WIX Archives
Re: Which bits of Lanc on the Isle of Wight ?
Posted by Paul Waites on Fri Jan 25, 2002 05:53:45 AM
In reply top Which bits of Lanc on the Isle of Wight ? posted by Mick on Fri Jan 25, 2002 02:48:24 AM
: Does anyone else think that it is strange that there is qu
: ite a lot of Lanc bits out there in the wild, but apparent
: ly very little of the Halifax, Stirling, Manchester etc et
: c etc ?
:
:
: HoHum
: Mick
Hi all,
My 10p's worth....( or 20 euro's or whatever it is).
Yep it is very frustrating (as a halifax fan) to realise that there is so little halifax material (Stirling, Wellington, Whitley etc) left in comparison to lancaster. (Mind you there still isn't enough Lanc bits).
The truth is that after five years of war the country wanted to see the back of its vast stock of bombers. And I can understand why. The country wasn't really thinking of us; the future generations, and speaking to folk who lived through the war they were very weary and aware of their losses and just wanted to start afresh.
I think that the fact that the Lanc survived the mass destruction better then the Halibag was down to Canada (& France) still flying the Lanc operationally until the sixties. A time when we were just starting to realise that significance of preservation. In 1945 No6 group finally converted all its Halifax squadrons to the Lanc so flew back to Canada with its Lancasters, leaving their Halifax's to the scrapmans torch. Would more halifax's have survived if they had made it back to Canada?
I do think that it is sad that it has happened this way. The recent C4 programs though good just illustrate that future generations will be force fed a diet of Spitfires and Lancasters. The other planes just reduced to bit parts.
Stirlings and Halifax's were operational for a good year before the Lanc appeared and bore the brunt of much of the early bombing campaign and I do feel that their part should not be ignored.
As a final point.... The Welly was operational thoughout the war. 11,000 of them built compared to 7,000 lancs, yet we've only two airframes to remember it by. (And one of them was dragged out of Loch Ness). It doesn't seem right somehow.
Off the soapbox,
Paul.