About this artwork

”Dambusters’ Avro Lancaster was a British four-engined Strategic Bomber that was used as the RAF’s principal heavy bomber during the latter half of the Second World War. The typical aircraft was powered by an arrangement of four wing-mounted Rolls Royce Merlin piston engines. These each drove a 13 ft (4.0 m) diameter De Havilland Hydromatic three-bladed Propeller. While not optimal, the Lancaster was capable of flying the return journey home on only two operational engines. It could also fly very limited distances on a single running engine. Aviation authors Brian Goulding and M. Garbett have claimed that experienced Lancaster pilots were often able to out-manoeuver Luftwaffe fighters. It possessed largely favorable flying characteristics, having been described by Goulding and Garbett as being: “a near-perfect flying machine, fast for its size and very smooth. Many pilots reportedly said,” such a delightfully easy airplane to fly”.
”Dambusters’ Avro Lancaster B Mk.III was modified for the special mission against the German dams during the Second World War. Twenty-three aircraft of this type were built to carry the bouncing bomb for the dam-busting raids. Necessary Modifications had to be made to the Lancaster design.
The bomb bay doors were removed and struts to carry the bomb were fitted in their place, with a hydraulic motor fitted to spin the bomb.
Lamps were also added to measure the required low-flying altitude at night.
A simple handheld tool was designed for the bomber to measure the dropping distance from the dam wall. These changes resulted in the Avro Lancaster B Mk.III taking its place in history as the “Dambuster”.
617 Squadron was formed under great secrecy at RAF Scampton during WWII on 21 March 1943. The Squadron was to use Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. It included pilots from the Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel. 617 Sqn’s specific task was attacking three major dams that contributed water and power to the Ruhr industrial region in Germany: the Mohne, Eder, and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and carried out on 17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics needed to deploy Barnes Wallis’s “Bouncing Bomb”, codename ‘Upkeep’. They undertook some of their training over the dams of the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire.
I decided to paint Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s Lancaster, ED932 / AJ-G without the bomb underneath as they spent hours practicing low-level flight prior to the mission. This is also the first plane I have tried painting properly so I’m hoping I did a good job in honor of the men who never returned.