By the end of 1944, thirteen Lancasters had achieved, or exceeded, one hundred operational sorties. These had been bombing raids carried out over Germany, Italy, France, or laying sea mines off hostile harbours or sea lanes. During January 1945 a further five would join this exclusive club.
Produced as a Mark I by the Armstrong-Whitworth factory at the end of 1943, LL806 was sent to No. 15 Squadron on 22 April 1944, at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk. Squadron codes of LS were painted on the fuselage, together with the individual letter J for Jig. The squadron had only recently exchanged its Short Stirlings for Lancasters.
There was never any artwork painted on the forward cockpit area, just a steadily increasing row of bomb symbols. The first of these resulted from her first mission, a raid upon the railway store and repair depot at Chambly, in northern France, on the night of 1/2 May, piloted by Pilot Officer M. J. Sparks RNZAF. It was only marred by the failure to release one of the 1,000lb bombs. Mervyn Sparks flew several of Jig’s first missions, and in all eighteen out of his tour. He left as a flight lieutenant with the DFC. His navigator, Lancelot Elias, and bomb aimer, Edward Spannier RCAF, were similarly decorated.
Other pilots flew her during the D-Day period, and then operations were focused mainly on V1 flying-bomb sites and the transport network. On 10/11 June, on a raid to Dreux, Flight Lieutenant B. G. F. Payne and crew were attacked by an Me109 night-fighter, his gunners shooting it down. That summer it continued to operate with few problems, including such famous raids as that upon Caen ahead of the breakout from the bridgehead, and against the retreating German armies through the Falaise Gap. Another crew at this time was that of Flight Lieutenant W. Leslie, flying ten missions. Jig must have left a lasting impression, for one of his crew, Bill Grundy, the rear gunner, developed a hip problem in the 1990s which forced him into an electric buggy in order to remain mobile. He had a number plate put on this, reading LL806 LS-J. Willie Leslie was killed in a flying accident only a few months after completing their tour.
Jig’s eightieth trip is believed to have been flown on 2 December, Flying Officer L. H. Marriott RAAF (later DFC) taking her to Dortmund. The hundredth came on 5 January 1945 with a raid on Ludwigshafen, piloted by Flying Officer R. H. Hopper-Cuthbert RAAF. He and his crew carried out some eighteen operations in her, including the night the Gee apparatus caught fire following an electrical failure. By this time LL806 was starting to show her age, and Hopper-Cuthbert’s crew were wondering if she would see them through their tour, not helped, as one crewman remarked, by the skipper’s landings.
Daylight operations became the norm as the end of the war approached, escorted by RAF and USAAF fighters. Flight Sergeant W. Sievers RAAF flew her on six of her last operations, the very last being to Bremen on 22 April. This took her total to 134, which was marked by her bomb tally. Yet there were still operations to be flown, by her and numerous other Lancasters at this time. First came MANNA trips, flying supplies to the starving civilians of Holland, under an agreement with the Germans. Jig flew three of these, followed by three EXODUS sorties, flying to the continent to bring home released Allied prisoners of war. Her final tally of operations that appeared beneath her cockpit was 134 bombs, three sacks and three running figures. She also flew on several sightseeing tours, taking RAF ground personnel, men and women, to view the devastation of German cities.
Jig remained with 15 Squadron until finally being ‘struck off charge’ on 6 December 1945.
Assigned to No. 101 Squadron at RAF Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire, on 19 September 1943, DV245 was a Mark III Lancaster, coming in from No. 32 MU. Coded SR-S for Sugar, she became known as ‘The Saint’. Artwork on her nose shows the famous Leslie Charteris’ ‘Saint’ figure, complete with halo, sitting astride a falling bomb.
No. 101 Squadron usually flew with an eight-man crew, having a special radio operator aboard to man what was called the Airborne Cigar (ABC). This operator had an apparatus that could pick up German radio traffic and it was his job to jam the German operators, or even interrupt them, talking German to confuse the enemy in the air and on the ground.
The Saint’s first skipper was Flying Officer R. R. Leeder, who took her to Stuttgart on 7/8 October, remaining her usual pilot for at least fifteen trips, before his tour ended at the end of February 1944. Roy Leeder received the DFC; most of his crew were also decorated. Flying Officer H. Davies and crew took her over from March, with thirteen trips flown, including the disastrous raid on Nürnberg on 30/31 March; this night 101 lost seven aircraft. The crew could clearly see aircraft being attacked and falling in flames all around them on this most gruelling of operations, in which ninety-five RAF bombers were lost. This was Bomber Command’s biggest night’s loss of the war.
DV245 flew on nine operations to Berlin during the winter, although she had to abort twice due to mechanical problems. Harold Davies DFC also flew on to Aachen on one raid, despite losing an engine. Following D-Day operations, Sergeant S. Bowater began flying her regularly, making twenty-two trips in all. He was commissioned and received the DFC. Stan Bowater DFC AFC was killed in a Shackleton crash in December 1958. By August The Saint had passed the fifty-operations mark, and some of the crew were beginning to wonder if her luck might soon run out.
She was then flown by numerous crews during the winter of 1944-45, making the hundredth trip on 5/6 January 1945, raiding Hannover. Flying Officer R. P. Paterson was in command; he was on his second trip in her. There were two Lancasters almost racing to reach a hundred, DV245 and DV302, H-Harry. When The Saint made it, Harry was still on ninety-eight.
One of her last regular captains was Flying Officer K. Hanney, who took her to Karlsruhe on 4 December. He made thirteen trips in all, sometimes with a special operator. Over Pforzheim on 23/24 February 1945, with Flying Officer G. Withenshaw RCAF in the pilot’s seat, a German jet aircraft was seen closing in, probably an Me262. The bomb aimer, Flying Officer J. R. Drewery RCAF, manned the front turret guns, firing three bursts at it and the jet caught fire, and was seen to crash and explode. For this he received the DFC.
The Saint was lost on a daylight raid to Bremen on 23 March, with Flying Officer R. R. Little RCAF, an American, in command. It crashed near Stöttinghausen, south-east of Twistringen at 10.30 am. All seven aboard were killed, and she was the last aircraft lost by 101 during the war. By strange coincidence, Lancaster LL755 of 101 Squadron, flown by Flight Lieutenant Paterson, was also lost shortly before on this same raid. Paterson had been the pilot who had flown the hundredth sortie, back in January; he and two of his crew survived as prisoners.
The other Lancaster in No. 101 Squadron was DV302, a Mark I built in September 1943 which, after finishing work at No. 32 MU at St Athan, was sent to Ludford Magna, and 101, in October.
With squadron codes of SR and individual letter H, she became H for Harry, although sometimes she appeared as H-Howe. Arriving at the time the Battle for Berlin was starting, it is not surprising to learn that of her first twenty-five operations, no fewer than sixteen were to the Big City. It must have been a daunting prospect for her first crew, skippered by Flying Officer D. H. Todd RNZAF. He took her out for the first time on 18 November. Douglas Todd and three of his crew had earlier been flying with 98 Squadron, with B-25 Mitchell bombers, but had applied for a move to ‘heavies’. They had their crew increased to include a special German-speaking operator, as 101 was also used for radio-jamming work, but their first special operator decided to change crews after four trips and was lost the very next night. At the end of their tour, Todd received the DFC, while Vic Viggers (Wireless Operator), Ken Bardell (Bomb aimer) and Harry Whittle (Mid-upper gunner) were similarly decorated, and Stan Powell (F/engr) got the DFM. Todd was killed in a hit-and-run accident back in New Zealand in the 1970s.
Flight Sergeant (later commissioned) E. T. Holland RAAF took over Harry, flying twenty trips, and then Flying Officer J. Kinman followed this with ten operations. For D-Day, DV302 flew a special mission on the night of 5/6 June, undoubtedly something to do with radio countermeasures, with Flight Lieutenant R. N. Knights in command. Several of Harry’s crews also flew in the other up-and-coming century-scoring Lancaster, DV245, including Flying Officers H. Davies and R. E. Ireland RCAF. By early July Harry was in need of an overhaul (there were around sixty bomb symbols by this time), going off to ROS, but she was back ten days later, although there was still some work to be done; she was not back on the flight line until August.
Pilot Officer A. E. ‘Bill’ Netting became the main pilot, flying twenty-nine operations in Harry and receiving the DFC. A tour at this time was thirty missions, but Netting’s wireless operator had missed two due to sickness, so the crew gamely decided to fly two more trips so that he could complete his thirty with them. Apparently that cost him a few pints. On one of the operations, bombs from another Lancaster flying overhead almost put paid to their tour, one 1,000-pounder actually making a striking blow to the port-inner engine, removing the spinner. That was pretty close.
The bomb symbols continued to mount, although the race to a hundred was lost at ninety-eight to DV245. Harry’s hundredth came on 7/8 January 1945, a mission to Munich, piloted by Pilot Officer J. A. Kurtzer RAAF. There was no real permanent skipper during her last missions, although Flying Officer H. J. West did seven, including the last four, to Hamburg, Kiel, Potsdam and, finally, Heligoland on 18 April. These brought the total operations to 121 and the old Lanc was awarded a Long Service Medal, the ribbon painted on her nose next to the twelve rows of ten bombs, plus one. Surviving the war, DV302 was finally ‘struck off charge’ on 15 January 1947.
For some time one of Harry’s engines survived. A former Lancaster pilot, Mackenzie Hamilton, owned a 1930 Rolls-Royce Merlin Competition Roadster, but in 1946 its Kestrel engine was beyond repair. Knowing that Lancaster bombers were being broken up at Lossiemouth, Hamilton went along and managed to obtain DV302’s port inner, which he just about managed to squeeze onto his car’s chassis. Hamilton was killed in a flying accident in 1965 and in 1990 the car was in the hands of a new owner, at the cost of £48,000, plus commission and VAT of course.
The car is now known as the Handlye Special (or was in 2007) and registered as GH8803.
Built at the A. V. Roe Chatterton factory, ND644 was a Mark III and came off the production line in early 1944. Assigned to 100 Squadron on 20 February, based at Waltham, near Grimsby, she was given the squadron code of HW and individual letter N.
She began operations on 25/26 February, being taken to Augsburg by Sergeant A. R. Oxenham and his crew, although they had to abort due to the starboard-outer engine failing. On 1/2 March they tried again, this time to Stuttgart, and although they completed the mission, their radio went unserviceable, which forced them to land at RAF Ford on the south coast.
After this somewhat disappointing beginning, Nan started an almost trouble-free tour, although she did lose the port-outer on 3/4 May; that forced Pilot Officer E. Wainwright to return home. Flight Lieutenant Peter Sherriff had by this time become the more regular pilot, beginning with a raid on Frankfurt on 22/23 March, and he flew twenty-three raids in all, also being involved the nights before, during, and after D-Day. Sherriff received the DFC.
Taking over from Sherriff in mid-June was Pilot Officer W. Castle. Targets at this time were German V1 sites and transport centres. Castle flew Nan on seventeen trips, followed by Flying Officer P. C. Eliff with nineteen operations of his tour in her. Philip Eliff received the DFC.
On 26 December Nan was taken to St Vith, to try to block the cross-roads there, which were to become a major artery for the famous German offensive in the Ardennes. Chris Johnson was thirty-seven years of age, and always had his wife living near to whatever station he was based. He and his crew flew seven missions in Nan, and Johnson later received the DFC. I asked the rear gunner, the late Rex Cousins, if Nan was getting a bit shaky by the time they flew her. He did not remember her being any worse than most, as 100 Squadron had a fairly low loss rate, meaning that all their Lancasters were getting a bit long in the tooth.
Originally Nan had a painting of what was described as ‘a lovely lady’ but this seems to have disappeared following a major service in early August, but the steadily increasing tally of bomb symbols, in neat rows of ten, continued. When one hundred bombs were up in January 1945, a new row was started at the top next to the original row. Unfortunately, the exact date of the hundredth operation is unclear.
However, ND644 is recorded as completing 115 trips, although a number of aborts tend to distort the scorekeeping. She was damaged by flak over Stuttgart on 28/29 January, with Phil Eliff in command, but, feathering the starboard-inner engine, he still managed a bomb run – in fact two runs – over the target.
She was lost on the night of 16/17 March 1945, captained by Flying Officer G. A. O. Dauphanee RCAF. They came down near Kraftshof, about eight kilometres from the target’s rail centre. Only Flying Officer D. B. Douglas RCAF and Pilot Officer R. S. Bailey survived as prisoners of war. Both were wounded; this had been their second operation in Nan.
This Lancaster was the last of a batch of 600 produced under order No. 1807, and was a Mark III that rolled out of the factory in spring 1944. Sent to No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, based at RAF Mepal, Cambridgeshire, and coded AA-M (although C Flight suddenly had its codes changed to JN-M), she became known affectionately as ‘Mike’.
Her first sortie came on 21/22 May 1944, a raid on Duisburg, under the command of Pilot Officer C. Crawford. However, a few trips later by various skippers, Mike had Flight Sergeant J. Lethbridge RNZAF as captain, flying twenty-five operations, among several more with other crews, up until mid-August. He also flew on D-Day operations and then against V1 sites. Flying Officer G. Cuming flew Mike on fourteen raids, and the flight commander, Squadron Leader N. A. Williamson, went on seven. Even the squadron CO, Wing Commander R. J. A. Leslie AFC, went in her on two operations.
Anyone who has seen the film The Longest Day will recall those dummy parachutists used on the night of 5/6 June 1944 to create a diversion for German soldiers on the ground. Well, on the 16/17 September, 75 Squadron – and NE181 – took dummies to drop near Moerdijk aerodrome in Holland, helping to create a diversion for the Arnhem operation, with Cuming piloting. Cuming also flew to Coblenz on 6 November, but on three engines virtually all the way, having to cut several corners on the way because of the reduced flying speed.
Squadron Leader J. Bailey DFC RNZAF began operating Mike in October, the first mission being a daylight raid on Cologne on the 28th. Another to take a seat in Mike, on the 31st, with Cuming, was Group Captain A. P. Campbell, the Station Commander, to have a look-see at Cologne in the early evening. He flew as bomb aimer, so that his transgression of going on operations might not be picked up.
At some stage Mike was named ‘The Captain’s Fancy’, which name was painted alongside the famous cartoon character of the day, Captain A. R. P. Reilly-Foull, squire of Arntwee Hall, as seen in the Daily Mirror (1938-52) in the ‘Just Jake’ comic strip. When painted first, the face, neck and hands were flesh-coloured, but later faded to white. The uniform was red, later khaki. He held a pint of ale in his right hand and a 25lb bomb in his left. In his mouth he had a corn-pipe. Being known as rather devilish, he had two horns sprouting from his temples. The overall colour scheme was later washed over to reduce its conspicuity.
As Mike neared the hundredth operation there was some confusion about the exact number. According to a press release on 29 January 1945, in keeping with the squadron’s Form 541, it was flown on this date. However, there was an error on an earlier count, for the thinking was that the hundredth would be flown on 5 January. The flight commander, Squadron Leader Jack Bailey, feeling a bit superstitious, got his deputy flight commander to fly it, so Alex Simpson operated on the 5th. Bailey later flew it on the 29th, to Krefeld, only then to find this had been the hundredth. It was his own forty-seventh trip.
NE181 flew just one more sortie, Bailey bombing Weisbaden, but was now showing her age and was retired. The New Zealanders hoped it could be flown to their own country for posterity but ‘higher authority’ thwarted that idea, so after a refit it was flown to Waterbeach on 17 February to join 514 Squadron. This unit was disbanded in August 1945. Mike’s final days were spent at No. 5 MU before being scrapped on 30 September 1947.
Lancaster LL806, LS-J, in flight. The code letters are not the more usual straight-sided paint jobs, but have overstated serifs.
In contrast, these two 15 Squadron Lancasters have straight-sided lettering. Note, too, that while the nearest carries the codes with the squadron identification letters to the fore of the fuselage roundel, the other has its letters aft of the roundel.
The crew of LL806 shortly before taking off on the hundredth operation on 5 January 1945. L to r: a ground crewman, Sgt Ken Dorset (R/gnr), F/O R. H. Hopper-Cuthbert, Sgt Don Inglis (M/upr gnr), Sgt Sid Lewis; in the doorway, F/Sgt Bob Heatley RNZAF (Nav) and Sgt George Charlton, while on the ladder is W/O Wally Lake RAAF (F/engr). The code letters have also been repainted and are now straight-sided. Note the casual array of bombs on the ground and the trolley accumulator for starting the engines. Ken Dorset, who received a DFM, is typically well suited-up for his long stint in the rear turret.
Jig’s 113th bomb symbol is stencilled on in February 1945, following the raid on the 23rd to Gelsenkirchen, skippered by Flight Sergeant A. Meikle, who flew four trips in her.
Flying Officer Doug Hunt RAAF took Jig on two operations in February 1945, and he and some of his crew take the opportunity to have their picture taken in the squadron’s veteran as the war came to an end. L to r: F/Sgt D. A. ‘Pat’ Russell (B/aimer), Paddy Kirane, Hunt, George Pitkin and P/O John Shepherd.
The final tally: 134 bomb symbols, three sacks representing MANNA trips and three running ‘stick’ men for EXODUS missions. Some squadrons would add all these symbols up to reach a total of operations flown, so while 134 is one total, one could also argue the total was 140.
Flying Officer Roy Richard Leeder flew The Saint (DV245) on her first operation, a raid on Stuttgart, dated 7/8 October 1943. Leeder had started his tour flying as second pilot with another crew on 27 September, to Hannover.
Four of Roy Leeder’s crew: Sgt B. G. Lyall (B/aimer), Sgt R. S. Brown (W/Op), Sgt P. J. Drought (M/upr gnr); in front, F/Sgt W. E. V. Bickley (R/gnr). Roy Brown, Percy Drought and Eric Bickley were all awarded DFMs.
The Saint artwork on DV245 after forty operations with 101 Squadron.
A clearer image, provided by the 101 Squadron Association.
Sergeants Brown, Lyall and Drought outside their crew quarters. Note that each wears the ribbon of the 1939-45 Star, originally intended to mark service between 1939 and 1943, when it was first introduced; hence the awards to these three aircrew members.
Sergeant Stan Bowater (later commissioned and awarded the DFC) and crew. Sgts Gerry Murphy (B/ aimer), Ted Reeves (W/Op), Hugh Dickie (M/upr gnr), Ken Dickinson (R/gnr), Andy Oliver (F/engr) and Freddie Campbell (Nav). Bowater sits in front.
A navigator’s flight log for the raid on Berlin on 15/16 February 1944. The outward journey is plotted across the North Sea, over Denmark, down into Germany and Berlin with three routes back across Germany and Holland. DV245 made the trip on this night.
DV245 flying over Cap Gris Nez on 26 September 1944, Stan Bowater being in command. The two ABC aerials can be seen on top of the fuselage, on the port side.
Lancaster DV302, H for Harry of 101 Squadron. Note the ABC aerials that are slightly off centre atop the fuselage. The man is Sergeant M. A. ‘Basil’ Ordway, the mid-upper gunner in Flying Officer Netting’s crew.
Flying Officer D. H. Todd RNZAF took Harry on the Lancaster’s first operational flight, to Berlin, on 18/19 November 1943. This picture was taken after being awarded the DFC. Next to the DFC ribbon is the ribbon of the 1939–43 Star.
Douglas Todd with three of his crew: F/O V. C. ‘Vic’ Viggars RNZAF (W/Op), F/Sgt W. M. ‘Bill’ O’Dwyer (R/gnr), Todd, F/O W. ‘Bill’ Fraser (Nav). When this picture was taken they were training on Ventura twin-engine bombers in New Brunswick, Canada. They subsequently flew Mitchells with 98 Squadron before volunteering to fly ‘heavies’.
Pilot Officer A. E. Netting and crew: Sgts M. A. Ordway (M/upr gnr), C. H. N. Complin (W/Op), E. A. Cantwell (Nav), Netting, P. R. Gunter (B/aimer), V. R. Burrill RCAF (R/gnr) and T. C. Brown (F/engr). Arthur Netting was awarded the DFC while Ernest Cantwell received the DFM.
The crew who flew Harry’s hundredth trip was skippered by Pilot Officer J. A. Kurtzer RAAF DFC. L to r: F/O A. L. Woodhart (B/aimer), F/Sgt J. W. Fletcher (W/Op), F/Sgt J. S. Alexander RAAF (R/gnr), Kurtzer, Sgt J. Harris (F/engr), F/Sgt J. C. H. Dyke RAAF (M/upr gnr), and F/Sgt G. H. Honeysett RAAF (Nav).
DV302’s scoreboard: 121 bomb symbols, a German night-fighter claimed as shot down, and the Long Service Medal ribbon.
Harry at the end of her operational career, with a number of ground personnel in 1945. The original caption for this picture says it was taken with ‘her’ NAAFI gang, saying it was their ‘champion’. One of the ABC aerials can be see, as well as her H and serial number.
Another 101 Squadron aircraft (SR-B) unloading a 4,000lb cookie and numerous incendiary bombs during a daylight operation. The cookie would smash buildings and factories, and the incendiaries would cause debris to ignite and turn into a blaze. Another good view of the ABC aerials.
Lancaster ND644 ‘Nan’. Flight Lieutenant H. G. Topliss shakes hands with Sergeant H. W. Williams, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Nan’s ground crew NCO, after 112 operations. Other ground crew members are, on the left, fitters AC F. Turrell and LAC J. Atkinson, while on the right is LAC B. Gorst, fitter/airframes.
Six members of a crew which flew ND644 on seven operations in December 1944 and January 1945. Top l to r: F/Lt Chris S. Johnson (pilot), P/O William Hancock (Nav), Sgt Richard J. Barham (M/upr gnr); Bottom: P/O T. G. Campion (B/aimer), Sgt C. ‘James’ Albutt (F/engr) and Sgt Rex W. Cousins (R/gnr). Missing is Sgt R. Vickers (W/Op).
What it took to keep a Lancaster in service. Seven crew, Station Commander, Station Warrant Officer, parachute packer, ground crew, service personnel, armourers, drivers, crash crew, etc.
Lancaster NE181, The Captain’s Fancy, in the snow at RAF Mepal, its bomb tally approaching 100. Clearly seen are the C Flight codes of JN.
Flying Officer Gordon Cuming RNZAF and five of his crew. Rear: Sgt D. P. ‘Paddy’ McElligott (R/gnr), F/Sgt J. D. ‘Jack’ Christie (W/Op) and Sgt W. ‘Bill’ Scott (M/upr gnr). Front: F/Sgt J. G. ‘Jack’ Scott (Nav), Cuming, and F/Sgt Syd Sewell (F/engr).
An end of tour picture by Mike’s rear turret on 12 December 1944. Syd Sewell, Bill Scott, Paddy McElligott, Sgt J. C. ‘Jack’ Lambert (F/engr), Jack Christie and Jack Scott, now commissioned. It must have been confusing having three men called Jack in the crew.
NE181 after fifty-one missions, and so around late September 1944. The artwork is very neat, the figure resplendent in a red hunting jacket.
Squadron Leader Jack Bailey DFC in the cockpit of NE181, with 101 bombs and the image of Captain A. R. P. Reilly-Foull. The colouring of the image was much reduced by ‘higher authority’.
Mike’s ground crew proudly paint on the 101st bomb, after it had flown what was thought to be its hundredth, but a recount showed it had flown 101. Other ground personnel look on while, in the centre, Squadron Leader J. Bailey RNZAF DFC checks their work. February 1945.
Another 75 (NZ) Squadron crew in front of their aircraft NG449, T for Tommy. The main squadron codes of AA can be seen clearly. Jack Plummer DFC is on the left. Coming back from one operation, having had the front windscreen smashed, his hands became frozen to the control column, which had to be cut through to release him. L to r: F/Lt J. Plummer, F/O R. J. Scott (M/upr gnr), Sgt A. L. ‘Tiny’ Humphries DFM (Nav), F/Sgt A. McDonald (R/gnr), Sgt M. Fell (F/engr), F/O J. Holloway (B/aimer). They and this aircraft were shot down on 21 March 1945, their thirty-second trip, and Plummer, Holloway and Scott were killed, the others becoming prisoners.
