G for George is an

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stir ...

Mk. I bomber, squadron code AR-G and

serial number A serial number is a unique identifier assigned incrementally or sequentially to an item, to ''uniquely'' identify it. Serial numbers need not be strictly numerical. They may contain letters and other typographical symbols, or may consist enti ...

''W4783'', operated by No. 460 Squadron RAAF during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It is now preserved at the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving pe ...

(AWM),

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

History

G-George flew 90 operational sorties over occupied Europe with 460 Squadron, and is the second most prolific surviving Lancaster, behind ''R5868'' S for Sugar of No. 83 Squadron RAF/

No. 463 Squadron RAAF No. 463 Squadron RAAF was a Royal Australian Air Force heavy bomber squadron during World War II. The squadron was formed in the United Kingdom in late 1943 from personnel and aircraft allocated from No. 467 Squadron RAAF. The squadron was eq ...

No. 467 Squadron RAAF No. 467 Squadron RAAF was a Royal Australian Air Force bomber squadron, active over North West Europe during World War II. Formed in November 1942 as an Article XV Squadron in Britain, the squadron was notionally an Australian squadron under th ...

(137 sorties). Most operational Lancasters were shot down before they had reached 20

sortie A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining supp ...

s: of the 107,085 sorties by Lancasters despatched in bombing raids on Germany 2,687 aircraft went missing. G-George has the added distinction of bringing home, alive, every crewman who flew aboard it. Upon retirement from combat duty in 1944, G-George was flown to Australia by an all-RAAF crew of Bomber Command veterans, and played a major part in raising

war bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...

s during a round-Australia publicity trip. Post-war, it was left to decay in the open air at

RAAF Base Fairbairn Fairbairn (), formerly RAAF Base Fairbairn, is a former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) military air base, located in Australia's national capital, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Over the years the name of the establishment, and th ...

, before being moved to the AWM in the early 1950s. In 2003, G-George returned to display at the AWM in the new ANZAC Hall after a five-year restoration program at the Treloar Technology Centre, which restored the aircraft as faithfully as possible to its wartime configuration. It is displayed in conjunction with a sound and light show that attempts to convey something of the atmosphere of a World War II Bomber Command raid, and incorporates a German '88' flak gun and a

Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

fighter. The display is based on a sortie captained by Flying Officer "Cherry" Carter to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

on "Black Thursday" December 1943, so called because Bomber Command lost 50 of the 500 bombers detailed for the raid - more than half were lost in landing accidents due to bad weather. G-George serves as a memorial to all Australians who flew with Bomber Command, and to the 1,018 dead of 460 Squadron. The designation 'G-George' comes from the

RAF phonetic alphabet The Allied military phonetic spelling alphabets prescribed the words that are used to represent each letter of the alphabet, when spelling other words out loud, letter-by-letter, and how the spelling words should be pronounced for use by the Alli ...

in use at the time. Individual aircraft on a squadron were allocated a letter and would be referred to using the corresponding word from the phonetic alphabet. Many other RAF squadrons would also have had a G-George but with different aircraft bearing that designation as they were lost in action or otherwise.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Moyes, Philip J.R. ''Bomber Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft''. London: Macdonald and Jane's (Publishers) Ltd., 2nd edition 1976. . * Nelmes, Michael V. and Ian Jenkins. ''G-for-George: A Memorial to RAAF Bomber Crews, 1939-45''. Maryborough, Queensland, Australia: Banner Books, 2000. .

External links

The official AWM G for George page
{{DEFAULTSORT:G For George Avro Lancaster Collections of the Australian War Memorial Individual aircraft of World War II Military history of Australia during World War II

History

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links