Avro Lancaster, Lincoln and York in post-war RAF service 1945-1950
Avro Lancaster, Lincoln and York in post-war RAF service 1945-1950
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]uring the World War II RAF Bomber command had played a very significant role, but that role continued even after Victory over Europe day arrived. A new era in world aviation arrived, a jet age, and although RAF had in its service jet planes, years to come truly still belonged to the piston engine aircrafts. When the war ended RAF was downsizing its army to the peace-time level, so there were a lot of planes that needed to re-service, bombers were modified to transporters, transporters to civil airliners etc.
After the VE Day RAF strategic command has decided to keep Lancasters in service as well as new Lancaster variant Lincoln. To significantly expand its delivery capabilities, Bomber Command acquired B-29 Superfortresses, known to the RAF as Boeing Washingtons. These aircraft added another level of capability to a fleet dominated by Avro Lincolns, an update of the Lancaster.
This paperback book, published by Dalrymple and Verdun publishing, comes on 112 pages with 7 colour 4-views, 3 colour & 151 b/w photos. The book is divided in introduction followed by five chapters, two appendices, colour profiles. After the short introduction about the subject of the book Martin Derry, the author of the book, in the first chapter covers the organization of the RAF bomber command providing the order of battle from 1945 to 1950. Author fully describes early post war stations of the RAF bombers in subject. In second chapter Derry describes other Lancasters, Linkolns and units from the given period. It is important to note that the quality of the photos is outstanding, and to me as a modeler this is very important. In the early postwar years RAF was experimenting and developing new engine types piston and jet and new airplanes as well. The test bed for these was found in Lancasters and Lincolns, and that story is brought to us in chapter three. These planes had an important role in the RAF maritime service. Air-sea rescue and maritime reconnaissance were the assignments for the Lancasters, everything is described in chapter four, and you can find all important data’s like squadrons, periods they used Lancasters and notes. The final chapter covers Avro York, which was also derived from Lancaster, and was used after the war as army and civil transport airplane. Author has beautifully described development of this bird and provided a special segment of the chapter dedicated to squadrons and serials of the Yorks used by RAF.
Color profiles and views found in this book are great quality, and very useful for a modeler. In conclusion, beside the interesting topic, wonderful sets of images and illustrations, considering the amount of data and information I was interested in, I must say that this book is a real gem and that I can warmly recommend it !
Darko Mladenovic
Sample book provided by Bill Anderson from Dalrymple & Verdun publishing
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