FREDERICK D. GRANT (grave 101)

Nothing is known about my life at this stage.

The Avro Lancaster was a development of the ill-fated Avro Manchester. The twin engine Manchester had been an unmitigated disaster, under-powered and crash prone. Undeterred, the designer Roy Chadwick increased the wingspan and added two more engines. From a disastrous start, the most legendary bomber of all time was born.

From 1942 onwards the Lancaster, together with the Handley Page Halifax, provided the backbone of bomber command. Equipped with four Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the same engine which powered the equally legendary Spitfire, the Lancaster could deliver 18,000 lbs of bombs to targets up to 2500miles away. Later versions of the Lancaster carried even bigger specialist bombs designed by Barnes Wallis of Dambusters fame.

During the Second World War, The Lancaster conducted a total of 156,000 sorties and dropped 608,612 tons (618,378,000 kg) of bombs. A total of 7377 Lancasters were built, of which 3736 were lost to enemy action and accidents.

Today, only 17 complete Lancasters survive, with just two flying examples. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s PA474 and the Canadian Warplane Heritage’s FM213.

Crew: 7
Span: 102 ft
Length: 69 ft 6 in (tail up)
Height: 20 ft 6 in (tail up)
Empty weight: 37,000 lbs
Loaded weight: 65,000 lbs
Engine: 4 x Rolls-Royce Merlin 24 V-12 engines
Engine power: 1,620 hp at 3,000 rpm (1,208 kW)
Maximum speed: 275 mph
Range: 2,530 miles with 7,000 lbs of bombs
Ceiling: 22,000 ft
8 x .303-caliber machine guns
18,000 lbs of bombs

I was an Air Gunner on this aircraft, it was my job to look out for and defend against attacks from enemy fighters.

We were on our last training flight before being sent to an operational bomber squadron. The task was to simulate a bombing mission as realistically as possible in what was known as a Bullseye mission. This would be conducted entirely over the UK, with friendly defences alerted and tasked to try and cone our Lancaster in searchlights. Finally, we would make a dummy bomb run against a British city, before returning to base.

We took-off from RAF Swinderby at 19:07hrs in Lancaster ED812, with the majority of the mission seeming to go well. However, once we were back over Lincolnshire a fire broke out on board and the aircraft entered a high-speed dive, with the tail and wings breaking off before impact. Our aircraft crashed on the Officers’ Mess at RAF Dunholme Lodge, killing all the crew instantly. Fortunately, nobody on the ground was killed, but 3 people were quite badly injured.

The entry in RAF Dunholme Lodge’s F540.