Here are the personnel needed to support a Lancaster

Thought this might interest you all.

 

The unsung heroes of Bomber Command! They did a magnificent job keeping aircraft in the air and in return they were forgotten by the government when it came to dishing out awards and medals!

 

It is interesting. So that would an individual aircraft's ground and air crew. There's probably another three times as many base personnel providing for all the other needs.

 

They were all very important however not very often acknowledged as such.

 

Hi David,

I notice there is a woman in the front row holding something that looks like an esky. What would have her job been and what is she holding

John :becky:

 

Looks like some sort of hamper.

Tea and sandwiches for the crew?

 

Or the parachute packer

 

Probably a parachute packer in this case, but many women held the position of Met Officer, Information officer and debriefing officer.

 

Here's what I came up with elsewhere.

THE LANCASTER

Petrol bowser and crew - Mobile workshop and crew

Corporal mechanic, four aircraftmen (mechanics), engineer officer, fitter (armourer), three armourers, radio mechanic, two instrument repairers, three bomb handlers, fitter.

Bomb train with W.A.A.F. driver and bombing up crew.

Flight maintenance crew: N.C.O. fitter, five mechanics, electrical mechanic, instrument repairer, two radio mechanics.

Flying control officer, W.A.A.F. parachute packer, met. officer, pilot, navigator, air bomber, flight engineer, wireless op/air gunner, two air gunners.

The above taken from Lancaster - The Story Of A Famous Bomber, by Bruce Robertson.

 

It looks like parachute packer was most popular answer.
When you look at the list David supplied per Lancaster, no wonder the air force had a lot of personel.

John

 

I don't believe that the would have gone up without a flask of tea!

Who looked after that?

And I am not being funny either.

 

That would be the responsibility of the Catering department because aircrew were also given sandwiches for the flight as well.

But I think that she is carrying a parachute.

 

Agree with the parachute.

 

I seem to recall seeing an estimate of over 7000 personnel on a station for just one bomber squadron of 21 aircraft. This is from memory so i could be wrong.

 

That is a cool picture! Thanks for sharing.

In researching about my uncle, I have read that 60 B-17's were lost on one raid. That's 600 men! Now think of the number of men behind those air craft. One hell of an effort it was.

Regards,

Andy

 

I count 46 people in that picture. Would all these people have been allocated solely to that one aircraft; would some of them have worked with several aircraft or across the whole base?

 

I do not know about the Parachute rigger or the armourers, but most aircraft of that time had dedicated ground crews. it was only later on that the RAF moved to the new system where aircraft werre allocated ground crew as and when necessary!

 

The ground support team were known as 'Erks. Is that actually "herks" with the h-dropped, or is it short for another word? If so, what it is short for, and what is the origin of the word? In all my reading, I have never seen that term explained...

 

This may give you some ideas !!

erks

 

Great picture.