Hi just to continue this old thread on Lancaster PO-S Sugar and specifically her former nose arts I am attaching a photo of two nose arts that I had specially done to recreate Sugars two nose arts that used to be on the aircraft before her final nose art was applied.

The first art added was while she served on 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton this art depicted a Red Devil thumbing his nose and dancing in flames with the motto “devils of the air” underneath, when she transferred to 467 Squadron my late Father Ted Willoughby was the Airman tasked with receiving her from the ferry pilot and she still had the initial nose art on at that time, the second nose art was a naked lady holding and about to drop a bomb this was painted out as her tally built up and she approached the 100 op mark then the new art was a bomb for each op with the famous No enemy plane will fly over the reich territory Herman Goering quote this was applied by my Father he spelt Herman wrong it should have had two N’s (Hermann) the nose arts I recreated were painted on original Lancaster under wing panels and are currently in storage. I have attached a picture of them the artwork was recreated from original wartime photographs.

Regards Martin Willoughby

While building my Sugar cockpit currently on loan to Avro Heritage, I was busily engaged collecting numerous Lancaster related components from all over the world, there are many items amongst which was 4 under wing panels in good condition, I restored two of them and in order to tell Sugars history, I did this by recreating the two former nose arts displayed on R5868 at different times of her career on the panels, I have displayed them before alongside my Sugar Cockpit this way people can see all of her art work in the flesh so to speak, her first nose art was applied while Sugar served on 83Sqn this was a red devil Mestophelise to whom Faust sold his soul in German legend thumbing his nose and dancing in flames with the motto “Devils of the Air” beneath him – the second Nose art was a Naked Lady holding and about to drop a Bomb and her final nose art was applied throughout the rest of her service altered every time she completed a sortie with another bomb, by the way when my Dad stenciled on the “No Enemy Plane Will Fly Over the Reich Territory” Signed Herman Goering he spelt Herman wrong it should have been spelt Hermann with two letter N’s a spelling mistake that remains to this day!

This is an old thread so not sure if anyone will read this but the airman that painted on the “No Enemy Plane Will Fly Over the Reich Territory” Quote was my late Father Ted Willoughby he also came up with the idea for it from a cartoon in a Readers Digest at the time, my Dad was Sugars wartime ground engineer he was also responsible for saving Sugar as he campaigned to have her placed in the RAF Museum and met some resistance as PA474 the BBMF Lanc was earmarked for the museum, my Dad got his way by pointing out its overwealming historical value over PA474 which saw no active service, by contrast Sugar was the first allied bomber to reach 100 ops and completed a staggering 137 ops, my Dad is the airman in the wartime photo chalking 100 not out on the cookie 4000lb Bomb in front of Sugar. He restored Sugar with his own money which for the record was completely gutted inside so none of the instrumentation and equipment inside Sugar is original however the Airframe is my Dad was always frustrated by people trying to say that the airframe was not original it’s was however overhauled the engines where changed, Sugar had three nose arts during her career the Red Devil while on 83sqn followed by the naked lady when she joined 467 Sqn and finally her current nose art which is accurate as per When she completed her service. I was with my dad throughout her restoration from the late 60s to the late 70s. Hope this insight helps clear up some questions. By the way I built another Sugar forward fuselage as a tribute to my fathers work you can see this airframe at AvroHeritage and go onboard it for a small fee which helps to sustain it. That’s all for now!
Martin Willoughby