The Lancaster at War

1941.

Nazi Germany dominates continental Europe.

It is vital to destroy the military power

of the Nazi dictatorship

and the industrial strength that sustains it.

- We needed an aircraft that was going to be able to go

basically behind enemy lines and destroy their supply lines.

There was only one way

to strike directly at the brutal regime.

Bomber Command took over and started

taking the fight to the enemy.

And it was the hard way.

- One aircraft has come to represent

the courage and determination of all who flew

and fought in a deadly, relentless aerial battle.

As an aircraft it was ahead of its time.

It was more of a person than an aircraft.

It was a powerful machine.

Its aggressive capability

would play a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Its specialized missions would

become part of aviation history.

This is the story of the outstanding

heavy bomber of World War II, the Lancaster,

told by the men who flew her.

As they have done many times before in the long

and deadly war against Nazi Germany,

aircrew of Bomber Command gather for the briefings

that will detail their targets for the night.

We went into the briefing room,

and there was always a huge map of Europe

at the end with tapes on it where the target was.

I decided I didn't want to be called up,

because that would mean the army,

and I wasn't really a suitable physical man to go

into the army, so I volunteered to go into air crew.

- I tried to be a pilot, and I was told there was

a waiting list of one year, why not be an air observer.

In other words, to become a navigator.

- Most guys wanted to be pilots in those days.

Most of our fathers discuss, because he went through

World War I as a driver, and he did want me to fly.

I went to Rhodesia to train as a pilot,

and then I got a dose of malaria.

And I was scrubbed off the course.

So I went down to South Africa to train as a bomb aimer.

- By the time, 1943, the losses of gunners were so high

that they said no, you can't become a wireless operator,

you'll have to be a gunner.

And so I became a gunner.

- After a number of training places in England,

I was taught to fly in the United States

in the Army Air Corps there.

- We had to learn the RAF way after we got back.

For air crew, the price paid

in the fight for freedom is a grimly personal statistic.

- My own squadron numerically was wiped out twice

during the period I operated.

- Because none of us really expected to finish a tour,

especially when you're getting towards the end,

you felt now, am I going to finish it or not?

- It takes a particular kind of courage

to climb aboard an aircraft, fully aware of the growing

losses amongst aircraft and crews,

the slim chance of surviving.

We met a crew and they were all excited,

they were gonna do their first operation.

And we said oh, good luck to them, and that was the last

anybody ever heard of them, they just disappeared.

- The word last comes in many, many times in preparation,

because you've written your last letter, possibly.

You had possibly your last meal,

and you've had your last cigarette.

And yet night after night,

airmen, every one of them a volunteer,

will make the long flight through hostile skies

determined to smash the Nazi war effort.

- This was something we had to achieve to wipe out

as much of the enemy's industry

and occupy as many people defending Germany as was possible.

- In the counter-attack against Nazi aggression,

the Avro Lancaster and the men who fly her

will become the mainstay of Britain's Bomber Command.

It will fly the greatest number of sorties, and deliver

a greater tonnage of bombs than any other aircraft.

Bomber Command entered the war equipped with twin engine

aircraft that are no match for the enemy they would face.

Hitler's armies, aided by the Luftwaffe,

sweep across the low countries and into France.

The men and machines of Bomber Command join the fight

to disrupt the advance.

It becomes a losing battle.

- The Blenheims during the day were sitting ducks

to the single engine fighters.

The Blenheims on the battles of course,

they were the main casualties in the Battle of France.

Where they will be shot down, well,

complete squadrons were shot down sometimes.

- Faced with the demands of modern warfare,

these aircraft, with basic equipment and limited range,

are completely inadequate for the task demanded of them.

On the 17th of May, 1940,

12 planes were sent to a place called Gembloux.

How many aircraft of those 12 do you think we lost?

The lot.

All 12.

- Hard lessons are being learned, at great cost.

We are sitting ducks.

Fairey Battle squadrons, Handley Page Hampden squadrons,

Whitley squadrons, and Blenheim squadrons

in 1940 were almost decimated.

At Dunkirk, British forces

are evacuated from France.

Britain and her commonwealth stand alone.

Only Bomber Command can carry the fight

back to the Nazi homeland.

- Where we were backed against a wall, and going to

take back, and going to push Hitler off his couch.

- Lacking equipment and instruments

capable of precision navigation and targeting,

only one in three aircraft succeeds

in getting within five miles of its target.

50% of bombs fall in open countryside.

- A map read isn't all that easy, you know.

Particularly if you're traveling at about 180 miles an hour.

That's three miles a minute, and if you're 20 seconds

in thinking, scratching your backside,

you know you've gone a long way off track.

- 169 aircraft set off to raid Berlin.

Fewer than half reached the target.

Very few bombs actually fall upon the Nazi capital.

Nine are killed and 32 injured on the ground.

120 air crew die on this operation.

And Britain itself has come under savage aerial attack.

They started bombing out open cities.

Not only London, Coventry, Plymouth,

Manchester, and various others.

In the course of the war

over 43,000 civilians are killed and many more

seriously injured in German bombing raids on Britain.

The ruthless nature of the Nazi war machine generates

a loathing of the Fuhrer and all he stands for.

What do you think about us going over

to Berlin and doing the same to them?

I should think so, too.

Bit worse than this, I hope, with a wicked bugger back east.

Bomb 'em tenfold.

I'm sorry for the women and children of Berlin,

but what about the women and children of this country?

- Well, if I was a man I'd go over there

and I'd give them the same as what they gave us here.

- There became an urgent need for aircraft

powerful enough to cross the inhospitable skies of occupied

Europe, and strike hard at the heart of the Third Reich.

A new generation of warplane is developed.

The four engine heavy bomber.

They are the Sterling, the Halifax, and the aircraft that

will be described as the finest bomber of World War II,

the Avro Lancaster.

- We shall not fail or falter.

We shall not weaken or tire.

Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

- The Avro Lancaster will become part of Bomber

Command's effort to destroy the Nazi industrial might.

It will play the major role in this operation.

But its origins lay in another, far less successful design.

Three years before the outbreak of war,

Roy Chadwick, Avro's chief designer, responds to an air

ministry specification for a twin engine medium bomber,

powered by two Rolls Royce Vulture engines.

The first prototype of this aircraft, the Avro Manchester,

flies on the 25th of July, 1939.

Problems are immediately obvious.

The Vulture engines lack power,

and there are handling problems while in flight.

However, when war breaks out six weeks later,

the Manchester bomber is rushed into service.

But the Vulture engines are prone to bearing failures

and overheating, causing fires.

In spite of modifications, the Manchester continues

to suffer numerous problems

affecting its performance and reliability.

- The Manchester was greatly underpowered and quite useless.

- At Avro, Chadwick and his team of designers

are already planning to develop the Manchester

into a potent four engine bomber

with a highly successful Rolls Royce Merlin engine

replacing the unreliable Vulture.

- Roy Chadwick added another four foot, 6-1/2 inches

on each wing span that made it a four engine job,

and that was absolutely ideal.

- Here the propellor is being introduced to the

airplane of which in the future it will be an integral part.

- Known as the Merlin Manchester,

or Manchester Mark III for security reasons,

it is named unofficially the Lancaster by its design team.

The Manchester's wing span of 90 feet

is extended to accommodate the extra engines.

This increase in the wing area also improves

the new aircraft's takeoff performance.