A little known PhD thesis published by the University of Toronto Press, and I'd suggest if he'd gone through something like Bruce Robertsons excellent book which details the fate of each and every Manchester and Lancaster by serial number, or contacted Avro Heritage the author would have a better idea of how many were lost due to structural failure and break up in mid air - which is not that many.
I'd also suggest that his statistics are skewed, as by the time bombers were getting hit hard by the introduction of things such as "Schräge
Musik" and blowing up (not breaking up); there were a greater number of Lancasters on night bombing against Halifaxes.
He takes great and lengthy effort to highlight reports on Lancaster losses, yet quickly passes over similar data on the Halifax stability and performance issues - which were a concern for crews in combat. The early mark Halifax (as per my earlier comment) had rudder over balance issues and crews didn't like the idea of carrying out a corkscrew as it was known to often lead to a loss of control with the rudder jammed at its limit to port or starboard. He also conveniently skims over the point that certain Halifax units had consistently greater losses than any other Bomber Command unit - with no single known cause. The losses in numbers of Lancaster crew were accepted at the time against the job it could do, which was why it was concentrated on and the Halifax and Stirling slowly phased out to other roles.
In terms of the aircraft rather than the operations;
Show me a Halifax that was stressed for catapult launch. Show me a Halifax that could carry the same weight of payload. Show me a Halifax that could carry as varied a payload - including specialist weapons. Show me a Halifax that didn't present itself as an easy target for night fighters by way of its glowing exhausts (in Merlin and Hercules) or its performance issues (cured by armament stripping). Show me a Halifax that could go as deep into the Reich territory and back again as a Lancaster. Show me one that could get back after losing as many engines to enemy action.
You won't.
Despite playing with statistics to match whatever agenda the author of that thesis wished to suit, the Lancaster was the better all round aircraft. This is why the Lancaster has Augsburg, the Dams, The Tirpitz and other notable raids to its credit.
Its why Handley Page only narrowly avoided having to turn over production to it, and why Victory aircraft produced it overseas. Its why as the Halifax was finally phased out in 1953, the replacement was a Lancaster derivative. Even with other air forces, the Lancaster soldiered on well into the mid 1960's, by which time barely a single Halifax survived.
Revisionist historians are never going to change that, and the Lanc will continue to fly into legend no matter what they come up with or publish. It was and still is Bomber Command's "Shining Sword".
Regards,
Rich
(Long live Avro.)