Missions Flown
Click on date to see further details
Missions Flown
Click on date to see further details
NX611 "Just Jane" at East Kirkby
Avro 683 Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster was the mainstay of the Royal Air Force offensive capabilities during World War II. 7,377 Lancasters were produced in total.
The "Lanc" was designed by Roy Chadwick as an upgrade to the Avro Manchester. The twin-engined Manchester had proven to be seriously under-powered, so Chadwick designed larger wings to take 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. It proved to be a master-stroke. Its massive bomb bay could hold a variety of bomb loads dependent on the mission. Later modifications to the bomb bay allowed the Lancaster to carry the 22,000lb "Grand Slam" bomb. This was the largest bomb load carried by any aircraft during the war.
Colour Codes
Links on the Units and Bases pages are colour coded so you can easily see what data is available on the site.
BLACK
ORBs not obtained yet
ORBs digitised and input
GREEN
BLUE
ORBs obtained but not digitised
Information partially input, so not complete
PURPLE
Note: . For PURPLE, some aircraft flew with more than one Squadron therefore the data may be incomplete, or that I haven't digitised the full set of data yet. For Squadrons I am inputting data on a year by year basis. Check the Updates page for what has been uploaded.
Disclaimer
This site will never be fully accurate or fully complete. The Operational Record Books contain many typing errors and omissions. Where this is obvious it has been corrected. Certain missions were not logged in the ORBs. As an example, senior ranking officers were banned from taking part in operations, but did anyway. They made sure that these op's were not recorded in the ORBs. If any aircraft is missing sorties or contains errors, and you can prove it, let me know using the contact page and I'll get back to you.
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
International Bomber Command Centre
National Archives UK
Royal Air Force
Bomber Command History Forum (Facebook)
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses - Bill Chorley
Aircrew Remembered
100 Squadron Association
Friends of 61 Sqn
Most importantly, family members of Bomber Command crews.