Britain at War - 09.2019

'Britain at War' Magazine,PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 1NA| [email protected]

FIELD POST

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64 http://www.britainatwar.com

The author of the Letter of the Month will recieve a book of the Editor's choosing up to the value of £25.

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Lancaster Lineage

Dear Editor,

I was interested to read the

World War Two’s Finest Bomber

feature in the August issue, as

the history of Bomber Command

is a big passion of mine. The

article rightly says about the

Lancaster’s lineage, from

Manchester to Shackleton, but

the Boeing B-29 Superfortress

also had long ‘legs’, serving

post-war with the RAF as the

Washington. It also ‘inspired’

the Soviet Tupolev Tu-4. [The

Tu-4s were B-29 copies, made

by reverse engineering methods

using American-built Superforts

as templates.]

Another American bomber – the

Boeing B-17 was another type

ABOVE Vulcan prototype VX770, which flew barely a decade after the Lancaster

entered service. (KEY COLLECTION)

that the RAF made good use of,

and the Flying Fortress had a very

long career, first flying in 1935

and still being in service with US

‘special agencies’ as late as 1962

and with the Brazilian air force

up to 1968.

The feature brought up some

fascinating points though – I

look forward to similar in future

issue – maybe fighters next? As a

footnote I’d like to point out that

only a decade went by between

the Avro Lancaster entering

service and the amazing jet-

engined Avro Vulcan making its

first flight – talk about a giant leap

in technology!

Tommy King

Via email

ABOVE Vulcan prototype VX770, which flew barely a decade after the Lancaster

entered service.

Lancaster LineageLancaster Lineage

Thunderbirds Still Going Strong

Dear Editor,

It was good to see the early

years of one of my former

squadrons covered on the

Thunderbirds over Berlin feature

in the August issue of your

informative magazine that I

picked up during a UK visit.

Your readers might be

interested to know that at the

end the war 426 Squadron

transitioned to the transport role

flying converted Consolidated

Liberators. Then, after a short

time flying Dakotas, it became

the premier RCAF transport unit

when in late 1947 it began flying

the Canadair North Star – a

Merlin-engined development of

the Douglas DC-4 – known in the

UK as, I think, the Argonaut. It

proved a most reliable aircraft

and was mainly responsible

for sustaining the airbridge to

Canadian Forces during the

Korean War. When the North

Stars were eventually replaced in

the early 1960s, 426 Squadron

was de-activated.

However, in May 1971 phoenix-

like the Thunderbirds rose again

as the Canadian Forces air

transport operational training

unit. Now once more part of

the RCAF, the Thunderbirds

provide training to air and ground

members on

most RCAF

transport

aircraft, including the CC-130H

and CC-130J Hercules and

CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A-310) and

looks set to continue well into the

future. I have attached a couple

of recent photos that might be

of interest.

Thanks for offering a look back

onto the heritage of a great

squadron.

Pat Bolitho

Ottawa

Via Email

ABOVE An CC-130J Hercules leaving a wintery

Trenton on a training sortie. (VIA PAT BOLITHO)

64-65 FIELDPOST BAW SEPT2019.indd 64 8/15/2019 5:07:08 PM