The cache is a bison tube with just a log, so please make sure you have a pen to sign in.
It should be a quick find. Maybe you will get lucky and see a plane take off or land. And maybe you'll get really lucky and see the AVRO LANCASTER!
The AVRO LANCASTER is probably the most famous Allied bomber of the Second World War. It was the product of Avro’s desperate attempts to remedy the defects of its earlier unsuccessful Manchester bomber. One of the few remaining Lancasters can be found here, in Hamilton!
The prototype Lancaster flew in January 1941, mid-way through WWII, but would have a large, and very quick impact on the Allied war effort: the first production Lancaster was in the air just 9 months later in October ‘41
RAF No. 44 Squadron was the first to be fully equipped with Lancasters, and they were in Europe flying missions by March 1942. It was equipped with four 1145 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin X engines and could carry a huge bomb load. It was the RAF’s only heavy bomber capable of carrying the 12,000 lb “Tallboy” and 22,000 lb “Grand Slam” bombs. The aircraft won a place for itself in history, with the daring and precise bombing raids on the Ruhr Dams, in May 1943 and with the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz, in November 1944.
At home, thousands of Canadians worked at Victory Aircraft in Malton (Toronto) to produce 430 Lancaster Mk. Xs, between 1943 and 1945!
After WWII, about 230 Lancasters served with the RCAF in several roles including, Arctic reconnaissance, maritime patrol and as a bomber. The Lancaster was ceremonially retired from the RCAF at Downsview (Toronto) in April 1964. In total 7,377 Lancasters rolled off the production lines in Britain and Canada, during WWII. Today, 17 Lancasters survive around the world, but only two are in flying condition...and one of those can be seen taking off and landing here at the Hamilton Airport.
Our Lancaster is part of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum and was built at Victory Aircraft, Malton in July 1945 and was later converted to an RCAF 10MR configuration. It was retired from the RCAF in late 1963 and in 1977, it was acquired from the Royal Canadian Legion in Goderich, Ontario, where it had been on outside display. Eleven years later it was completely restored and flew again on September 24, 1988.
This Lancaster is dedicated to the memory of P/O Andrew Mynarski and is referred to as the “Mynarski Memorial Lancaster”. It is painted in the colours of his aircraft KB726 – VR-A, which flew with RCAF No. 419 "Moose" Squadron. Andrew Mynarski won the Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth’s highest award for gallantry, on June 13, 1944, when his Lancaster was shot down in flames, by a German night fighter. As the bomber fell, he attempted to free the tail gunner trapped in the rear turret of the blazing and out of control aircraft. The tail gunner miraculously survived the crash and lived to tell the story, but sadly Andrew Mynarski died from his severe burns.
