Another Lancaster

[Dave Smith]

Some of you guys liked the photos of S for Sugar so it's a good excuse to put up this photo of a Coastal Command Lanc, taken at Kinloss, NE Scotland around 1951. It belonged to No 236 Operational Conversion Unit and was in the standard white with dark grey upper surfaces.

[daveymac82c]

What a nice looking machine.

You wouldn't happen to know the what the purpose of those pieces extending from the tailgunner position are? Just curious.

Cheers,

David McIntosh

[Asterperious]

I think the chute was used to dispense flares.

[Robbo]

And here's another old friend, NX611 at East Kirkby

[JDK]

Great pics both. Davey, your homework ( ) is to gen up on RCAF Bomber Command. An area you want to explore, as it was one of Canada's greatest areas of loss, and one of the greatest contributions to the war by the country. The controversy started by the CBC programme 'Death by Moonlight' is an area of historical interpratation you've really got to be familiar with, I'd suggest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Valour_and_the_Horror

You wouldn't happen to know the what the purpose of those pieces extending from the tailgunner position are? Just curious.

In this case, maybe flares (although the standard Lanc had a fuselage flare chute, IIRC). However there was a similar positioned lump which was a radar gun-laying aid for Lancasters enabling directed for use in inclement conditions. This in 1945...

[Second Air Force]

JDK

Do you know if the radar directed tail gun on the Lancaster was similar to the APG-15 used on the 315th Wing B-29B at the end of the war? Since the British shared much of their radar technology with the U.S. it would be interesting if the tail gun radars shared a common scientific origin.

That is a cool paint scheme for a Lanc, Dave S.--did Coastal Command use any Lancasters for patrol duty during the war, or did they primarily rely on the Sunderland and Liberator?

Scott

[Swiss Mustangs]

this French Navy Lancaster has the same installation in the tail.... so I assume it's a Naval thingy...



Martin

[JDK]

Do you know if the radar directed tail gun on the Lancaster was similar to the APG-15 used on the 315th Wing B-29B at the end of the war? Since the British shared much of their radar technology with the U.S. it would be interesting if the tail gun radars shared a common scientific origin.

I don't know, I'd need to check. Watch this space...

In the meantime, yes, broadly, I suspect.

That is a cool paint scheme for a Lanc, Dave S.--did Coastal Command use any Lancasters for patrol duty during the war, or did they primarily rely on the Sunderland and Liberator?

IIRC, no they didn't in wartime. The Halifax was the main British 'heavy' used in Coastal Command, as well as dedicated types and bombing failures, such as the Warwick, B-17C, etc...

[Asterperious]

JDK

Do you know if the radar directed tail gun on the Lancaster was similar to the APG-15 used on the 315th Wing B-29B at the end of the war? Since the British shared much of their radar technology with the U.S. it would be interesting if the tail gun radars shared a common scientific origin.

That is a cool paint scheme for a Lanc, Dave S.--did Coastal Command use any Lancasters for patrol duty during the war, or did they primarily rely on the Sunderland and Liberator?

Scott

They did, I know a former RAF Air Gunner who was on squadron very late in the war in Europe, 585 Sqdn if memory serves, and they had begun experimenting with the APG-15 turrets with twin .50s in them for their expected deploment to the Pacific. He did three ops in the turret before the war ended. One of the big concerns was beefing up the mounting ring as teh recoil form teh fifties was significantly more thna the 4 0.303s they were acustom to.

[FITD]

The installation on the tail end of the Lancaster, based on WU-16, is for an external camera. It appears also to have been used on RAF Lancaster ASR 111 variants.

FITD

[mustangdriver]

And here's another old friend, NX611 at East Kirkby

THat is a beautiful picture.