Inside a Lancaster bomber

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Wacky Racer

Original Poster:

38,919 posts

253 months

Monday 13th November 2023
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Fascinating video.


Riley Blue

21,558 posts

232 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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Thanks, I enjoyed watching that and learned a lot.

Jimbo.

4,022 posts

195 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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Lovely stuff, thank you!

What gets me.

“Right lads, you’re to clamber into this tight, cramped aircraft loaded with highly volatile fuel and high explosives, fly at 25,000ft and 240mph, in -20 degrees, at night, for 1000 miles, over a heavily armed, rather angry nation who can see you coming, and then antagonise them further by dropping said bombs on them and setting fire to their homes. And then you have to do it a further 29 times before you’re allowed to call it a day. Oh, and by the way, half of you will die.”

“Ok”

Something else, them lot.

louiechevy

668 posts

199 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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A friend of mines great uncle was a mid upper gunner in Lancasters from just after D-day until the end of the war, when I meet him he showed me his log book and on a day light raid over Essen he had written FLACK windscreen blown in. I said what happened over Essen he told me flack burst in front of the aircraft blowing the cockpit windscreen in the aircraft went into a spin and it took the pilot ten thousand feet to recover it.

He then paused for a moment probably thinking the massive loss in altitude reflected badly on the pilot and said "mind you he had been wounded" Absolutely amazing man and refused to belive he was anything out of the ordinary.

williamp

19,525 posts

279 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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Ive just finiched reading a book about the nignt fighter battle, from the germans point of view.

They found they coulnt really catch the mosquito, which only had a crew of 2 and coukd carry almost as much payload. The RAF losses woukd have less if they had used them more.

Simpo Two

86,911 posts

271 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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williamp said:
Ive just finiched reading a book about the nignt fighter battle, from the germans point of view.

They found they coulnt really catch the mosquito, which only had a crew of 2 and coukd carry almost as much payload. The RAF losses woukd have less if they had used them more.
It's an interesting thought - do you send 100 Lancs or 200 Mosquitoes? The number of engines is the same, but 700 men vs 400. There will be a reason, no doubt.

Wacky Racer

Original Poster:

38,919 posts

253 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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Another interesting watch:-



22 years old....Unbelievable.

MDJ

149 posts

178 months

Tuesday 14th November 2023
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Great video, thanks. My Grandfather was a navigator on the Lancaster. One of the lucky ones to come out the other side unscathed.

Yertis

18,591 posts

272 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Simpo Two said:
It's an interesting thought - do you send 100 Lancs or 200 Mosquitoes? The number of engines is the same, but 700 men vs 400. There will be a reason, no doubt.
Probably something as simple as logistics. The Mosquito came along after the RAF and industry had geared up for heavy bombers, industry was scaled to build big things from aluminium rather than small things from wood, etc. Also you'd need twice the number of pilots and navigators. And ground crews, maybe. Also I'm not sure whether the Mosquito carried half the weight of bombs as say a Lancaster for a given range, or less than that? And of course the Mosquito couldn't carry the heaviest bombs, even if these were a bit of a rarity.

But it's an interesting question. Alongside 'could we have managed with just Spitfires?' instead of Spitfire/Hurricane/Whirlwind/Typhoon/Tempest. Possibly we could have done the job just with lots of Spitfires, Whirlwinds and Mosquitos.

wisbech

3,068 posts

127 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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That's the Perth Aviation Museum, they do a internal guided tour of the aircraft (not cheap mind) if you book in advance.

Eric Mc

122,789 posts

271 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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A lot of the reason for having multiple types doing similar roles was "insurance" - in case production difficulties arose (and they did) or factories were put out of action by enemy bombing (which also happened). That's why both the Spitfire and Hurricane were ordered. It's also why we had three bombers for each Air Min requirement - Wellington, Hampden, Whitley - and later Stirling, Halifax, Lancaster.

There was also duplicaction or triplication of engine manufacturers for the same reason - Merlin, Hercules - Griffon, Sabre etc.

And even with that, American types were also acquired. Even some British aircraft were fitted with American engines.

Panamax

4,982 posts

40 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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williamp said:
They found they couldn't really catch the mosquito, which only had a crew of 2 and could carry almost as much payload. The RAF losses would have been less if they had used them more.
Mosquito bomb load - 4,000 lb
Lancaster bomb load - 14,000 lb

You'd need to build four times as many aircraft and twice as many engines to drop the same amount of bombs.

5 In a Row

1,614 posts

233 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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williamp said:
Ive just finiched reading a book about the nignt fighter battle, from the germans point of view.

I'm halfway through reading 'The Crew', following a Lancaster crew through their tour.

Burrow01

1,860 posts

198 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Panamax said:
williamp said:
They found they couldn't really catch the mosquito, which only had a crew of 2 and could carry almost as much payload. The RAF losses would have been less if they had used them more.
Mosquito bomb load - 4,000 lb
Lancaster bomb load - 14,000 lb

You'd need to build four times as many aircraft and twice as many engines to drop the same amount of bombs.
But the Mosquito was twice as fast, and so could maybe have done two raids a night

Yertis

18,591 posts

272 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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And you’d not be losing as many.

But then Jerry might have got his arse into gear and developed and built the Uhu properly.

Riley Blue

21,558 posts

232 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Wacky Racer said:
Another interesting watch:-



22 years old....Unbelievable.
Incredible statistics: life expectancy of a Lancaster = 40 flying hours, in one night 94 Lancs were lost.

Narcisus

8,232 posts

286 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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I spent a good hour in the City of Lincoln when I was 15 it was a great experience.

Simpo Two

86,911 posts

271 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Burrow01 said:
Panamax said:
williamp said:
They found they couldn't really catch the mosquito, which only had a crew of 2 and could carry almost as much payload. The RAF losses would have been less if they had used them more.
Mosquito bomb load - 4,000 lb
Lancaster bomb load - 14,000 lb

You'd need to build four times as many aircraft and twice as many engines to drop the same amount of bombs.
But the Mosquito was twice as fast, and so could maybe have done two raids a night
So not only did it not have 'almost as much payload', it wasn't twice as fast. Good luck getting to Berlin and back, refuelling, rearming, bombing up then doing it again before daylight...

832ark

1,235 posts

162 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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MDJ said:
Great video, thanks. My Grandfather was a navigator on the Lancaster. One of the lucky ones to come out the other side unscathed.
Same here

dr_gn

16,379 posts

190 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
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Narcisus said:
I spent a good hour in the City of Lincoln when I was 15 it was a great experience.
Out of interest, how?

In the early ‘80’s (I’d be about 12), we went to a Coningsby airshow. We hung around after it had finished, and my Dad noticed a queue of people around the Lancaster. Turned out it was some family members of the display crew, and a few other interested random people. We joined the queue, and, like you, spent the best part of an hour climbing inside it, from one end to the other, trying out all the seats, gun turrets, the lot. What I remember most was getting vertigo while lying down in the nose, looking down through the flat bomb aimers window.

The more I think about that experience, the more I wonder what the chances of it happening today would be (zero). Every time I see the BBMF Lancaster, I think “I’ve been in that!”.