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Signatures on this item | |||||
*The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |||||
Name | Info | ||||
Flight Lieutenant George Britton *Signature Value : £30 | Joining the RAF in 1941, George trained on Wellington and Stirlings as a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner. Converting to Lancasters he was posted to 90 Squadron for his first operational tour, and then to 186 Squadron, still on Lancasters. George then found himself designated to be an Intelligence Officer at Lossiemouth, interrogating Italian POWs Finally, before leaving the service in 1946, he served in Sunderland flying boats, flying to West Africa, Europe and Scandinavia. | ||||
Flight Lieutenant John Cox DFC *Signature Value : £15 | Born in 1923, after reaching eighteen, John Cox joined the RAF in March 1942. He soon found himself on the Queen Mary en-route to Canada for pilot training, returning to become operational on Lancasters with 622 Squadron based at Mildenhall, whom he joined in July 1944. His tour of 30 operations included the successful raid on Walcheren Island in Holland, whose objective was to breach the sea wall in order to flood the island, forcing a full scale German retreat. After hostilities he flew for BOAC, followed by 27 years service with BA, becoming senior captain on 747s. | ||||
Flight Lieutenant Tom Austin DFC AE *Signature Value : £40 | After joining the RAF in 1941 Tom Austin qualified as a pilot on Harvards, then converted into Halifaxes. During the war years other aircraft he flew included Wellingtons, Stirlings and Lancasters. While flying Wellingtons as part of 199 Squadron during a raid over Dortmund, his aircraft was badly damaged but Tom managed to limp home, crash landing at Mildenhall.
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Warrant Officer Richard Basher Hearne *Signature Value : £20 | 'Basher' Hearne joined the RAF in 1942 and trained as a Flight Engineer. His first operational posting was to 622 Squadron at Mildenhall in Suffolk, equipped with Stirlings, and then, in November 1943, he transferred to 15 Squadron, also flying from the same base. The squadron re-equipped with Lancasters the following month. | ||||
Wing Commander Mac England DFC *Signature Value : £55 | 'Mac' England joined the RAF in 1938 and after qualifying, posted as a pilot into Lancasters. In 1941 he was transferred from Bomber command to fighter Command-flying Spitfires on coastal sweeps. After a short period of time on Spitfires he was transferred back again to bomber Command, and in 1943 completed 30 Operations on Lancasters. When he retired in 1974 he had flown a total of 36 different aircraft including Hunters and Canberras. |
The Aircraft : | |
Name | Info |
Lancaster | The Avro Lancaster arose from the avro Manchester and the first prototype Lancaster was a converted Manchester with four engines. The Lancaster was first flown in January 1941, and started operations in March 1942. By March 1945 The Royal Air Force had 56 squadrons of Lancasters with the first squadron equipped being No.44 Squadron. During World War Two the Avro Lancaster flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 618,378 tonnes of bombs between 1942 and 1945. Lancaster Bomberss took part in the devastating round-the-clock raids on Hamburg during Air Marshall Harris' "Operation Gomorrah" in July 1943. Just 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations, and the Lancaster was scrapped after the war in 1947. A few Lancasters were converted into tankers and the two tanker aircraft were joined by another converted Lancaster and were used in the Berlin Airlift, achieving 757 tanker sorties. A famous Lancaster bombing raid was the 1943 mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley. The operation was carried out by 617 Squadron in modified Mk IIIs carrying special drum shaped bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis. Also famous was a series of Lancaster attacks using Tallboy bombs against the German battleship Tirpitz, which first disabled and later sank the ship. The Lancaster bomber was the basis of the new Avro Lincoln bomber, initially known as the Lancaster IV and Lancaster V. (Becoming Lincoln B1 and B2 respectively.) Their Lancastrian airliner was also based on the Lancaster but was not very successful. Other developments were the Avro York and the successful Shackleton which continued in airborne early warning service up to 1992. |
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