The time has finally come for you to have your say.
We need help deciding which of the following aircraft to finish our model as.
The aircraft were selected from the many suggestions given to us over the last few weeks and the archive team chose their favourites, we’ve then taken any aircraft which had more than one person favouring it.
The options are:
W4133, WS-Z (in some places rendered as WS-S) of 9 squadron, known as “Zola” after a newspaper comic character. The archive has been fortunate enough to digitise a couple of pictures showing the nose art. Zola crashed near Bardney on a cross country training exercise in August 1943 killing all who were on board.
ME812, first AS-F later P4-F with 166 and 153 squadrons, known as “Fair Fighter’s Revenge”, with the nose art showing a woman in a short skirt holding a riding crop. ME812 completed over 100 operations and participated in both operations Manna and Exodus. We would probably use the aircraft’s final artwork.
JB405, PH-H of 12 squadron, known as “Hellzapoppin” with nose art showing a pair of devils with pitchforks. JB405 was lost in May 1944 on an operation to Mailly le Camp. This aircraft is also represented in material which we have been given to digitise.
ED888, PM-M of 103 squadron, known as “Mike Squared” the single most veteran Lancaster with 140 operations attributed to it.
ED611, KM-U and later JO-U of 44 (Rhodesia) and 463 Squadron, known as “Uncle Joe” decorated with an image of Joeseph Stalin in a Soviet star and stars in place of the more common bombs as operation markers.
Finally, R5868, PO-S (originally OL-Q) of 467 squadron, known as “S for Sugar”, kept at the RAF museum at Hendon. Participated in 137 operations including operations Manna and Exodus. This is the default option which came with the model.
This poll will be open until the 6th of October.
ED611, JO-U of 44 Squadron, “Uncle Joe” becauwse 44th squadron introduced the Lancaster to air operations. I would be even more inclined to make a last change and take ED355 KM-D for Dog instead as this is ” my” bomber the one which I have researched to some extend
Fairfighter’s Revenge is a true representative of Bomber Command and would make a wonderful subject for the Model Lancaster. She was born from the demise of the original Fairfighter which crash landed at Woodbridge in May 1944 after being attacked by a night fighter over Belgium returning from a mission to Aachen. The Gunners manager to down their attacker an Me 110 and the Pilot Sid Coole and MUG Ray Scargill were awarded DFM s.. She flew over 100 missions as part of 166 Sqn at KIRMINGTON and 153 Sqn at SCAMPTON. She was crewed by many of the varied nationalities of Bomber Command and took part in Manna and Exodus Missions. The Hon President of 153 Sqn association flew in her on an Exodus mission where they returned a number of ex POWs to the UK. They demolished a set of Cow sheds at the end of the runway on landing. Thankfully not damaging the Aircraft. A true unsung hero of Bomber Command. The nose art has a girl in red dress with black horizontal stripes across her chest. She holds a Foil ( rapier sword) not a riding crop as stated.
John,
Thank you for your detailed breakdown of the history of Fair fighter’s revenge. You are also absolutely correct that it is a fencing foil, I hadn’t looked carefully enough at the pictures I was using as reference material and missed the tell-tale hand-guard. I won’t correct the description above now, but I will make sure to be a little more careful in future.
Robin
JB405…Just for the name alone….
Because completed 140 missions