The Lashenden Lancaster : updated with response from the museum - see post 20th April '22

[Mark Harmsworth]

On the evening of 24th April 1944 Lancaster 'B' ND467 of 83 squadron, with W.O. Ken Lane at the controls, took off at 20.46 hrs from RAF Coningsby.

 

Nearly four hours later, over Munich, they were coned by searchlights.

 

Almost predictably the starboard inner engine was hit by flak, caught fire, and was feathered shortly afterwards. Then the port outer was hit, caught fire and feathered. Then the port inner cut - leaving one functioning engine.

 

Thankfully the Flight Engineer, Flt.Sgt. Dick Raymond, managed to get that engine restarted. The crew then jettisoned everything they could and W.O. Ken Lane brought the Lancaster back to England on the two remaining engines. They made an emergency landing at RAF Lashenden in Kent - with 180 miles still to go to Coningsby.

 

RAF Lashenden was an Advanced Landing Ground with fairly basic facilities designed to prepare for the eventual move to northern France. It was home to the 354th Fighter Group with their Mustangs (the 354th were the self-styled 'Pioneer Mustang Group'). Seeing an RAF Lancaster there would have created a fair bit of interest – perhaps the reason for this photo:

(For those that like to know these things P51-B, AJ-R 42-106593 in the foreground was the regular mount of 1Lt Albert G Redfern of the 356th FS, 354th FG)

 

Ken Lane's log book rather underplayed the event :

 

'Coned and hit by flak over target. Returned on two engines. Landed at Lashenden'.

 

Flt Sgt Dick Raymond, who re-started the port inner, was nineteen.

 

Thanks to Ken (and Dick), the crew of the 'Lashenden Lancaster' survived the ordeal and returned to RAF Coningsby in ND467 later on the 25th. Ken Lane was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this.

 

Less than a month later, on 22nd May 1944, the same crew were in Lancaster 'H' and part of fifteen aircraft from 83 sqn on an operation to Brunswick, Lower Saxony, Germany.

 

They were shot down over the Dutch/German border. The ORB simply states: “Missing. This aircraft not heard of since take off.”

 

Three of the crew of seven did not survive and are buried at Emmen, Drenthe, Netherlands with the rest becoming PoWs in Stalag Luft 7, Upper Silesia.

 

Dick later said: “As I fell out of the plane, I felt it explode. I thought Ken had died but to my delight, he set off his parachute and it threw him through the roof. The only bad thing that happened to him was his flying boots fell off.”

 

The ORB has a hand-written note about F/Sgts Davies, Hall and Jones being 'buried at Emmen' – that must have been added later when the news got back to the squadron.

 

Dick Raymond (and, I assume the other surviving crew members) later walked the Death March towards Berlin during one of the coldest European winters in the 20th century.

 

Ken and Dick survived the war and went on to be very close friends - being each other's best men at their respective weddings.

 

In late July 2019 Dick Raymond, the last surviving member of that crew, returned to RAF Lashenden – now Headcorn Aerodrome – his first visit there since that night in April 1944. To his surprise (and delight) Ken Lane's daughter (who had arranged his visit) also attended.

 

 

 

This then is my attempt at ND467 the Lashenden Lancaster - a B. Mk. III - using the Hasegawa 1:72 Lancaster B Mk I / III kit.

 

The extras were an Eduard p.e. set for the interior, replacement .303 barrels from Master – fantastic little things – and Eduard masks for all that glazing.

 

The build, as you might expect, was largely trouble free. The only real problem I had was with the undercarriage which I think Hasegawa made unnecessarily complex. I got there with help of reference photos – as I couldn't figure out what the instructions meant – and with creative use of three different types of glue. And a bit of robust language. Anyway she stands up on her legs ok.

 

I also replaced the vertical parts of the nose aerials with brass rod as the plastic looked rather chunky.

 

Paints are Xtracrylics and Tamiya acrylics over Ultimate primer (grey on top, back underneath) with various shades of grey pastels for the exhaust stains (which took ages and look rather better on the model than in the pics). I built up the wings and fuselage separately which made painting and handling a lot easier

 

I painted the black wing walkway markings as I've had too much experience of long thin decals. And that red square outline on the starboard wing.

 

The decals are from the spares box and I must admit I struggled a bit with silvering on the fuselage markings - you can see that in a couple of the images.

 

A first for me – some pics to start against a white background (which seems to have turned blue) - and then a few with my usual rather daft attempts at creativity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly an attempt to recreate that photo of the Lashenden Lancaster and the P-51:

Not quite right historically of course - the invasion stripes give that away - but it is a 354th FG plane.

 

All the best

Mark

[Sky Keg]

Excellent overall presentation Mark!!!!!  The finished Lancaster is even better with the story behind it.  Simply superb work!!! 

 

Mike

[Whitewolf]

Very nice indeed!!

[FatFlyHalf]

What a story and a great model.

[Heather Kay]

Lashenden is not very far from where I live - well, about half an hour away once you’ve got through Maidstone - and I never knew of this story. A lovely build with a back story, what’s not to like?

[Abandoned Project]

Absolutely outstanding model and background story. 

[Wulfman]

A beautiful build and story !

 

Wulfman

[Maginot]

Superb modelling. Love the airfield pics and story. Photo of Mustang and Lanc at Lashenden has some interesting detail. Is that a sighting rig for the machine guns between Mustang and Lanc?

[jackroadkill]

That's a lovely-looking model and an emotive and well-researched backstory.  Fabulous.

[aerotechi]

Always nice to see a real story against an actual aircraft so nicely presented and finished. Well done On a splendid job. 

[RMCS]

Excellent 

[Steve27752]

Very nice.

[stevehnz]

Brilliant. A super build & appealing back story. Nice going on this.

Steve 

[Michael51]

A fine, context-rich story.

 

I really enjoyed this story and the kit photographs,

 

Michael

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Thank you for posting- a great model with a meaningful story behind it.  Photo montage shots are very effective🙂

Colin

[Mark Harmsworth]

23 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Lashenden is not very far from where I live - well, about half an hour away once you’ve got through Maidstone - and I never knew of this story.

Me too. I'm the other side of Tenterden - so to the south of Lashenden - and I only came across this story by accident in a local newspaper article a couple of years ago. Neither the airfield nor the museum have any reference to this which is disappointing to say the least. Especially when you see that photo of Dick Raymond and Ken Lane's daughter standing inside the museum in 2019. I've contacted the museum to ask if they have any more info - let's see. 

Mark

[Mark Harmsworth]

21 hours ago, Maginot said:

Photo of Mustang and Lanc at Lashenden has some interesting detail. Is that a sighting rig for the machine guns between Mustang and Lanc?

I love the detail in that picture as well. Yes - I think it is a sighting rig (is that the correct term?). The tail of the Mustang being weighted down and an oil drum lying around. Diorama material maybe.

Mark

[Vinnie]

Lovely work and a great story, Mark.

[29Triplex]

Fantastic story/research, with equally fantastic modelling to support.

Snippets like these are one reason I enjoy this site so much 

Thank you for such a great submission 

[Pete in Lincs]

Great model and the backstory brings it to life. We just need one of these..

[Mark Harmsworth]

I had contacted the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum to ask if they had any more info and they have now responded so I thought I would update this post - @Heather Kay may be interested to see this.

 

I was hoping for a bit more on the crew or the event but it was not to be. 

 

This is the reply to my query  (I had also sent a link to my original post):

 

Hi mark 

Thank you for your email, the Lashenden Lancaster looks amazing, unfortunately the only info the museum has its what was in the newspaper article and the photos you have, to be honest you have got more info than the museum.

Kind regards

 

 

[Hairy Stickler]

Lovely build and fascinating research to boot. I grew up in Staplehurst (about 3 miles from Headcorn) and used to camp at Headcorn Airfield with the Air Cadets. Staplehurst was also the site of an advanced landing ground in 1944. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Hairy Stickler

[Mark Harmsworth]

23 hours ago, Hairy Stickler said:

Lovely build and fascinating research to boot. I grew up in Staplehurst (about 3 miles from Headcorn) and used to camp at Headcorn Airfield with the Air Cadets. Staplehurst was also the site of an advanced landing ground in 1944. 

Thanks for the kind comment. I know Staplehurst well (lived there for a few years too) - those ALGs and their various inhabitants are one of my interests. So far I've built a P-51 from Lashenden and P-47s from both Woodchurch and Headcorn (that's now farmland like Staplehurst). I will be building a Staplehurst based P-51 at some point.

 

Mildly interesting fact: the first USAAF plane to land at RAF Headcorn was not one of the P-47s from the 362nd FG but was a B-24 of the 448th Bombardment Group based at RAF Seething (near Norwich) which put down on 15 February 1944 "with engine trouble". That may be a similar story to the Lashenden Lanc but probably more difficult to research - another one for the list.

Mark

[Bertie McBoatface]

That’s a fascinating story, well told and s splendid model, well made. Thanks. 
 

(The red square on the stand wing is the dinghy stowage, definitely not to be walked over. )

[Paulaero]

Brilliant build and an amazing story, brings it all to life.....