Blog No. 306 – Cliff and the “Avro” Lancaster Bomber, Part 1 – 15 July 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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This photo shows Cliff at a formal function in the 1970s.  Cliff smoked a lot – as did nearly everyone who had served in WW 2 – and smoking indoors at social functions and restaurants in Australia was still permitted when this photo was taken.

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A Lancaster bomber while flying as seen from below. 

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A Lancaster bomber showing the bomb bay.

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The “Avro” Lancaster is the most famous British bomber in the service of Bomber Command in WW 2.  “Avro” was short for AV Roe, the company that made the Lancaster.

A prototype of the Lancaster was flying in January 1941.  Although the first operational Lancaster came off the production line in October 1941, only four were operational on 1 March 1942.  The Lancaster was steadily distributed throughout the RAF after this.  A total of 7,377 Lancasters were built during the war

The major advantages of the Lancaster were:

• Its ability to carry a payload of 10,000 pounds (4,535.9 kilograms); and

• Its great manoeuvrability

Although the Lancaster did indeed have a significant major design flaw, that flaw was kept secret during the war and even today, few are aware of the significance of that design flaw.  The fatal flaw in the design of the Lancaster was the fatal flaw, the lack of a Belly Gun Turret.  Because the lack of a Belly gun turret was an Official Secret, the role played by "Observers" who served on the Lancasters, was also an official "secret".

Cliff served as an aircrew member in the role of Official Observer on Lancaster bombers while at Mildenhall.   Even when the war ended, the most senior people in the RAF continued to conceal the fatal design flaw in the Lancaster because it was an embarrassment.  It showed the high casualties in suffered by the Lancaster bombers could have been avoided.

In order to maintain the secrecy of the role of Official Observer in the Lancaster and the design flaw that the use of the Official Observer was supposed to rectify, Cliff’s Service Record was deliberately doctored to ensure it made no reference to his aircrew role in Bomber Command.

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During early 1942, No. 44 Squadron, based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, became the first RAF squadron to convert to the Lancaster; it was quickly followed by No. 97 Squadron, which was also based at Waddington. On 2 March 1942, the first operational mission of the Lancaster, deploying naval mines in the vicinity of Heligoland Bight, was performed by aircraft of No. 44 Sqn; a planned mission against the German battleship Tirpitz had been rescheduled due to poor weather conditions. On 10 March 1942, the type's first bombing mission was conducted over the German city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The first recorded casualties amongst Lancaster crews were recorded on 24 March 1942 with the loss of R5493 to anti-aircraft fire over Lorient. Due to the high loss rates typically involved in such operations, daytime bombing missions were performed sparingly until the Allies had achieved a level of aerial supremacy over the Axis powers. On 17 April 1942, 12 Lancasters of No. 44 and No. 99 Squadrons undertook a bombing raid on the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg A.G., Augsburg engine manufacturing plant in Southern Germany; despite flying at low altitude, three bombers were shot down by Luftwaffe Bf 109s over France, and at least two more were lost to anti-aircraft fire at the factory itself. Nonetheless, the factory was successfully bombed, a feat that was personally hailed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the aftermath. The attack revealed the existence of the Lancaster to both Germany and the British public alike. On 27 April, an unsuccessful small-scale attack on the Tirpitz was performed by Lancasters of both No. 44 and No. 99 Squadrons.

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The lack of a Belly Gun turret meant that the crew of the Lancaster had no way of being able to see any Luftwaffe fighter planes that attacked them from below.  Not only were attackers from below invisible, there were no guns that could be aimed directly at German attackers coming from below.

Oops! 

Being able to fly at a great height with a massive load of bombs on board was not enough in itself to protect the Lancaster crew members from being shot out of the sky and probable death.

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Wiki alludes very briefly to the basic design flaw in the Lancaster, but doe not specifically identify what that flaw was.

When the Luftwaffe began using Schräge Musik to make attacks from below in the winter of 1943/1944, modifications were made, including downward observation blisters mounted behind the bomb aimer's blister and official and unofficial mounts for .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns or even 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon, firing through the ventral holes of the removed FN-64. The fitting of these guns was hampered as the same ventral position was used for mounting the H2S blister, which limited installations to those aircraft fitted with bulged bomb bays which interfered with the H2S.

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The photo above shows page 26 of “The Lancaster Bomber Pocket Manual:1941-1945”.  Beginning at page 12, the Pocket manual reproduces the Uk Air Ministry Specification No P 13/36 Medium Bomber.  The development of the Lancaster was solidly based on this Air Ministry specification.  The specification shows there were 4 guns at the rear (operated by the Tail End Charlie) and 2 guns at the front.  There were no guns aiming downward from the belly of the Lancaster.  Although the RAF had used “Observers” to perform various duties since WW 1, the job of the Official Observer on the Lancaster was to constantly watch for Nazi fighter planes attacking from below.

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Cliff served as an Official Observer.  Cliff’s brother Eric was certain that Cliff flew at least 3 missions as an Official Observer.  None of these missions is mentioned on cliff’s Service Record. 

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There are some surviving indications that point to wards Cliff’s duty as an official Observer with Bomber Command.

I will examine those indications in the next blog.

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By helping others to heal We help ourselves heal Remember those who preceded us. Give abundant Love Always

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Money cannot buy the important things needed to live.  It cannot buy courage or love.

Banish hatred from your heart. 

Bravery multiplies with use.  

We can always find courage; it is free but its value cannot be calculated.  Not one of Britain’s servicemen opposed Hitler because of a desire for money.

Those who fought Hitler while serving in the RAF were astonishingly brave – and so many of them never returned home.