Lancaster Bomber W4113 GP-J

Original Silver Gelatin photograph, c. 1944

19 x 24 cm

Published in Aeroplane Magazine, 4 February 1944. Stamped to reverse ‘Wanted by 31 Janary’ making this the original photograph used by the editing team at Aeroplane; and ‘T[emple] P[ress] Ltd’.

Photograph in official Air Ministry Second World War Collection, glass plate negative taken by F/O S A Devon.

Lancaster B Mark I, W4113 ‘GP-J’, of No. 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit based at Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire, in flight. W4113 was a veteran aircraft having flown on a number of raids with Nos. 49 and 156 Squadrons RAF in 1942 and 1943, and was sent to a Heavy Conversion Unit where airmen were trained to operate the Lancaster. Became 4969M on 9/12/44, being reclassified as a ground instruction aircraft.

W4113 took part in the following bombing raids: No. 49 Squadron; 1) Düsseldorf, 15-16/08/42; 2) Osnabrück, 17-18/08/42; 3) Flensburg, 18-19/08/42; 4) Gardening, Bornholm, 20-21/08/42; 5) Kassel, 27-28/08/42; 6) Saarbrücken, 01-02/09/42; 7) Duisburg, 06-07/09/42; 8.) Frankfurt, 08-09/09/42; 9) Bremen, 13-14/09/42; 10) Wilhelmshaven, 14-15/09/42; 11) Gardening, Kattegatt, 18-19/09/42; 12) Wismar, 01-02/10/42; 13) Aachen, 05-06/10/42; 14) Wismar, 12-13/10/42; 15) Kiel, 13-14/10/42; 16) Cologne, 15-16/10/42; 17) Genoa, 22-23/10/42; 18.) Genoa, 07-08/11/42; 19) Hamburg, 09/10/11/42; 20) Genoa, 15-16/11/42; 21) Stuttgart, 22-23/11/42; 22) Turin, 28-29/11/42; 23) Mannheim, 06-07/12/42, 24) 20-21/12/42. No. 156 Squadron.: a) Nuremburg, 25-26/02/43.

It was produced in the third production batch of 207 aircraft ordered from A. V. Roe Co., Ltd., as part of Contract No. B69274/40 (as extended) under Works Order No. 7671, W4102-W4140, W4154-W4201, W4230-4279, W4301-W4340 and W4355-W4384. Deliveries commenced 07/42, completed 11/42 (average rate of production, approximately 13 aircraft per week). Merlin XX and XXII engines. Original Contract covered 453 aircraft in this batch but 243 were cancelled (W4385-W4900, W4414-4463, W4481-W4524, W4537-W4385, W4600-W4641 and W4655-W4700).

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.

Condition: a couple of old edge tears and creases, visible in image.