History of Lancaster B.III ED 945

MDexterKI127249-170830-10.jpg

Title

History of Lancaster B.III ED 945

Description

Ordered 1941 and built by A.V. Roe at Chadderton near Manchester as one of a batch of 620 between November 1943 and June 1943. Twenty of this batch either side of ED 932 (Gibson's aircraft) were modified as type 464 provisioning to enable Barnes Wallis's bomb to be carried. ED 945 completed 9 June 1943 and delivered to 103 Squadron. Aircraft lost on night 16/17 June 1943 on an operation to Cologne. Covers some aspects of this operation.

Language

Type

Format

One-page typewritten document

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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

MDexterKI127249-170830-10

Transcription

The Hall,

Waterbeach,

Cambs.

Telephone: Cambridge 860216

[Underlined] LANCASTER B.III ED 945 [/underlined]

This aircraft was one of a batch of 620 ordered from A.V. Roe, Chadderton, Nr. Manchester in 1941 and built from November 1942 to June 1943. 129 with Nos. ED 303 to ED 782 were built as Mk Is fitted with R.R. Merlin 20 engines, and the remaining 491 were Mk IIIs fitted with Rolls Royce (Packard built) Merlin 28 engines, thus ED 783 to ED 999 and EE 105 to EE 202 were B.IIIs. Twenty of this particular batch with numbers either side of ED 932 (Gibson’s aircraft) were specially modified known as “Type 464 provisioning” to enable the special store, Barnes Wallis’ bomb, to be carried and released on the Dams raid. Completed in the late Spring of 1943, on the 9th June ED 945 was delivered to 103 Squadron stationed at Elsham Wolds, Barnetby, North Lincolnshire. 103 was in 1 Group Bomber Command, with Group Headquarters at Bawtry and th[deleted] e [/deleted] eir airfields grouped along the South bank of the Humber estuary.

When this aircraft was lost on the raid to Cologne on the night of 16/17 June 1943 it had logged 48 flying hours. This raid on Cologne comprised one of the actions during the Battle of the Ruhr 5/6 March 1943 to 28/29 June 1943. 26 major attacks were carried out during this period, the force generally comprising of 500 to 700 heavies. The target was marked by Oboe Mosquitoes of PFF dropping target indicators blind which were backed-up by ground markers dropped visually by PFF Lancasters. The aiming point was marked continuously throughout the attack during which time it was bombed by the Main Force: 1,3,4, 5 and 6 Groups.

Collection

Citation

“History of Lancaster B.III ED 945,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9413.

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