Hi All Sorry ive not posted in a very long time!! some upto date images of the model build, The fuslage is now just about complete just some smale details to add, this will be going down to the 49 Sqd Asoociation reunion in a couple of weeks. To all the photo's http://photobucket.com/Model_Lancaster
Lee/Harry Many thanks for the futher information, I am sure I read somewhere that the original planes in the film came from the French Maritime Squadrons as they were the only lancs still flying. I was always told they were modified Lincolns. Just seen your post.However,I am on detachment at the moment and unable to reference the real gen on the film Lancasters.However they were genuine and probably would have been destined for Tiger Force had Japan not surrendered.As it was they were delivered to the RAF in the summer of 1945 and went straight to the MU at Aston Down where as far as I know,they remained until requisitioned for the film.The aircraft had not been fitted with H2S and from this point were ideal to be made up as "Specials".At the time of filming, the weapon had not been declassified so for the film, a plywood pod was made up and turned out nothing like the barrel appearance of the real thing.Barnes Wallis who was in attendance for the film, obviously was aware of the real thing but since the weapon was not declassified had to keep the secret. What I remember about them was that they had a very large yellow survival chest fitted between the mid upper and the rear entrance on the port side.I have seen a survival chest section,said to be from a Lancaster at the Moreton in the Marsh Aviation Museum (and a very good museum to visit) but the post war Lancaster equipment in these aircraft was much larger. Incidentally a year after the film was completed these Lancasters were struck off charge and wrecked for scrap.They had earned their keep and had earned the Air Ministry £100.000 per hour whilst filming in the air. Interesting information regarding the crews.Gibson was not happy with early returns especially with a bombload.There is more regarding his attitude, if one cares to read deeper.
Dom It looks great, will it eventually fly or is it a static? Hi Oldman No hopefully she will fly! i'm still working on the wings at the moment and a friend is looking at building the landing gear for me. due to other comitments the finances are a little streatched at the moment to invest in the motors .... Trip to Germany in Aug to we hope finally locate the crash-site of ED702 and recover what remains. Dom
Harry Many thanks for your informed reply it has given me the correct information as to the aircraft used.
The model at Petwood Hotel for the 49 Squadron Reunion. (F/Lt) Eric Clark with the model Just sorting the rest of the photo's out more in my photobucket soon.
Found this wonderful tread having totally missed it first time around. it "it flew under my radar screen" - thank you gents I have really enjoyed it . Strange how contacts can be made and information on our collective pasts exchanged , Lee these small parts of Sgt Green's service have found a safe home with an appreciative owner. Sgt. Green I just rechecked the date on Sgt Green's headstone , my uncle flew this Mannheim raid as their second op. - conned over the target they had to fight off two attacks from a JU-88, six days later they too were gone.
The model at Petwood Hotel for the 49 Squadron Reunion. (F/Lt) Eric Clark with the model Just sorting the rest of the photo's out more in my photobucket soon. Marvellous Don! A great photo.
Found this wonderful tread having totally missed it first time around. it "it flew under my radar screen" - thank you gents I have really enjoyed it . Strange how contacts can be made and information on our collective pasts exchanged , Lee these small parts of Sgt Green's service have found a safe home with an appreciative owner. Sgt. Green I just rechecked the date on Sgt Green's headstone , my uncle flew this Mannheim raid as their second op. - conned over the target they had to fight off two attacks from a JU-88, six days later they too were gone. James, it never ceases to amaze me how the internet makes the world smaller and brings people together. I can't imagine ever finding out about the sterling work Don has been doing to remember the crew and searching for their crash site without the internet. Lee
Hi All I started this research back in 1987!!.. with a few years off inbetween But if it was'nt for the internet I would not have got a quater of the information I have collected from Germany or here in the UK in the last 2.5 years, A very big thanks has to go to Uwe Benkel and his team Flugzeugabstuerze-saarland in Germany who located the posible site of ED702 last year, I will be back in Germany in August for two crash sites, this one of ED702 as we now believe we have located the correct site details will be on my web site after we have been and checked it fully. Sadly the same situation is rife in Germany as here of so called “metal detectorsist” who think nothing of clearing a site to sell what they find for financial gain. And that of ED427 another 49 Sqd aircraft lost in April 1943, Here it is possible the crew may still be on board. With the Forums like this one the swapping & the sharing of data has made the search work so much simpler, and lot less taxing on the old grey cells 49 Sqd Reunion Photo's Dom & Lee its Dom not Don :p:biggrin:
I woulld like to contact Dom Howards in regard to the book i am writing for the 70th Annivesary of the Dams raid in 2013, I have written other books on the Dambusters including The Men Who Breached The Dams. Alan Cooper RAF Historian.
I woulld like to contact Dom Howards in regard to the book i am writing for the 70th Annivesary of the Dams raid in 2013, I have written other books on the Dambusters including The Men Who Breached The Dams. Alan Cooper RAF Historian. Hi Alan, We did a lot of work on this forum attempting to trace the death dates and burial places of the Dambusters who survived the raids and the war and tracked down a few however I got bogged down with my own project and a few other interests. Would you have any details to share? Cheers Geoff
Its appropriate to add that it is now 70 years since the Lancaster was being worked up for operations over enemy territory,No 44 Squadron at Waddington being the first unit to receive the aircraft.Its first batch,L 7537;L7538 and L7541 were delivered on Christmas Eve and before the year was out,the whole output from Avros was allocated to No 44 Squadron,making 24 Lancasters on charge. The squadron's 22 Hampdens were then reissued to the newly formed No 420 (RCAF) Squadron also at Waddington as Bomber Command expanded. No 44 Squadron first operation was planned against the Tirpitz on 25 January 1942,not that it was a raid against the battleship but a task to drop mines at the mouth of the Norwegian fiord where the battleship was said to be located.The operation would be from RAF Wick but bad weather caused the operation to be scrubbed.The next operation was called on 23 February,again another mining operation which was scrubbed with the squadron ready to go and mined up for 2 days. The third attempt for air operations occurred on 3 March 1942 when they put up four aircraft,L 7546, flown by W/C Nettleton;L7547;L7566 and L7549 on a trip,again a mining operation,to the German Bight,focussed on the Heligoland naval base. The first bombing operation by a Lancaster was carried out against Cologne on the night of 13 March 1942.A single Lancaster from 44 took part to support this operation consisting of 61 Wellingtons,13 Hampdens,10 Stirlings,10 Manchesters and 9 Halifaxes. Lancaster production was then turned to equip No 97 Squadron at Coningsby and the squadron converted from the Manchester,receiving its first Lancaster on 14 January 1942.Its first operation had to wait until 20 March 1942,again a mining operation to the Dutch Frisian Islands when they put up six aircraft.All returned safely,albeit to a number of airfields with one crew reporting that they had machine gunned a party of German soldiers on Ameland. The next squadron destined to convert to the Lancaster was No 207 Squadron which converted from the Hampden at Bottesford starting in March 1942. So the Lancaster entered squadron service with a few attended design snags which were resolved in the early days. In its development from the Manchester,in June 1941,the aircraft was announced to the RAF "as a variant of the Manchester Mark 1".I would think that nobody knew how successful the aircraft would turn out.It was a question of being tried and tested in operational service. Working up to a peak in Bomber Command,the command could boast of a peak strength of 58 front line squadrons, returning meritorious service with the RAF against the German homeland and its war economy.
Very interesting topic last year we went to East Kirkby Air Museum i have uploaded some pictures that we took you might find relate to this topic. Alan
