460 Squadron - Bomber Command: 1942-45

RAF Bombing Offensive Against Germany...

Drawing of a Lancaster Bomber by Simon W. Atack - A selection of original paintings, prints and original drawings covering WW2 aircraft are available to purchase from sales@simonatack.com or phone 07971 060639.

Amazingly these photos were not taken 70 years ago but this week, at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at the former Lancaster bomber base at RAF East Kirkby.

Probably the most famous allied bomber of World War Two was the Avro Lancaster of Bomber Command. It was born out of the failure of the twin engine Manchester bomber. Avro took the basically sound Manchester airframe and redesigned it to take four Rolls Royce Merlin engines.
Like so many good planes the essence of the Lancaster's success was its simplicity and robust structure. It was also remarkably adaptable as evidenced by its many roles such as the famous Dambuster raid through to the carrying of the 11 ton Grand Slam bomb.

Another highlight of the Lancaster's career was the sinking of the German battleship TIRPITZ on November 12, 1944 in a Norwegian Fjord. For the attack on the TIRPITZ, 31 aircraft from number 617 and number 9 Squadrons took part in the raid. Each aircraft carried a 12,000 pound Tallboy bomb.

Even though the Lancaster proved to be one of the most successful bombers of the war, this success did not guarantee immunity from losses. Of the over 7,300 Lancasters built during the war more than 3,600 were lost on operations. Number 419 Squadron alone lost 129 aircraft, more than fives its normal squadron strength. But more disturbing was the tremendous loss of life, especially in Bomber Command. Of the over 17,000 RCAF casualties during the war, close to 10,000 of the deaths were sustained in squadrons assigned to Bomber Command. Overall, more than 60% of the bomber flight crews did not survive the war.

As seen on PBS stations around the US comes a new "living history" series reliving the early days of World War II. Using a unique blend of living history elements, CGI, first-person interviews and never-before-seen W.W.II footage. This dramatic four-part documentary series "Bomber Boys: The Fighting Lancaster" follows a new generation of "Bomber Boys" as they train to become a Lancaster Bomber crew. Joe English was nineteen when he joined the Air Force. He learned to fly a bomber before he could drive a car. The pilot of a Lancaster known as 'the Lucky H', Joe and six other hardy young men flew thirty combat missions over Germany. Sixty years later, Joe's grandson, Mathew English, will try to walk in his grandfather's footsteps. Matthew is one of seven young volunteers from the U.S., UK Australia and Canada who make up 'Baker Flight." All are descendents of World War Two flight crews, ready to test themselves against the original training regime of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. They're up at dawn, marching and saluting, cleaning and polishing, in classrooms and period planes, struggling to see whether they are the men their grandfathers once were.

Colin and Ewan McGregor fly in an original Lancaster bomber used in WW2 and explore the awesome WW2 fighting force that was Bomber Command.

Lancasters from RAF Hemswell taking off for a raid on Berlin. It is from the film which is actually called Night Bombers and is from the Archive of War series.

Ewan McGregor and his aviator brother Colin tell the story of the RAF's Bomber Command and the men who fought and died in the skies above Europe during World War Two. Ewan and Colin meet a number of key surviving members of Bomber Command and take on a variety of practical challenges. While Colin fulfils his lifetime ambition of flying one of the only two surviving Lancaster Bombers, Ewan learns what it was like being a tail-gunner - perhaps the most lonely and dangerous job of all bomber aircrew.

“The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”

Recording of nightingale birdsong from a garden in Surrey, England on May 19th 1942 as 197 Wellington and Lancaster bombers fly overhead on a bombing raid to Germany. This is genuine video recording byBBC sound engineers who were recording the sound of Nightingales in the Countryside when hundreds of RAF Bombers flew overhead on route to attack Germany. This recording was meant to go live on air at the time but a quick-thinking engineer, realising a live broadcast of the bombers could warn Nazi spies of the impending attack, pulled the plug. 70 years latter the recording finds it way to YouTube. A surreel sound of beauty and terror which was the world at war in 1942.