Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: February 01, 2024 09:13PM
Some were built in Canada:
https://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/aircraft/the-lancaster-bomber/"Of the total of 7,377 Lancasters built (430 of them in Canada), 3,932 were lost in action. During the war Lancasters flew a total of 156,308 sorties and dropped 608,612 tons of bombs, and placed over 12,000 mines in enemy waters.
"Some of the aircraft’s finest hours were in “non-offensive” operations as the war was about end and shortly after peace finally was in place. The first of these was during “Operation Manna.” Lancaster squadrons dispatched a total of 3,156 sorties to drop 6,684 tons of food supplies to the starving Dutch in May 1945. The second saw many of the Lancaster squadrons tasked to return Allied Prisoners of War from various locations throughout Europe back to England. In a period of 24 days a total of 2900 round trips were flown and 74,000 ex-POW’s were returned."
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It's too bad that machines of such beauty had to be used for warfare. I'm glad people care enough to restore and maintain them and preserve them for posterity.
My parents had a friend who was an artist and we had some of his paintings of the planes of WWII. I regret very much that somehow they have been lost in the shuffle of life. Or at least I haven't seen them for a long time and don't know where they've ended up. I hope someone is treating them lovingly with great appreciation. Even more I hope that someday I'll trip over them again because where on earth could they have gone I wonder. I spent happy hours in the artist's studio watching him create his master works. It's funny to be thinking of them again now, years later. I'd love to find them in the attic one day.
Re the planes - now from my reading I know why they're in Canada. I'll definitely plan a trip to the Island in the spring and pay them a visit.