Second World War s s, 1942. Pigeons were customarily carried aboard Lancasters as a means of communications in the event of a crash, ditching or radio failure. During early 1942,
No. 44 Squadron, based at
RAF Waddington,
Lincolnshire, became the first RAF squadron to convert to the Lancaster; it was quickly followed by
No. 97 Squadron, which was also based at Waddington. On 2 March 1942, the first operational mission of the Lancaster, deploying naval mines in the vicinity of
Heligoland Bight, was performed by aircraft of No. 44 Sqn; a planned mission against the had been rescheduled due to poor weather conditions. On 10 March 1942, the type's first bombing mission was conducted over the German city of
Essen,
North Rhine-Westphalia. All Lancasters were temporarily grounded after a crash on 20 March in
Boston, Lincolnshire; this was lifted after each aircraft had been inspected for signs of buckling on the upper wing surface. Due to the high loss rates typically involved in such operations, daytime bombing missions were performed sparingly until the Allies had achieved a level of
aerial supremacy over the
Axis powers. The attack revealed the existence of the Lancaster to both Germany and the British public alike. On 27 April, an unsuccessful small-scale attack on the
Tirpitz was performed by Lancasters of both No. 44 and No. 97 Squadrons. On the night of 30/31 May 1942, the Lancaster participated in
Operation Millenium, the first 1,000 bomber raid against the German city of
Cologne. Additional large-scale raids were performed against
Emden between 19 and 23 June, and against
Bremen between 25 and 29 June, the latter reportedly dealing considerable damage to the
Focke-Wulf aircraft works. The tempo of Lancaster operations rose to a new height in August 1942, major raids were flown against targets in the
Ruhr,
Duisburg, and in the
Baltic Sea. An emphasis was placed upon aiding the
Battle of the Atlantic by hindering the
German Navy. Often, when the weather was deemed to be unsuitable for bombing missions, night-time mine-laying operations were flown instead. A major improvement to night-time bombing came with the implementation of the
Pathfinder Force (PFF) in August 1942, multiple squadrons were transferred from Bomber Command groups to constitute the new unit. These pathfinders were tasked with flying ahead of bomber formations to locate and mark targets using
Target Indicator flares to improve the accuracy of strikes by the following aircraft. Early PFF operations produced mixed results, but did prove decisive on 27/28 August against
Kassel and the three factories of the
Henschel aircraft company in the city. That same night, 12 Lancasters of No. 106 Squadron flew to
Gdynia, armed with newly developed anti-
capital ship bombs, intending to hit the battleships
Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau, as well as the
aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, but did not manage to hit any ships due to a persistent haze. While the Lancaster had been designed to conduct night-time operations, daylight raids were occasionally performed by the type as well. Occasionally, lone Lancasters would be dispatched to perform decoy raids on key manufacturing sites, such as munitions factories, with the intention of being spotted to cause workers to go to air raid shelters, thus disrupting production. In late October 1942, the first Lancaster bombing missions over Italy were performed; on 22 and 23, the cities of
Genoa and
Turin were struck at night-time. On 24 October, the Italian city of
Milan was raided by roughly 60 Lancasters during the daytime; railway infrastructure was a priority target for these attacks. These bombers had been escorted across the Channel by Spitfires before breaking formation to individually fly at low altitude to reach and fly over the
Alps; a total of three were reportedly shot down by enemy fighters. During November, targets in Italy and Germany were alternatively attacked by Lancasters, striking the city of
Osnabrück multiple times, conducting a heavy raid against Turin, and destroying supplies for the
Afrika Korps in Genoa. Only eight bombing missions were conducted during all of December, the most prominent of which being against Duisburg, due to poor prevailing weather conditions. Throughout 1942, the Lancaster remained in relatively short supply; consequently, both training and crew conversion courses typically had to be performed by the squadrons themselves; there were no aircraft furnished with dual controls at this time, and pilots would therefore have to perform their first flight without their instructors being capable of directly acting on the controls themselves. Furthermore, each Lancaster had its own ground crew early on; centralised servicing was introduced later. By the end of the year, a total of 16 operational squadrons had been stood up while around 200 Lancasters were under Bomber Command. The first
radial engined Lancasters were also introduced to service during January, alongside some new bombing aids. On 4 February, 198 Lancasters raided the city of Turin; days later, 466 Lancasters attacked Lorient, and an all-Lancaster force of 142 aircraft attacked Milan on 14 February. On 28 February, 86 Lancasters attacked the occupied French city of
Saint-Nazaire; the next day, 79 Lancasters bombed Berlin. On 5 March, the
Battle of the Ruhr strategic bombing campaign was launched by Bomber Command. The initial attack on Essen comprised 412 bombers, 140 of which were Lancasters. In order to cope with the higher attrition rate from these operations, a three-fold increase in production was enacted. On 15 April, Stuttgart was raided by a large force of Lancasters; on the following day,
Plzeň was similarly struck, although much of the intended attack upon the
Škoda Works was unintentionally directed towards a large asylum instead; other targets that month included Stettin, Duisburg, and the Ruhr. The majority of strategic bombing missions flown during May were also directed towards the Ruhr region. Perhaps the most famous single mission performed by the Lancaster was flown on 16–17 May 1943, codenamed
Operation Chastise, to destroy the dams of the
Ruhr Valley. The operation was carried out by
No. 617 Squadron, which had been formed less than two months prior. They flew modified Lancaster Mk IIIs that were armed with special drum-shaped
bouncing bombs; these had been specially designed by the British engineer
Barnes Wallis; the Lancaster was the only bomber at the time capable of bearing the weapon. The story of the operation was later made into
a book, and subsequently a film,
The Dam Busters. The Ruhr continued to be intensely raided by Bomber Command for months following Operation Chastise with the aim of suppressing the region's industrial output. In June, Lancasters began operating in
North Africa using the tactic of
shuttle bombing from airfields in
Blida and
Maison Blanche. This was a key element of
Operation Bellicose, the bombing of a German
radar factory in the former
Zeppelin Works at
Friedrichshafen and the Italian naval base at
La Spezia. During late July and early August 1943, large numbers of Lancasters participated in the devastating round-the-clock raids on the city of
Hamburg during Air Chief Marshal Harris's
Operation Gomorrah. On the night of 27 July, 787 RAF aircraft, comprising 74
Vickers Wellingtons, 116
Short Stirlings, 244
Handley Page Halifaxes and 353 Avro Lancasters, bombed the city. An estimated 18,474 people died on this night alone, despite many of victims being within
air raid shelters and cellars, as the widespread fires across the city led to
carbon monoxide poisoning. Altogether, 8,621 tons of bombs were dropped on Hamburg by the end of the operation. On the night of 17/18 August,
Operation Hydra was conducted against the
Peenemünde Army Research Center, the site of the
V-2 rocket and other
German guided missiles and munitions; 17 Lancasters were lost in the costly but successful attack, mainly to German night fighters. Five days later, Lancasters struck numerous
chemical works across Germany, including those in Leverkusen and Düsseldorf. On 23 August, a major raid on Berlin was conducted, dropping roughly 1,700 tons of bombs on the city; German night fighters responded, causing a 5.4% loss rate amongst Lancasters, while the Halifax and Stirling bombers suffered 8.8% and 12.9% loss rates respectively. Numerous strikes on the German capital occurred over the following weeks, sometimes by an all-Lancaster force. In September, Hanover was subjected to the most concentrated bombing raid of the war so far. In October, the widespread bombing of numerous German cities took place, targeting Munich, Kassel, Frankfurt, Offenbach, Ludwigshafen, Stuttgart, Friedrichshafen, and Leipzig, along with other targets. By this point, the
Royal Canadian Air Force had stood up its own operational squadrons equipped with Lancasters, and proceeded with offensive action over Germany in this same month. In late 1943, Air Chief Marshal Harris advocated to Churchill for the persistent bombing of Berlin in preference to earlier targets such as the Ruhr. Between 15 November 1943 and 24 November 1944, sixteen major bombing operations were conducted against the German capital in the
Battle of Berlin; of the 9,111 sorties flown, 7,256 had been performed by Lancasters. These raids, while often incurring in costly losses, were typically deemed to have been 'most satisfactory' by senior officials. In March 1944, the Berlin raids were somewhat lessened as a compromise, Bomber Command having been directed to destroy enemy communications and other targets around France and the
Low Countries ahead of the
Normandy landings on
D-Day. During April 1944, key targets in France included railway hubs in Villeneuve,
Rouen, and
Juvisy-sur-Orge. Special operations were flown against specific ammunition depots, munitions factories, and coastal batteries in advance of the Allied invasion. Around this time, Lancasters would also provide direct support to the local operations of field forces. By May, Bomber Command had a daily average operating strength of roughly 1,100 aircraft, 616 of which were Lancasters, 354 were Halifaxes, 72 Mosquitos, and 58 Stirlings; between 300 and 400 bombers were being deployed every night, dependent on weather conditions. In May and June, extensive operations were flown against the fortifications of the
Atlantic Wall. The first combat use of Barnes Wallis'
'Tallboy' bombs occurred around this time. On 14 June, the first large-scale daylight bombing raid since 1942 was conducted using Lancasters against enemy shipping at the harbours of
Le Havre and
Boulogne. These daylight raids quickly became frequent as, due to a shortage of
oil, the Luftwaffe were increasingly incapable of mounting opposition; to further this difficulty for their opponent, Lancasters were directed against numerous oil installations. In conjunction, low-level nighttime bombing raids continued, but the emphasis shifted away from the strategic bombing of German industry in favour of directly attacking military concentrations, such as U-boat pens and
V-1 flying bomb launch sites. During July, in the days following the Normandy landings, Lancasters heavily bombed the city of
Caen repeatedly. On 24 August, eight Tallboys were dropped in a daylight attack on the U-boat pens at
IJmuiden, two direct hits were recorded. Multiple raids on V-1 launch sites and enemy shipping were also performed during August; the partially constructed battleship
Clemenceau was one of the targets that were struck around this time. September saw a heavy focus on airfields in
Holland, as well as repeated raids on German-held
Le Havre and oil targets in the Ruhr. On 17 September, precision strikes were performed on
Boulogne only 200 yards from the Allied lines. Extensive daylight raids were performed during the month; cities such as Cologne, Walcheren, and Bergen were targeted by hundreds of Lancasters. Bomber operations proceeded in both day and nighttime against industrial towns, airfields, communications, and troop concentrations into December; one such operation was flown against the
E-boat pens at
Rotterdam on 29 December. Throughout the latter half of 1944, a series of high-profile bombing missions were performed by the Lancaster against the . Executed by Nos. 617 and 9 Sqns, a combination of Lancaster B.I and B.III bombers were armed with Tallboy bombs and were adapted with enlarged bomb bay doors in order to accommodate their special payloads and additional fuel tanks to provide the necessary endurance. A total of three attacks, individually codenamed
Operation Paravane,
Operation Obviate and
Operation Catechism, were conducted against
Tirpitz, which was anchored in a
fjord in
Occupied Norway. On 1 January 1945, the
Dortmund–Ems Canal was attacked by Lancasters, hitting it at a vulnerable section near Ladbergen. An attack on
Pforzheim on 23 February was described by aviation author Bruce Robertson as amongst the most concentrated and successful flown in the conflict. In the final months of the war, Lancasters were encountering the newly developed
Messerschmitt Me 262, the first German
jet-powered fighter aircraft, sometimes flying in formations of up to 40 aircraft. On 4 November 1944, a Lancaster of 428 squadron was attacked by a Me 262, which was shot down by the rear gunner Ben Rakus. The pilot F.W. Walker noted that this was the first instance of a heavy bomber shooting down a jet. During early 1945, a total of 33 Lancaster B.Is were modified so that they could deploy the
Grand Slam bomb, the heaviest conventional bomb to be used during the conflict. On 13 March 1945, the first operational use of the Grand Slam was performed by a Lancaster of No. 617 Sqn against the
Bielefeld viaduct in
North Rhine-Westphalia; this target had not yet been rendered inoperable despite being damaged by prior conventional bombing. The Tallboy strike successfully destroyed roughly 100 yards of the viaduct's length; additional viaducts, such as at Arnsberg, were promptly targeted by the squadron thereafter. By April 1945, there were in excess of 1,000 Lancasters in frontline service, dwarfing the numbers of Halifaxes and
Mosquitos (a
light bomber) operated by Bomber Command at that time. Key industrial sites, such as the
Auguste Viktoria benzol factory, were struck, while oil installations continued to be a prominent target of bombing raids in the hope of exacerbating the German fuel shortage. Amongst the final wartime operations performed by the Lancaster was the
Bombing of Obersalzberg, aimed at the destruction of
''Eagle's Nest'', the extensive holiday home complex used by German leader
Adolf Hitler. truck, 1944 RAF Lancasters dropped food into the Holland region of the occupied Netherlands, with the acquiescence of the occupying
German forces, to feed people who were in danger of starvation. The mission was named '
Operation Manna' after the food
manna which is said to have miraculously appeared for the
Israelites in the
Book of Exodus. The aircraft involved were from 1, 3, and 8 Groups, and consisted of 145
Mosquitos and 3,156 Lancasters, flying between them a total of 3,298
sorties. The first of the two RAF Lancasters chosen for the test flight was nicknamed "
Bad Penny" from the old expression: "a bad penny always turns up." This bomber, with a crew of seven men (five Canadians including pilot Robert Upcott of
Windsor, Ontario), took off in bad weather on the morning of 29 April 1945 without a ceasefire agreement from the German forces, and successfully dropped its cargo.
Assessment The Lancaster conducted a total of 156,000 sorties and dropped of
bombs between 1942 and 1945. Only 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations and was ultimately retired from service and scrapped in 1947. From 1942 onwards, the Lancaster became the mainstay of the British heavy bomber fleet; by the end of the war in Europe, there were roughly 50 squadrons equipped with the Lancaster, the majority of these being the Lancaster B.I model. as did his adversary,
Arthur "Bomber" Harris, who referred to it as Bomber Command's "shining sword". Goulding and Garbett wrote that: "The achievements of the Lancaster and the men who flew it have been widely acclaimed, and the aircraft has been described as the greatest single factor in winning WWII, an exaggeration but a pardonable one". Together with the new
Avro Lincoln and Liberators, the bombers would have operated from bases on
Okinawa; the envisioned invasion did not happen when such action was made unnecessary by the
surrender of Japan. Using the Lancaster would have required less modification to the aircraft itself, but would have necessitated additional crew training for the USAAF crews. In addition, the Lancaster had a lower ceiling and flew slower so was at risk of the bomb blast. It also had a shorter range. "The B-29 was, therefore, deemed the better bet if it could be modified in time.".
Major General Leslie Groves, the director of the
Manhattan Project, and
General Henry H. Arnold, the Chief of
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), wished to use an American plane if this was at all possible. "Because the use of a British plane would have caused us many difficulties and delays" As a byproduct of its sound design and operational success, various developments and derivatives of the Lancaster were produced for both military and civilian purposes. One of these was the
Avro Lincoln bomber, initially designated Lancaster IV and Lancaster V which became the Lincoln B.1 and B.2 respectively. A civilian airliner was converted from the Lancaster with the addition of nose and tail fairings and seats, as the
Lancastrian and a similar aircraft was derived from the Lincoln as the
Lincolnian. Other developments included the
York, a transport with a much larger square section fuselage, and via the Lincoln, the
Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft which continued in RAF service in that role until replaced by the
Hawker Siddeley Nimrod in the early 1970s, but saw further service as an
airborne early warning (AEW) system until finally retired in 1991. The
Tudor airliner also used the Lincoln wings, but with a new tubular fuselage.
After the war Royal Air Force The Lancaster remained in use for several years after the end of the war, during which a number of high-profile operations were conducted. The Lancaster remained at the forefront of RAF Bomber Command while the Lancaster B.I was gradually replaced by the improved Lancaster B.I (F/E) and B.VII (F/E) models. and it took until December 1953 for the final Bomber Command Lancaster to be retired.
French Aéronavale Avro overhauled 59 Lancaster B.Is and B.VIIs at Woodford and Langar which were delivered to the French
Aéronavale during 1952/53, which were flown until the mid-1960s by four squadrons stationed in France and
New Caledonia in the maritime reconnaissance and search-and-rescue roles.
Argentine Air Force Between 1948 and 1949, 15 former RAF Lancasters were overhauled at Langar for use by the
Argentine Air Force.
Royal Canadian Air Force Beginning in 1946, Lancaster Mk Xs were modified for service with the
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Fourteen were modified to perform aerial and photo-reconnaissance missions; these would go on to perform much of the mapping of northern Canada until as late as 1962. Throughout the 1950s, the RCAF operated seventy modified Lancasters, designated
Lancaster 10MR/MPs, as Maritime Reconnaissance and Patrol aircraft in an anti-submarine role. Modifications involved the installation of radar and sonobuoy operators' positions, removal of the rear and mid-upper gun turrets, installation of a 400-gallon fuel tank in the bomb bay to increase the patrol range, upgraded electronics, radar, and instrumentation, and a cooking stove in the centre section. They served throughout the 1950s, when they were supplemented by the
Lockheed Neptune and finally replaced by the
Canadair Argus.
Transport Immediately following the end of hostilities, the Lancaster was used without any major modifications as a transport aircraft, being used to ferry thousands of
prisoners of war (POWs) back to the British Isles from across the continent. Repatriation flights returning POWs and ordinary troops continued until November 1945. Civil conversions of the type continued during the initial postwar years. In 1946, four Lancasters were converted by Avro at
Bracebridge Heath,
Lincolnshire as freighters for use by
British South American Airways, but proved to be uneconomical, and were withdrawn after a year in service. In addition, four Lancaster IIIs were converted by
Flight Refuelling Limited as two pairs of tanker and receiver aircraft for the development of
in-flight refuelling. In 1947, one aircraft was flown non-stop from London to Bermuda. Later on, these two tanker aircraft were joined by another converted Lancaster; these saw use during the
Berlin Airlift, achieving 757 tanker sorties. From 1943 to 1947, the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service (CGTAS) provided a trans-Atlantic military passenger and postal delivery service using a modified long-distance transport version of the Lancaster Mark X. Nine of these aircraft were produced, referred to as Lancaster XPPs (for Lancaster Mk.X Passenger Planes), and each was equipped with rudimentary passenger facilities. The inaugural flight from Dorval (Montreal) to Prestwick, Scotland on 22 July 1943, was completed non-stop in a record 12:26 hours; the average crossing time was about 13:25 hours. By the end of the war, these aircraft had completed hundreds of trips across the Atlantic. CGTAS ushered in the era of commercial air travel across the North Atlantic, and in 1947 the service became part of
Trans-Canada Air Lines, which carried paying civilian passengers in the Lancaster XPPs until they were replaced by
Douglas DC-4s in 1947. ==Variants==