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Old 19-10-2007, 02:43 AM   #12 (permalink)
Antipodean Andy
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Well, I can see your point. It was pressurised, the crew flew in shirt sleeves (as per Cheshire's book), etc etc. Heck of an advancement on bombers at the time but the Lanc was almost as capable in the weight carrying department from memory.

Perhaps the crews had it "easy" compared to earlier bombing campaigns. Having said that, I wouldn't want to do what they did - low level fire bombing at night, thermals would have flipped them over. There's still some excellent stories of survival and ther aircraft was fairly tough. I recall a pic of a '29 that had a runaway number three prop that refused to feather. It eventually broke the shaft bounced into number four, knocked that out, and then hit the fuse and made a nice hole. Aircraft made it back.
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Aircraft from No. 60 Squadron levelling out for the "run in" to make a mast-head attack on a Japanese coaster off Akyab. Courtesy AWM.
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