When did the last Lancaster fly?

Afternoon Peter and Can Brit

Do you kinow if there are any picutures available of that last RCAF commemerative flight?

Gerry

Dont you have any easier questions Brit?

LOL
Hmm thats a tough one I can get a rough idea for you though but give me a couple of days for that. They were spread around all over the country. Do you mean active only or in total?

Peter,

Any idea how many Lancaster’s the RCAF had in service in 1964 when they were all SOS?

You beat me to it Brit! :p

Yes British Canuyck is correct April 1 1964 was the final flight and retirement of the Canadian Lancaster bombers. There was a special ceremony in which the last three PR Lancasters KB976,KB882 and KB839 flew in formation together as FM104 sat on static display.

The same source (good book!) says that the last RAF Lancaster to serve overseas were MR3s of 38 Squadron in Malta. Their last Lanc (RF273) returned to the UK in February 1954 after the squadron started to receive Shackletons. It doesn’t say if this was the last one but surely an overseas squadron would have new aircraft last?
It was traditional! The Lanc I mentioned in my first reply was from the ‘School of Maritime Reconnaissance’
mmitch.

Last RCAF Lancaster Service.

The RCAF Lancaster’s were finally retired from the RCAF on 1 April 1964, after serving for more than twenty years. A number of these were preserved across Canada in different schemes.

Does anyone know what was the squadron number of Coastal Command flew the last of the Lancs in October 1956? Thanks in advance………….

The same book (see above) says the Lancaster went on to provde excellent service to RCAF for a further 20 years after the war. That makes it around 1965? Perhaps PETER on this forum can give an accurate date?
The French Navy used them in North Africia and the Pacific but no dates are given.
mmitch.

On the sme vain,

When did the French and Canadians end their operations of the Lanc.

Thanks Mitch you have just confirmed the date my late father wrote on the photo 15th October 1956 ‘The Last of The Lancasters’ when he was i/c ASF at RAF St Mawgan. Warrant Officer Joe Cooper crouching on the left, interesting that the guy who was OC ASF was a Captain in the USAF on an exchange visit, the name eludes me now but I met him on several occasions.

My flying log shows that on 9th August 1956, some 9 weeks before disbandment, I flew in RF322 for 6 hours and 5 minutes on a BABS-Homing-GCA-Photo Recce-Bombing Runs from St Mawgan when I had been an Aircraft Apprentice at Halton.

These aircraft were of course Lancasters of RAF Coastal Command.

In ‘Avro Lancaster the definitive record’ by Harry Holmes it has a photo of a ‘ceremony at St. Mawgan on 15th October 1956 when the last RAF Lancaster (RF 325)was flown away to be scrapped at Wroughton.’
mmitch.

Not sure of the exact dates but from the various books on the subject I can fiind the following.

Bomber Command squadrons continued to use the Lancasters until 1953 and other RAF Lancs continued to serve until 1964 undertaking a variety of non-combat roles such as photographic reconnaissance duties in Africa.