Lancaster ED999



This photograph was taken in "Wings for Victory Week" (1st to 8th May) in 1943 in the city of Lancaster.

The aircraft is a brand new Mk 3 Lancaster built by A V Roe as part of the 4th production batch of 620 aircraft at the Newton Heath factory near Manchester.

It was delivered to 5 Group Bomber Command and issued to 49Sqn at RAF Fiskerton and coded EA-A.

For the exhibition, the aircraft was dismantled, transported to the park in Lancaster and reassembled for public viewing.

During its career with 49Sqn, ED999 flew 25 operations and was used by 11 different crews.
(Each target is linked to the pilot's name)

The targets were:
03/0743 - Cologne
08/07/43 - Cologne
09/07/43 - Gelsenkirchen
12/07/43 - Turin
29/07/43 - Hamburg
30/07/43 - Remscheid
02/08/43 - Hamburg
09/08/43 - Mannheim
10/08/43 - Nurenburg
15/08/43 - Milan
17/08/43 - Peenemünde
22/08/43 - Leverkusen
23/08/43 - Berlin
27/08/43 - Nurenburg
30/08/43 - Mönchengladbach
31/08/43 - Berlin
03/09/43 - Berlin
05/09/43 - Mannheim
06/09/43 - Munich
02/10/43 - Munich
03/10/43 - Kassel
07/10/43 - Stuttgart
08/10/43 - Hannover
18/10/43 - Hannover
20/10/43 - Leipzig

Between the 16th and 25th July, ED999 was loaned to 617Sqn and took part in a raid to bomb transformers stations in northern Italy (Aquata Scrivia). They flew on to land at Blida on the north African coast, returning to the UK on the 24th July via a raid on Leghorn (old English for Livorno).
During this period with 617Sqn, ED999 was operated by an ex-49Sqn crew piloted by Ralph Allsebrook.
On the return journey every available inch of space was crammed with "North African goodies"......mostly fruit and alcohol.

(The father of our Association President remembers being given an orange....a rare sight in 1943..... by Guy Gibson for some work he had done)

Following the final raid to Leipzig on the 20th October 1943, ED999 was transferred to 44Sqn and given the code KM-X.

ED999 went to Berlin on five occasions and was lost on the fifth raid, the 23rd December 1943.

The crew were initially posted as "Missing in Action" but later identified and reburied (see below).



Extract courtesy of Bill Chorley's Bomber Command Losses 1943