Wartime Colour film of Lancaster operations

[iggie]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this previously so apologies in advance if so!

I found this YouTube footage by accident as you do when mooching around the internet, and thought it would be of interest; the original colour film shows the preparation of Lancs for a raid on Berlin, operating from RAF Hemswell in 1943. As ever with this kind of film it is humbling to see the work that was involved from the ground crews and ancillary personnel, as well as the flight crews who flew time and again against such awful odds....we must never forget their sacrifices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7b_w5EX04E

[despondman]

Nice find, thanks for posting the link. Very interesting film, probably more so for me as I live more or less down the road from Hemswell.
After all the excitement of the 2 Lancasters this summer it is fantastic to see the shot at the start of the film of multiple Lancasters taxying.

[PaulBradley]

Fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing, iggie. Some good tips for building Airfix Lancs, and ground support vehicles.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Thank you, iggie !!!

OK, Airfix, lots of good ideas for the Bomber Resupply Set #2 there - get cracking.

The clip iggie shared seems to be a splice of two separate films, but then is cut off.
If you look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tH8OVAICjQ; and skip to about the last 4 or 5 minutes you can catch the missing piece.

I think we ought to build a library of these clips for the 2015 Lanc GB reference section !

[Eric Mc]

These are now quite well know clips taken by Wing Commander Illiffe Couzens. Bits of the footage often show up in documentaries.

The BBC originally showed an edited version of this footage in a documentary way back in 1979 - which was the first time I saw it. I think it is the only World War 2 colour footage of Bomber Command operations.