Avro Lancaster

Origin

In 1936, Avro responded to a Royal Air Force (RAF) request for a twin-engined bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Vulture engines. The result was the Manchester, which first flew in July 1939 and entered combat in February 1941. The Vulture engine was unsuccessful, however, and few Manchesters were built.

Avro then suggested a redesigned Manchester to be powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines ― the same engine used in the famous Supermarine Spitfire. (See also Hawker Hurricane.) The new bomber was the Lancaster. In January 1941, it made its first flight; production began, and the Lancaster entered combat in early 1942.

Description

The Lancaster had a wingspan of 31 m and a length of 21 m. Each of its engines provided 1,460 horsepower, which gave it a maximum speed of 450 km/h and a ceiling of 7,500 m. It could carry 6,350 kg of bombs with a range of 2,670 km at 320 km/h.

The Lancaster had a crew of seven: pilot, flight engineer, bomb aimer/front gunner, navigator, wireless operator, mid-upper gunner and rear gunner. The mid-upper gunner and the bomb aimer each controlled two .303-calibre machine guns, while the rear gunner operated four. Later on, on some models, the mid-upper gunner and the rear gunner instead each operated two .50-calibre heavy machine guns.

Canadian Production

In September 1941, it was decided to build Lancasters in Canada. This was a huge task for a country with a small manufacturing base and still recovering from the Great Depression. Victory Aircraft Ltd., a new crown corporation, was established in Malton (see Mississauga), Ontario, in November 1942 to build the bombers.

Drawings arrived in January 1942. In August, a Lancaster flew to Canada to act as the master pattern for production. The Canadian Lancaster, known as the Mk. X, differed from the British version. The engines were American-made Packard Merlins instead of British ones. All instruments and radio equipment were also North American.

The first Canadian Lancaster nicknamed “Ruhr Express,” rolled off the assembly line on 1 August 1943, only a year after the pattern aircraft had arrived. Production in Canada eventually reached an aircraft per day, as the workforce grew from 3,300 to more than 9,500, a quarter of them women. (See also Canadian Women and War.)

A total of 430 Lancasters were built in Canada: 422 bombers and 8 long-distance transport planes. The latter carried mail to service members in Europe and key wartime personnel. On arrival in Britain, the Mk. X bombers were assigned to Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) squadrons in No. 6 Group.

Did you know?
About 100 Canadian Lancasters were lost during the war: 70 went missing in action and another 30 crashed during training or when returning to Britain after a mission. When the war ended in Europe, three RCAF Lancaster squadrons flew ex-prisoners of war back to Britain.

Wartime Service

Nearly all Lancasters were used in the nighttime strategic bombing campaign against targets in Germany and German-occupied Europe. Lancasters usually carried a mixed load of high explosives and small incendiary bombs.

During the strategic bombing campaign, aircrew faced formidable defences in the form of German night fighters and anti-aircraft batteries. They and their aircraft were also subject to other hazards, such as icing, lightning and structural failure.

The resulting loss rate was horrendous and comparable to that of trench warfare on the Western Front during the First World War. Despite the losses, Canadians continued to both volunteer as bomber aircrew and, once their training was completed, fly on bombing missions night after night, knowing the odds were stacked against them.

Lancasters in RCAF Service

Thousands of Canadians flew in RAF Lancaster squadrons; one-third of Bomber Command aircrew were Canadian.

Within the RAF’s Bomber Command, the RCAF formed 6 Group, which grew to 14 squadrons by the end of the war. By late 1944, all but one of them were equipped with various marks of the Lancaster, including seven equipped with Canadian-built ones. When the war ended, 6 Group had flown nearly 41,000 sorties and dropped more than 126,000 tons of bombs at the cost of 814 aircraft lost.

In total, around 10,000 Canadians were killed while serving in bomber squadrons, which includes operational, training and accidental deaths.

Two of the four Victoria Crosses awarded to Canadian airmen during the Second World War were to members of Lancaster crews. Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski was a mid-upper gunner, while Squadron Leader Ian Bazalgette was a pilot. Both men died in the acts that earned them the Victoria Cross.

After Germany’s surrender, some 140 Lancasters were flown to Canada to equip “Tiger Force,” a Commonwealth heavy bomber group to carry the war to Japan. The bombers assembled at the RCAF repair depot in Scoudouc, New Brunswick, but the dropping of two atomic bombs ended the war and Tiger Force was disbanded.

Did you know?
Weather conditions at Scoudouc were not good for airplane storage, so the Lancasters of Tiger Force were flown to recently closed air bases in southern Alberta. Many of the planes were sold for scrap or to farmers for $250 to $350.

After the war, about 230 Lancasters were converted for RCAF use in several different roles. These included maritime reconnaissance and patrol, search and rescue and photographic surveying of northern Canada. Lancasters served with the RCAF until April 1964.

Memorials

While 17 Lancasters survive around the world today, 15 are memorials or museum pieces and only 2 of the thousands built can still fly. One of them is in the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (see also Battle of Britain), while the other is at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at the Hamilton International Airport, ON.

Did you know?
In 1945, a British company purchased Victory Aircraft and created Avro Canada. Its most famous aircraft was the advanced twin-jet supersonic fighter, the CF-105 Arrow. The Arrow was test-flown, but never produced, as the government cancelled it in 1959. (See also Avro CF-100 Canuck.)