Inside a Lancaster bomber
Discussion
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.
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.
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.
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 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.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 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.
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.
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.
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 lbLancaster 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.
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 lbLancaster 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.
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 lbLancaster 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.
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!”.
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