Classic Aircraft profiled every issue -

Issue 1 - Avro Lancaster: Close call for the 'Phantom'

The aircraft was delivered brand new to RAF Grimsby – better known as Waltham – in Lincolnshire at the end of May 1943. No.100 Squadron arrived at the station in December 1942 and began to re-equip with Lancasters as part of No.1 Group Bomber Command. It was re-forming at Waltham having been virtually wiped out earlier in the year during action against the Japanese in Singapore while flying Vickers Vilderbeest biplanes.

The unit flew its first operational sorties from Waltham on 4 March 1943 and was to remain in continuous action until the end of the war. Sgt Ron Clark and his all NCO crew arrived at Waltham from 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit at Lindholme, Yorkshire. As a ‘sprog’ crew they were fortunate to be given charge of the brand new EE139, which had been delivered at the same time as their arrival.

The crew’s first flight in this Lancaster was carried out on 2 June 1943, when they took it on a local air test in daylight for 45 minutes. After successfully completing seven training flights with EE139, and having attended three briefings for operations that were cancelled, the crew appeared on the Battle Order for what was to be their first ‘op’ on 11 June. Along with over 780 other heavy bombers, they were sent to the heavily defended city of Dusseldorf during the full ferocity of the Battle of the Ruhr. Flying at 21,000ft over the ‘Valley of Hell’ between Cologne and Dusseldorf, they somehow got through the ‘solid wall of flak’ as it was described that night and bombed the rail yards and factories, returning shaken but uninjured to Waltham. Lish Easby wrote of his introduction to night bombing: “Long before we reached the target we spotted the red glow in the sky and when we got near it the cloud had dispersed giving us a bird’s eye view of what looked like the crater of a volcano. The whole town appeared to be one mass of flames with a column of dense, black smoke towering up to a height of at least 18,000ft.”

The squadron lost two aircraft that night, both to night-fighters. Thirteen men died and one survived to become a prisoner of war. By mid-June only two crews from those that had re-formed 100 Squadron at Waltham survived. Throughout June nine crews would be lost, one-third of 100 Squadron’s strength. The chances of Ron’s crew completing 30 operations at Waltham were not good. At the airfield EE139 was parked on dispersal 7, close to the village Post Office in Holton-le-Clay. Ron and crew soon became good friends with the two elderly ladies running the Post Office and established a routine of joining them for tea and toast after their morning inspection of EE139.

BECOMING THE ‘PHANTOM’

As was the fashion, the crew members were soon discussing an identity for their aircraft. At the time the film Phantom of the Opera was being shown, and was to be the inspiration for the name of their aircraft. Harold ‘Ben’ Bennett, the flight engineer, was given a free hand designing the motif and came up with the ghoulish hooded skeleton figure throwing bombs out of the night sky. ‘Ben’ said he might have been influenced by feelings of revenge from his time as a ground engineer with Fighter Command and suffering frequent bomb attacks by the Luftwaffe.

Little did they know at the time that when they created their Phantom of the Ruhr it was destined to become one of the best-known Lancasters in Bomber Command. It gained the squadron code HW-R. Ron Clark flew the Phantom on 32 occasions, logging over 165 hours in the aircraft – 147 of which were operations at night. He was captain of the Lancaster for 25 of the 33 ‘ops’ it carried out with 100 Squadron. When the aircraft left the unit in November 1943 its tally of bombing ‘ops’ was recorded in two rows on the port side under the canopy.

Operational sorties were represented with yellow bombs, while a red bomb signified a trip to the ‘Big City’ – Berlin. ‘Ops’ to Italy were recorded with an ice-cream cornet, an unofficial marking used by Bomber Command to signify a raid on Italian targets. Ron and his crew were responsible for two of the four cornets on Phantom, including an 11-hour epic to Turin, and took the bomber to Berlin on three occasions. Few of their ‘ops’ with Phantom of the Ruhr were without incident, but it was their last trip in it, to Mannheim on 23/24 September 1943, when they came closest to disaster.

HIT OVER MANNHEIM

Lish Easby’s diary tells of the events that night: “After a rather long stand-down we were again detailed for ‘ops’. The target this time was Mannheim. Mannheim- Ludwigshafen had been raided twice recently, but as the big chemical works had not been hit this repeat raid was put on. “We took off in daylight and night fell just before reaching the French coast.

Our run up to the target was very quiet, we scarcely encountered any defences at all. One thing, however, we did notice was quite a number of lights on the ground over and above the usual. “We reached the target on time and proceeded with our bombing run; the bomb aimer recognised the target by means of a bend in the river.

There were numerous searchlights around the town and very soon one of them picked us up. Immediately the pilot took evasive action, but the searchlight still held us. Other searchlights then joined in and very soon we were in the centre of a cone of about 40 searchlights. We weaved, dived and did everything possible but the searchlights still held us.

“Soon we became a target for the flak batteries working in co-operation with the searchlights. Flak was bursting very close when suddenly there was a bang and the aircraft shuddered as we got a direct hit from an AA [anti-aircraft] shell. As we were now right over the target the pilot ordered bomb-doors open and the bomb aimer released the bomb load.

The bombdoors had scarcely been closed when with a flash and another heavy shudder an AA shell burst on the starboard tail plane. “The searchlights were still on us and while we attempted evasive action the aircraft went into an uncontrollable dive, but fortunately the pilot was able to regain control and pull it out. As we afterwards discovered the controls to the starboard aileron had been severed.

“We had lost a lot of height and were nearly down to 10,000ft when on top of everything else, we were attacked by a fighter. We never even saw the enemy aircraft as we were all blinded by searchlights, but he fired only one long burst.”

‘PHANTOM’ CREW

WO Ron Clark DFC - pilot
Sgt Harold ‘Ben’ Bennett DFM - flight engineer
Sgt Jim Siddell - navigator
Sgt Doug Wheeler - bomb aimer
Sgt Lishman Easby - wireless operator
Sgt Les Simpson - mid-upper gunner
Sgt Geoff Green - rear gunner

TURNING FOR HOME

“As we were now getting out of the target area the searchlights were getting thinner until eventually we were free of them altogether. By this time we were down to 8000ft as we turned for home.

“The aircraft was now vibrating violently and the starboard tail unit was shaking as though it was going to fall away any minute. No one expected we could remain airborne for long and I already had my parachute pack on in readiness to jump.

“Shortly after leaving the target the engineer went aft to examine the damage. He reported the starboard aileron control severed and that the trimmer tab was still connected and causing the vibration. The engineer then severed the aileron trimmer control and the vibration ceased.

“The vibration having also stopped on the tail plane we began to see the possibility of getting home. In fact we got back without any further trouble having climbed to a height of 16,000ft. On arriving at base we were given priority to land and the pilot made a good landing in spite of the fact that the flaps were useless. “As soon as we landed we examined the damage, fortunately we had no casualties. We had received a direct hit by an AA shell in the bomb doors, the shell having passed through the bomb-bay, fuselage and out through the top without exploding. This shell had also severed the aileron control.

“Another shell had burst on the starboard tail plane, badly damaging it so that the whole unit was loose. The fuselage was peppered with shrapnel and the Perspex broken in the mid-upper turret. The fighter had hit us in the port main plane with one cannon shell and several bullets. Finally, to crown everything a 30lb incendiary evidently dropped by another bomber had struck one of our propellers and the fin of it was still lodged in the radiator.

“That was the end of our most eventful trip up to date. We never thought we should see England again and I think the fact that we did get back was mainly due to the skills of the pilot and engineer.” For their actions that night Ron Clark was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and ‘Ben’ Bennett the Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM).

At least 300 shrapnel holes were counted in the aircraft and the Phantom would be out of action until early November undergoing repairs. Ron and his crew were sent on seven days’ leave and on their return flew a further five ‘ops’ with 100 Squadron before being posted with ‘C’ Flight to form the nucleus of the new 625 Squadron at Kelstern, Lincs.

They flew one further operation before being screened, split up and posted. Most survived the war with the exception of the navigator, Jim Siddell, who was killed over Holland in a Mosquito in 1944. Phantom of the Ruhr was repaired and completed four more operations with 100 Squadron before being transferred to 550 Squadron in November 1943. It continued its charmed and eventful life, going on to complete a total of 121 ‘ops’.

Despite becoming 550 Squadron’s longest-serving Lancaster and being awarded its own DFC, the Phantom, like so many other famous aircraft, was unceremoniously scrapped in February 1946.

With thanks to Ron Clark and Lish Easby. Historical information on EE139 based on research by Ed Straw.