Battle Stations
Avro
Lancaster
Crew 7
Engines 4 x 1,460hp in-line Rolls Royce Merlins
Maximum speed 270mph at 20,000ft/6,100m
Service ceiling 20,000ft/6,100m
Range (with 14,000lb/6,350kg bomb load) 1,660 miles
Defensive armament 8 x .303 machine-guns
The Lancaster was the RAF's best heavy bomber of World War II, developed from the unsuccessful twin-engine Avro Manchester. The four-engined Lancaster came into service early in 1942, with 44 Squadron at Waddington in Lincolnshire, fitted with Rolls Royce Merlin engines and the newly developed Mark XIV bombsight.
The Lancaster first came to the attention of the German air force in a daylight raid on the MAN plant in Augsburg on 17 April 1942. From then until the end of the war, Lancasters flew 156,000 sorties in Europe and dropped 608,612 tons of bombs. They also laid a large number of sea mines, one of their least glamorous but most effective activities during the war.
Total production was 7,377, including 430 in Canada. Originally designed to carry the 4,000lb/1,800kg bomb, the adaptable Lancaster was later equipped to carry an 8,000lb/3,600kg bomb, then the 12,000lb/5,400kg ballistic bomb and finally the 22,000lb/10,000kg Earthquake bomb, for which the radar 'blister' under the fuselage had to be removed. The most common bomb load was incendiaries, plus a 4,000lb/1,800kg 'cookie'.
The Lancasters of 617 Squadron – of 'Dambusters' fame – were equipped to spin and release the bouncing bomb designed by Barnes Wallis to breach the Ruhr dams. The Mark VI had high-altitude Merlins and four-blade propellers and, with turrets removed, served with 635 Squadron and 100 Group as a countermeasures and radar spoof carrier. Other marks served as photo-reconnaissance, maritime reconnaissance and air/sea rescue aircraft, the last leaving front-line RAF service in 1954.
Lancasters dropped 132 long tons of bombs for each aircraft lost, compared with 86 for the Halifax and 41 for the Stirling four-engined bombers. They carried a heavier load of bigger bombs than any other aircraft in the European theatre.
On 15 September 1944, a 12,000lb/5,400kg armour-piercing (AP) Tallboy bomb was used to sink the battleship Tirpitz, and in March 1945, a 22,000lb/10,000kg Grand Slam bomb demolished the Bielefeld Viaduct in Germany. Around the Normandy town of Caen in the summer of 1944, Lancasters were used en masse in a battlefield close-support role, and they finished the conflict dropping badly needed supplies to starving European civilians.
During the course of the war, 3,345 Lancasters were reported missing.
