![]() The Crew, based on interviews with Ken Cook, the crew's sole surviving member, recounts the wartime exploits of the members of an Avro Lancaster crew between 1942 and the war's end. A moving tribute to the sacrifice and bravery of the fliers of RAF Bomber Command. The drama and anxiety of individual missions – to Kassel, Munich and Augsburg as well as Berlin – is evoked with thrilling immediacy while the military events and strategic decisions that drove the RAF's area bombing campaign against Nazi Germany are interwoven deftly with the narrative of the crew's operational careers. The Crew: The Story of a Lancaster Bomber Crew. Gloucestershire-born bomb aimer Ken Cook, hard-bitten Australian pilot Jim Comans, Navigator Don Bowes, Upper Gunner George Widdis, Tail Gunner 'Jock' Bolland, Flight Engineer Ken Randle and Radio Operator Roy Woollford were seven ordinary young men living in extraordinary times, risking their lives in freedom's cause in the dark skies above Hitler's Reich.įrom their earliest beginnings – in places as far apart as a Cotswold village and the suburbs of Sydney – through the adventure of training in North America and the dread and danger of the forty-five bombing raids they flew with 97 Squadron, David Price describes the crew's wartime experiences with human sympathy allied to a secure technical understanding of one of the RAF's most iconic aircraft. Tickets £16 Adults, £13 Concessions.A moving tribute to the sacrifice and bravery of the fliers of RAF Bomber Command. To find out more about The Navigator, visit the Broadway Theatre website. All cast & crew Production, box office & more at IMDbPro. The Lancastrian was produced by Canada's Victory Aircraft for civilian transport duties with Trans-Canada. Built simultaneously with the bomber, the Avro Lancastrian was a modified Lancaster bomber without any armor plating and no gun turrets. Photo: Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons. In total some 125,000 aircrew served in Bomber Command during World War Two over 73,700 of them became casualties, either killed, wounded or shot down and made PoWs.Ĭredit () How many people are needed for a Lancaster crew?Īs can be seen in the diagram below, a Lancaster needed a crew of 7 people to be able to operate, with each of the different roles on the aircraft having their own unique set of skills. The incredible story of the Avro Lancaster, one of the finest bombers of the Second World War. The Lancastrian was developed from the Lancaster bomber. The Lancaster did not carry the weight of the night bombing offensive against Nazi Germany on its own but was supported by other earlier twin-engine bombers such as the Wellington and the other four-engine RAF heavy bombers – the Stirling and the Halifax – as well as medium bomber versions of the twin-engine De Havilland Mosquito. Of these, some 3,500 were lost on operations and another 200 or so were destroyed or written off in crashes An impressive total of 7,377 Lancasters were built between 1941 and early 1946. It could carry a maximum bomb load of 22,000 lb, its maximum level speed with a full load at 15,000 feet was 275 mph and it could cruise routinely at altitudes above 20,000ft at a range speed of 200 mph. The performance of the Lancaster was simply outstanding. ![]() The prototype Lancaster took to the air for its first flight from Ringway, Manchester, on 9th January 1941 the first production Lancaster flew later that year on 31st October. Five top facts about the Lancaster bomber ![]() With The Navigator coming to the Broadway Theatre on 19 November, being a show which follows the lives of a Lancaster bomber crew, we wanted to look more at the aircraft behind the show and the important role it played in the Second World War.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |