WarSimBox
From a failure
The Lancaster grew out of Avro’s twin-engined Manchester bomber. The Manchester’s Rolls-Royce Vulture engines were unreliable and the aircraft was a failure. Roy Chadwick’s team lengthened the wing and fitted four Merlins in place of the two engines; the result was far more successful than anyone expected.
The night offensive
From 1942 to the end of the war Lancasters raided German cities and industry by night. The price was heavy: Bomber Command lost more than 55,000 aircrew during the war. The aircraft had no ventral turret and was defenceless against German night fighters that attacked from below with upward-firing guns.
The dams and the Tirpitz
In May 1943 the specially modified Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron breached the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr with Barnes Wallis’s “bouncing bomb”, which skipped across the water; after the raid the squadron was known as the “Dambusters”. In November 1944 Lancasters sank the German battleship Tirpitz with 5-tonne Tallboy bombs, and some were modified to carry the 10-tonne Grand Slam.
In the last days of the war Lancasters carried food instead of bombs: in April and May 1945 they dropped supplies to the starving people of the Netherlands.
In WarSimBox
In the game it is a heavy bomber with the largest bomb load: 14 × 1,000 lb, 14 × 500 lb or, for area bombing, 14 × 250 lb. Its defence is .303 in guns in the nose, dorsal and tail turrets; its underside is unprotected. It is slow and ponderous and needs an escort or the night.
Unlocked in the aircraft tree after researching North American B-25J Mitchell.
- Top speed
- 452 km/h · 4,000 m
- Climb
- 5.7 m/s
- Sustained turn
- 29.9 s
- Stall speed
- 162 km/h
These figures come from the game’s flight model (climb, turn and stall at sea level).
Fly it in WarSimBox