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Dave Smith
 Post subject: Another Lancaster
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:33 pm 
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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.


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daveymac82c
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:34 pm 
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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.

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David McIntosh
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Asterperious
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:49 pm 
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I think the chute was used to dispense flares.

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Robbo
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:57 pm 
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And here's another old friend, NX611 at East Kirkby

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JDK
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:53 pm 
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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

daveymac82c wrote:
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...

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Second Air Force
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:12 am 
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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
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Swiss Mustangs
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:51 am 
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this French Navy Lancaster has the same installation in the tail.... so I assume it's a Naval thingy...

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JDK
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Second Air Force wrote:
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.

Second Air Force wrote:
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...

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Asterperious
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:09 am 
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Second Air Force wrote:
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.

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FITD
 Post subject: Another Lancaster
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:48 pm 
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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.

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mustangdriver
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:29 pm 
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Robbo wrote:
And here's another old friend, NX611 at East Kirkby

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THat is a beautiful picture.

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