Lancaster bomber LL683 General View of Hercules Power Egg

Silver Gelatin photograph

17 December 1943

12 x 16 cm

LL683 JI-P was a Lancaster II and therefore fitted with Bristol Hercules engines rather than the Rolls-Royce Merlin. 350 aircraft were outfitted thus, as a result of fears of shortages of the Merlin. The Hercules came complete as a ‘power egg’ which is a modular engine installation including ancillary equipment which could be swapped over rapidly for maintenance purposes.

LL683 was assigned to 514 Squadron RAF, stationed at Waterbeach from December 1943 with an operational strength of thirty aircraft. The squadron eventually received sixty-seven such Lancasters (fifty-nine of which were destroyed by enemy action or accident).

Stationed at Waterbeach from December 1943, the squadron had previously been stationed at RAF Foulsham in Norfolk. Three of the bombers made the move between the two airfields via a bombing raid on Berlin, the crew members’ kit – including bicycles – also travelling via Berlin.

LL683, serving with 514 Squadron RAF and stationed at Waterbeach had John Clare Gilbertson-Pritchard as pilot for a bombing raid on Stuttgart on the night of 01/02 March 1944. Back in action on 30/31 March for a 795-bomber raid raid on Nurnberg and piloted by W/O WL McGown, the aeroplane suffered a forced landing at Sawbridgeworth; all crew members survived though one broke his back and never flew again.

Condition: good.

Provenance: from the collection of Philip J R Moyes, author of many books on the RAF, most notably The Pictorial History which ran to several volumes.