BWPicAvroLancaster

Shortly after the Second World War began, the Royal Air Force (RAF)
launched small-scale bombing raids on Germany as per pre-war
doctrine. For several reasons these raids failed to redirect the German
war effort; including because of inadequate technological means for
producing effective outcomes, a lack of resources and the trial and
error inherent in warfare. Despite the pre-war effort devoted to
building up the RAF's Bomber Command, with the RAF absorbing 40%
of British defense expenditures in 1938, Bomber Command began the
Second World War with only a few hundred bombers - mostly
Wellingtons, Whitleys, Hampdens, and Blenheims. The British doggedly
carried on however, continually developing Bomber Command in spite
of facing tremendous technical and doctrinal challenges. One truth
quickly became obvious in the war's first year. In both the 1939-1940
era skies over Germany and over England unescorted bombers during
the day proved overwhelmingly vulnerable to prowling fighter aircraft.
The British, and the Germans thus turned to nighttime bombing. In
spite of the greatly reduced targeting accuracy achieved during
nighttime operations aircrew and aircraft survivability was greatly
enhanced, therefore allowing the RAF to slowly build up Bomber
Command's ranks.

During the early war years and as the RAF's doctrine, tactics and
organization evolved so did British bomber designs. By 1942 new
Lancaster bombers, primarily manufactured by Avro, slowly replaced
Bomber Command's older aircraft. Although Britain fielded three
different four-engine bombers, the Handley Page Halifax, Short Stirling
and Avro Lancaster, the Lancaster emerged as the best four-engine
bomber in the war over Europe. The 10,000-pound bomb load carried
by the Lancaster out to a 1,040-mile combat radius dwarfed the
typical USAAF B-17s 5,000 lb. bomb load to an 800-mile combat
radius. In part this was because of the formidable defensive firepower
carried by the B-17, as it flew in daylight per USAAF doctrine, and in
turning the B-17 into a veritable flying battleship the USAAF sacrificed
payload and range. In comparison the mostly nocturnal Lancaster,
though still carrying a strong defensive armament of its own, did not
match the B-17s defensive armament and could thus pack its massive
bomb bay with a superior bomb load. That said the Lancaster's
greater payload was also indicative of an enormous design and testing
effort that had brought this capable aircraft into service.

The Lancaster made its mark bombing area targets such as Axis cities
and large industrial works but the Lancaster proved to be a versatile
aircraft and when customized was capable of accurately hitting and
destroying physically smaller high value targets. For instance, Bomber
Command aircrews delivered the most spectacular allied success to
date in the war on the night of May 16, 1943; when a specially
trained elite squadron flying Lancaster bombers conducted the now
famous "Dam Buster" raid against the huge dams responsible for the
industrial and residential supply of water in Germany's industrial Ruhr
Valley heartland. Although the Germans quickly repaired the dams,
restoring full production within six weeks, the fact Bomber Command
destroyed a specific target precisely at night provided the British with
a huge psychological boost at a time in the war when it was not
entirely clear Germany would be defeated. Throughout the war the
Lancaster was an aircraft capable of meeting a wide range of combat
roles. On November 12, 1944 British pilots flying specially modified
Lancaster's carrying massive 12,000 pound "Tallboy" bombs finally
sank the German battleship Tirpitz, sister ship of the Bismarck, where
it had been sheltering in a fjord near Tromsų, Norway.

Picture Courtesy of Royal Air Force