617 & 9 Sqdn Lancaster Russian write-offs?

Some years ago, Jim Pierce told me about a couple of Lanc’s that were supposedly still in Russia. Not sure how serious he was being though.

Bob T.

Hi All,
jack windsor – The Russians knew of Six (Ref Post 11/3rd Paragraph), basically it grinds down to the remains of the two at least that where not considered when four of them were taken and two made airworthy, But your post as hit the nail on the head as to the likely outcome.

I am just interested in what happened there must have been paperwork concerning the right offs even if only on the RAF’s side surely ? If this is the case
what records office would I need to contact in my quest anybody please ?

Geoff.

hi,
when I first read this thread, my first thoughts were used as spare parts for the one’s the Russians got flying, and or as patterns for “reverse engineering” ie the B.29’s, but with the B.29 arrivals a more advanced design was on hand…

just a thought, regards,
jack…

Jim Pearce was on the trail of one of them at one time, and another guy who I spoke to years ago (an author) reckoned he had the GPS of one, but was concerned that any recovery attempt would ‘destroy it’

There is a picture in lancaster at war of an almost complete lancaster bellied in captioned as being in Russia. While there were many recoveries in Russia in the nineties they were almost exclusively smaller single and twin engined, easier to recover, store, ship and sell. Makes you wonder if the more cumbersome stuff is still there. It’s difficult to imagine that given the number of recoveries in such a short space of time that there’s nothing else?

Hi All,
rich_82 – I know that some of the Lancasters that forced landed were repaired and returned home (i.e your NF920). It’s the US Lancasters that were left behind that I was wondering about. If you take Paul Brickhills book and the article Flankerman linked in his post, that still leaves at least two Lancasters
that were either left in situ or scrapped all I am asking is what were those aircraft eventual fates ?

I would like to think (Dream:rolleyes:) that being as these were some non accessible aircraft (i.e having guides and medics parachuted into there locations)
these are the ones. I assume that recovery technics and equipment of this day and age would mean that they could possibly recover if deemed financially
viable these remains.

Geoff.

Oddly enough, I’ve just been reading Out of the Blue: The Final Landing which features, amongst the many excellent “there was I” accounts by serving and former RAF aircrew, three chapters covering the ultimately successful raids by 617 and 9 Sqn on Tirpitz, by one of the crew, a Nav I think.

Recommend the book, proceeds to the RAFBF – Out of the Blue, and Out of the Blue Too are also worth adding to your library!

Some of the Lancasters that landed out were repaired and flown back to the UK, not taking part in the raid. For instance – NF920 was one of the 13 that was ‘missing’ having landed at another airfield which was much shorter and bordered by trees damaging one of her radiators.

NF920 is the wreck that featured in John Nichol’s documentary, sadly since then there’s been more pilfering as a result of making it more widely known. Parts such as the cockpit canopy frame, front turret frame and pilots floor/seat base have all gone, presumably into private collections. It winds me up as me and others have spent ages doing things the right way to try and effect recovery, only to have people go take what they please… with some of it showing up on ebay.

Hi All,
Thanks for all your interest and help. :eagerness: Having read again, there were 13 Lancaster not accounted for at first then reports came in dribs and drabs,
in the space of three hours they knew exactly where the missing aircraft were. The following is where I am interested:- (A Russian interpreter informed
that Four had landed at another airfield, also reports came in of others within a 100 mile radius in various fields, even parachuting in medical teams and
guides to the isolated ones).

So 13 missing Lancasters, four they new of on another airfield and the six I already mentioned that leaves another three in the various fields that were remote, that then begs the question what happened to those three recovered or still there ? According to what I can gather from Paul Brickhill’s book.

But according to the article link provided by FlankerMan Ten Lancasters forced landed of which Six where left in Russia, four where inspected with two
of them (The two already mentioned by David Kavangh) made airworthy.

This still leaves the unanswered question of what actually happened to those Lancaster remnants left behind that the Russians never used if the above
statement from the linked article is correct

Geoff.

Which work? Surely Just Jane is the next Lancaster preservation milestone if/when it returns to flight.

With the work done in the USA with B17,s lately I cant see why the same cant be done with Lancasters..

Nice model!

I built a model of one of them……. 20 years ago….

The Russian model magazine was ‘Mir Aviatsiya’ and the codename for the Tirpitz attack was Operation Paravan

More pics – plus the history behind the Soviet Lancaster is here:- http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Modeling/Avro/Lancaster/Airfix/FullBuild/Duffy/index.php

Ken

The Soviets got at least two flying again, with modified noses. One crashed, the other scrapped post war. This wasn’t known about in the west until a Russian magazine article in the 1990s.

I imagine it was NF920 which was shown in the John Nichol documentary (repeated a couple of days ago). Detailing the
missions flown by 617 Squadron after the dams raid ?

NF920 wasn’t one of the Russian write offs, she was on the second Tirpitz mission by 617 when she force landed in Sweden. Rather happily there has been some progress which may see her recovered in the near future in a joint UK/Sweden effort.

At least one of the wrecked Lancs was recovered and flown by the Russians, I believe it was reported to have crashed some years later near Moscow. There are photos of it kicking about, I’ll try and find a link.

Here’s a link.
What’s left is still there.

https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2016/07/easy-elsie-lancaster-nf920/

Andy

NF920 is the last one left…