Blog No. 307 – Cliff and the “Avro” Lancaster Bomber, Part 2 – 16 July 2025

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

****

Cliff in 1972 at age 51.  Cropped from a larger photo.

****

The vulnerability of the Lancaster to attacks from below by German fighter planes was highlighted in a Report headed “Night Combat Trials With a Lancaster” [FIU Report 201.  An extract from that Report is shown above.

****

Another photo of a Lancaster bomber while flying.  Note that the only guns on the Lancaster were located on the top and at the front of the plane.  There were no guns on the bottom of the plane and there was nothing to enable an easy view of any enemy fighters attacking from below. 

****

Cliff’s Service Record shows that he was posted to Feltwell (a) on the 13th of February 1944.  This posting lasted only 6 days and on the 19th of February 1944, Cliff was posted to 32 Base.

There is a lot more information in these Service Record entries than might seem at first glance.

From 1943 to 1945, the official name of RAF Feltwell was No. 3 Lancaster Finishing School – Avro Lancaster.  When Cliff was posted for 6 days to Feltwell, it was so he could be trained as an aircrew member flying in a Lancaster bomber.

Once his training at Feltwell had finished, he was transferred back to Mildenhall – but the official RAF designation for Mildenhall had changed to 32 Base. Mildenhall had officially become part of 32 Base on the 1st of March 1943.

This part of the Service Record reveals that Cliff was trained to be an aircrew member on Lancaster bombers while at Feltwell from 13 to 19 February 1944.  After being trained, Cliff was returned to Mildenhall. 

What war service was Cliff REALLY tasked to perform?  Why was he trained as an aircrew member of a Lancaster?

A clue to what Cliff was asked to do at this time can be gained from events that are known to have happened at this time.

It is impossible to believe Cliff was trained as an aircrew member and transferred back to Mildenhall simply because the RAF wanted to have “spare” trained personnel that it could keep in reserve.  That would have been a waste of resources at a time when resources were very scarce. 

****

It is certain that if the D Day landings on 6 June 1944 to recapture German occupied western Europe were to have any hope of success, the Luftwaffe had to be destroyed.

The operation to destroy the Luftwaffe was nicknamed Big Week – and Big Week commenced on the 20th of February 1044.

Cliff was trained at Feltwell and then sent back to Mildenhall so he could take part in Big Week (probably as a member of Squadron 662) during the ferocious air battles of Big Week.

****

This is the wiki version summary of Big Week.

Operation Argument, after the war dubbed Big Week, was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive against Nazi Germany. The objective of Operation Argument was to destroy aircraft factories in central and southern Germany in order to defeat the Luftwaffe before the Normandy landings during Operation Overlord were to take place later in 1944. The joint daylight bombing campaign was also supported by RAF Bomber Command operating against the same targets at night. Arthur "Bomber" Harris resisted contributing RAF Bomber Command so as not to dilute the British "area bombing" offensive against Berlin. It took an order from Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, to force Harris to comply.

****

As an Official Observer, Cliff’s job was to stay completely alert during the whole time that his Lancaster was in the air and watch out for German fighters that were trying to take advantage of the Lancaster’s “Blind Spot” and shoot his plane out of the sky.

The Lancaster was a wonderfully manoeuvrable airplane, but by February 1944, the Luftwaffe was very aware of how to destroy Lancasters.  Cliff’s job was to try and remedy the serious design flaw in the manufacture of the Lancaster.

Bomber Command suffered very severe losses during Big Week.

****

I will give more information about Big Week in the next blog.

****

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

****

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.

Luckily for me, Cliff did return.