Lancaster B.II help?

[Scott Hemsley]

Finding a photo of 408 Sqn's. Lancaster B.II "Miss Kingsville" (EQ-G; sn. LL636) nose art is easy enough, but does anyone have a profile photo of this aircraft?  I'm curious to find out of this aircraft had the small fuselage windows installed or not.  The little bit the nose photo shows can be interpreted either way.  From all the 6Grp photos I found online, it almost appears a 50-50 thing to have these windows.

 

Scott

[RJP]

I have several downloaded shots of Mk II and can see those in the earlier (?) DSxxx serial range seem all to have had them.  The others, LLxxx range, don't seem to have them;  several show the window outlines but no reflection as from perspex so I wonder if they were painted over?

They all seem to have the earmarks of earlier Lancasters - the shallow bomb aimer blister and nose-mounted pitot (including one nose shot of LL636).  

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Scott

You probably already found this site, but still ...

http://clubhyper.com/reference/misskingsvillebs_1.htm

Photo of the crew, leaning on the aircraft's tail, also shows aft fuselage with what looks like windows to me. Of course, it is a bit difficult to tell if the Lancaster on the photo really is LL636. Cheers

Jure

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

No photographs, just some production dates.  The final 100 Lancaster II were between LL617 and LL739.  LL636 was taken on charge 12 November 1943.  There were 107 mark II built November 1943 to March 1944.

 

The first Armstrong Whitworth mark I were built in November 1943, starting with serial LL740, with 116 mark I built to end March 1944, which would be to around serial LL891, given this parallel production perhaps a photograph of an early LL serial mark I might give clues.

[Scott Hemsley]

Thank-you gentlemen.  I think I have what I need, even if it is in a kind of 'back-handed' way.

 

Jure:  Thanks for  including that link.  It was new to me.  The tell-tale sign came from that one photo that showed the fwd fuselage, early in LL 636's service career. You could make out the square navigator's window, but the small window that would normally be fwd of that, was not there (no glare like the nav's window, either)  I've come to accept that's a sure sign that the small oval fuselage windows were not present on that airframe, either painted over or just not installed at the factory.

 

The vast majority of photos I have for 408 Sqn B.II's clearly show no windows, but I confess I didn't pay much attention to the serials.  Maybe given Geoffrey's information, I should go back and re-visit those photos. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do it, but as it stands right now ... it looks like I'll be puttying those windows.

 

Again, thanks!

 

Scott