Over 30 years ago, when I was on a squadron at RAF Binbrook, the station hosted a visit from the No. 460 Sqn RAAF association, the Australian aircrew who had flown Lancasters from the station during World War 2. It wasn’t the first time they had been back but it was to be their last, they said, because their numbers were dwindling. Indeed their leader, Group Captain Hughie Edwards VC, had died shortly before the visit and they were feeling his loss and his absence among them.
After tea in the squadron we suggested that they might like to visit the dispersals on the southern edge of the airfield, from where their Lancasters had operated. We didn’t tell them. A bus took them out there and they breathed the Lincolnshire air again and looked over the valley and walked round the dispersal pans. Little had changed, they said, even the old air raid shelters had been cleared out and put back into use as an ops bunker and shelters for dispersed Lightning operations. It was good to see it all again. Still we didn’t tell them.
We quietly looked at our watches. After about five minutes, right on cue, there was a distant but unmistakeable sound across the valley and the first of them turned towards it and gave a shout. The others followed, and the last to realise what was going on were those who had temporarily turned off their hearing aids. Across the valley, pointing straight at them, came the BBMF Lancaster from Coningsby, and roared straight over their heads. It then actually climbed to enter the circuit and, before they had gathered their wits it had landed, taxied up to the dispersals and shut down.
They stood there rooted to the spot, with their blue blazers, and their ties, and their medals, and they wept. We did too, and I can hardly write these words now. Most had no idea there was a Lancaster still flying, let alone one based just down the road from Binbrook. The next hour was spent sitting in, or just touching, a Lanc. A hot Lanc, still ticking. It was an unforgettable day.
Next year I am going to Australia to visit my son in Sydney. Top of the list of the other places I want to see is the museum in Canberra where ex-Binbrook Lancaster AR-G (remember the first Airfix kit? – we all made it) sits with pride. I am sure most of our 1975 visitors must be gone now, but I shall touch their Lancaster as they touched PA474, and say a little prayer for them. Thanks, guys, you are not forgotten.