CLAIMS TO FAME THE LANCASTER

This book celebrates the Lancaster 'centenarians' - 34 machines that achieved the remarkable goal of 100 or more operations flown during the course of the Second World War.

A Lancaster crew's first tour of duty stood at 30 operations, but both men and aircraft often failed to reach even half that total during the long, exhausting and relentless night bombing of Germany. These reasons alone make the records of these special Lancasters even more extraordinary.

An aircraft would often be flown by different crews on different nights, depending upon losses, damage and deployment requirements. Thus a Lancaster would have carried two or three crews to their magic '30-up' tour and many more individual airmen whose original crews had been broken up. Skill, training, familiarity and teamwork would all increase the chances of getting through a raid successfully - but, as in all modes of warfare, luck inevitably played a large part in deciding which Lancaster would be found by a nightfighter, or hit by flak, and which would complete an operation without incident.

The stories presented in the pages of this book reflect unique sets of circumstances that permitted 34 Lancasters to survive 100 operations - when more than sixty per cent of all aircrew in Bomber Command became casualties during the course of the bombing campaign.

Norman Franks has achieved a considerable feat in piecing together the crew, aircraft and mission details of these 34 'centenarians' a task never before attempted. Through meticulous research of station and squadron records, logbooks and archives, as well as the memories of many veterans, he has been able to offer a comprehensive narrative for each Lancaster

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