467 Squadron - individual letter on the rudder (when it started)

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Good night for all.

Although I am aware that this practice started by late 1944 period and in full use during all the 1945 period, is there any "Official bulletin or order" (dated) that permit or authorize the use and the painting of individual aircraft identification letters onto the rudder of their Avro Lancasters?

When (DATE) this practice started on 467 Squadron machines? I mean by which date all machines needed to have their rudders painted accordingly?

Was it standardized throughout other 5 Group Squadrons of Lancasters or not?

A.

[MW Giles]

Never found an order or specification.

I have photos of tail letters for
9 WS NG499 W
49 EA
50 VN - D, PB821 E, - M, -R
61 QR EE176 M, PB759 N, - P, DV397 W
97 OF PB410 J, ME533 Q
189 CA - O, EE136 R
463 JO - A, LL847 D, RF175 D, ME701 F, - T, RF141 U, RA542 Z
467 PO LL843 D, PD215 F, - G, - J, LM233 M, PB726 P. R5868 S, PB754 U, -Y

However it could be the whole group, some squadrons were more photogenic than others, 463 and 467 getting a lot of attention

It started with the move to daylight ops later June or July 1944

Not aware of any specific date when outlining the codes in yellow came in or repeating the codes across the horizontal tailplane either, but later on in the year

Regards

Martin

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Dear MARTIN,

Thank you for pointing me the probable months of 1944, when this practice started. I thought initially that it was around Autumn of 1944 (September-October).

I still believe that an official order from "above" came authorizing or ordering such painting, which required lots of additional paint (= costs) and time/hours (retire the machines from action for at least one day or some hours) to retrofit all Squadron's machines to the standard required.

Will try to find something onto the ORB's of the Squadrons you mentioned...perhaps am lucky.

Thank you again for kind information and contribution.

Adriano

[SteveB]

I would suggest that the changes were introduced when the groups/squadrons started to fly daylight ops?

Steve

[MW Giles]

ADRIANO

Do not bother looking in Squadron ORBs, they do not say anything about it
They are rather silent on most issues of markings

I suspect that it was a Base thing, for the examples I have 53 Base and 56 Base are the ones that did this (with the exception of 97 Sqn which was part of 54 Base)

Therefore you want the relevant Base ORB, but I am not hopeful of success

Martin