Misty Morning

Description

Misty Morning Avro Lancaster

by Philip E. West

Approx. overall print size: 18” x 28”/ 46 x 71cms

Misty Morning Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster was designed from the outset to build a bomber capable of reaching the heartland of the enemy.
Put this together with Rolls Royce Merlin engines, and a superlative aircraft was born. No less than 59 Bomber Command units saw active service with the Lancaster, flying 156,000 sorties.
Some 7377 aircraft were built by six factories producing five different variants of the Lancaster. Here is a typical wartime scene.
Lancaster’s from 35 Squadron are being prepared for yet another Pathfinder mission, with the ground crew busy servicing, rearming and refuelling the aircraft.

150 Prints in the Primary edition   £125.00

The Primary Edition has been signed by the artist and:

Flt Lt Phil Ainley DFC

Flt Lt Phil Ainley DFC was accepted for aircrew training in February 1942 at the age of 17½ years. He was selected for pilot training and was sent to the United States Naval Aviation base in Pensecola.
After gaining his United States Navy wings on completion of his Catalina flying boat course, he was commissioned and returned to the UK.
Following retraining on land planes, he eventually joined No. 57 Lancaster squadron in May 1944.

The squadron was heavily engaged in attacking both French flying bomb sites, the build up to D. Day and German industrial targets.
One sortie to Konigsberg necessitated flying for 11 hours 10 minutes, whilst another was to drop mines in the Stettin canal from 250 feet.
For this last sortie Flt Lt Ainley was awarded an immediate DFC. He completed his operational tour of 33 sorties in October 1944,
having flown all this time with the same crew with the exception of a replacement flight engineer.
On completing a course at the Bomber Command Instructors School, he became a flying instructor in Bomber Command.
Misty Morning Avro Lancaster