More Luck of a Lancaster: 109 Operations, 315 Crew, 101 Killed in Action

This is the story of the men behind the numbers and their costly wartime trials.

From 11 June 1943, the date of Lancaster Mark III EE136 WS/R’s very first op, to her last with 9 Squadron (on 19 October 1944), eighty-six Lancasters were assigned to Number 9. Of these, fifty were lost to enemy action, another five crashed at home, three crashed in Russia on the first Tirpitz raid and four were transferred to other squadrons only to be lost by them, leaving just twenty-four still flying.

As more...