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Flt Eng William (Bill) Higgins

Flt Eng William (Bill) Higgins Born in Plymouth, Devon, joined the RAF at the age of 17 and became a flight engineer on Lancaster with 195 Squadron.in October 1944. whihc flew from RAF Wratting Common. Bill Higgins flew on most missions that 195 Squadorn took part in including there last mission on the 24th April 1945 the bombing of Railway facilites at Bad Oldesloe. and also took part in the supply drops to the Dutch at The Hague on the 7th May 1945. After the war end Bill transferred to air traffic control in Occupied Germany durign the Belrin Airtlift. and after leaving the RAF, Joined the civil servcie and worked onRadar, including the intallation of radar on HMS Cavalier in Singapore.

Flt Eng William (Bill) Higgins - Signed Aviation Art

Under Cover of the Night by Simon Smith. 6 of 7 editions available. All 3 editions featuring up to 5 additional signatures are available. £95.00 - £500.00

Chadwick's Masterpiece by Ivan Berryman. 4 editions. 2 of the 4 editions feature an additional signature. £2.90 - £230.00

Lancaster Dawn by Anthony Saunders. 7 editions. 5 of the 7 editions feature up to 2 additional signatures. £75.00 - £400.00

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Under Cover of the Night by Simon Smith. No text for this item

Chadwick's Masterpiece by Ivan Berryman. When Roy Chadwick first drew the Avro 679 Manchester bomber for the RAF, he could little have known that from this rather lacklustre machine would evolve the classic 683 Lancaster. This painting is not a record of any single event in the Lancaster's illustrious history, rather a portrait of a fine aeroplane and a tribute to the many crews who flew and serviced them.

Lancaster Dawn by Anthony Saunders. Depicts a 103 squadron Lancaster returning from a night-time bombing mission.

Lancaster Manufacturer : Avro Built : 7377

Lancaster The Avro Lancaster arose from the avro Manchester and the first prototype Lancaster was a converted Manchester with four engines. The Lancaster was first flown in January 1941, and started operations in March 1942. By March 1945 The Royal Air Force had 56 squadrons of Lancasters with the first squadron equipped being No.44 Squadron. During World War Two the Avro Lancaster flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 618,378 tonnes of bombs between 1942 and 1945. Lancaster Bomberss took part in the devastating round-the-clock raids on Hamburg during Air Marshall Harris' "Operation Gomorrah" in July 1943. Just 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations, and the Lancaster was scrapped after the war in 1947. A few Lancasters were converted into tankers and the two tanker aircraft were joined by another converted Lancaster and were used in the Berlin Airlift, achieving 757 tanker sorties. A famous Lancaster bombing raid was the 1943 mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley. The operation was carried out by 617 Squadron in modified Mk IIIs carrying special drum shaped bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis. Also famous was a series of Lancaster attacks using Tallboy bombs against the German battleship Tirpitz, which first disabled and later sank the ship. The Lancaster bomber was the basis of the new Avro Lincoln bomber, initially known as the Lancaster IV and Lancaster V. (Becoming Lincoln B1 and B2 respectively.) Their Lancastrian airliner was also based on the Lancaster but was not very successful. Other developments were the Avro York and the successful Shackleton which continued in airborne early warning service up to 1992.

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Flt Eng William (Bill) Higgins Squadron details

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