Magnificent killing machine

Lancaster: The Second World War’s Greatest Bomber, by Leo McKinstry

Leo McKinstry’s Lancaster: The Second World War’s Greatest Bomber offers more than is promised by the title. As in his last book, Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend, McKinstry has taken an iconic airplane and, in telling its history, gives not only the technical dimensions of its invention but also the myths that came to surround it. He relies heavily upon the recollections of airmen, quoting interviews and their unpublished memoirs alongside a traditional narrative of engineering and combat. This new book is less a simple history of the Lancaster than a broader history of the second world war from the perspective of a single weapon.

The Lancaster began as a failure. In June 1936 the Air Ministry issued a specification for a twin-engined medium bomber: it would, according to the original plan, carry a crew of four and take off with the aid of a giant catapult. The aircraft manufacturer A. V. Roe (know as ‘Avro’), under Chief Designer Roy Chadwick, first developed the Manchester bomber, which was unsuccessful from its first test run. Chadwick lengthened the wingspan to 100 feet and added four Merlin engines, and on 9 January 1941 the Lancaster bomber was ready for its maiden flight.

The key was the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, which also power the Spitfire. ‘Merlins don’t roar; they sing,’ McKinstry quotes one airman as saying, and the Mk. I Lancaster carried the Merlin XX: they ran on 100 per cent octane fuel, gave the Lancaster a range of 3,000 miles, and were ‘the epitome of strength and reliability’. McKinstry lovingly details the changes and specifications of each of the types, for the remarkable power of the Lancaster came to influence the development of bombing strategy.