bomb insignia to signify each bombing sortie appeared a Leslie Charteris "Saint" insignia. On the night of January 13/17th George operated against Berlin taking a war correspondent as passenger, and returned with 13 flak holes for him to write about!
    [​IMG]

    EDIT: I'm WRONG!! On further checking this is the "scoreboard" you can see the "Saint" is different, so over to someone who knows what they're talking about.... :( about the 33rd Op...
     

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    Last edited: Mar 22, 2020
  4. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Long shot but it sounds like a non alpha/numeric flag from the naval signals book
     
  5. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    Harry Ree likes this.

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