I have posted about John, my ex father in law. We were chatting about what went on during bombing missions in his Lancaster and I asked him at what point the crew started relaxing. He said '.. as soon as the bloody bombs went - we knew then, that the pressure was off and that all we had to do was wind the engines up and go like mad for home'. I asked him if the words 'bombs away' were ever used and he said they weren't - there was no standard comms. Sometimes, the crew would hear 'Right, thats it - they're gone' or words to that effect, but everyone knew by the huge leap upwards what had happened anyway and usually by the aeroplane banking.
I asked him if there was any banter on the net and he said 'nope, absolutely none.. nothing at all' and I asked him how the captain kept the crew alert or made sure they weren't dozing. He said that if he was ever flying as mid upper would get told to check the flare chute and report back on it! His worse memory of the missions was gazing down on the grey/black/ choppy North Sea, usually as day broke over it. They would fly over it at about 500 feet and to this day, he hates it with a passion.