Four Rolls Royce Merlins

Avro Lancaster, Sunderland international Airshow 2017.....
The RAF BBMF Lancaster, PA474, is currently painted to represent an aircraft which served with No 617 Squadron after the Dams Raid. This is the story of the original aircraft and its wartime pilot and crew.

Some of the specially-modified Type 464 Lancasters, which survived the Dams Raid, remained in service with No 617 Squadron afterwards. However, these aircraft were not suitable for all operations and the Squadron needed replacement, standard Lancasters, as well as replacement crews to make up losses. One of the brand-new aircraft delivered to the unit to meet this need was Lancaster B1 DV385.

Lancaster DV385

Lancaster DV385 was built by Metropolitan-Vickers Ltd at Trafford Park, Manchester, at a stage of the war when the average build time for a Lancaster was 8 weeks. DV385 rolled off the production line in October 1943. It was delivered to No 617 Squadron at RAF Coningsby (by a quirk of fate now the home to the RAF BBMF Lancaster PA474) in November 1943 and given the squadron codes ‘KC-A’. The aircraft was retro-fitted with bulged bomb-bay doors enabling it to carry one of the huge 12,000-lb HC ‘thin-case’ ‘blockbuster’ blast bombs or a 12,000-lb ‘Tallboy’ bomb internally. DV385’s first bombing mission was flown on 16th December 1943; this was the first of four ‘ops’ it flew from Coningsby, three of them captained by Flight Lieutenant Tom O’Shaughnessy to drop 12,000-lb HC bombs against V-weapon sites in France. On 9th January 1944, 617 Squadron moved the few miles north to Woodhall Spa, taking DV385 with them.
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