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| CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL PHILIP WEST PRINTS BY TITLE |
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| Signatures on this item | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
| Flight Lieutenant Boris Bressloff DFC *Signature Value : £15 | Having completed his training as a Bomb Aimer he joined 635 Sqn serving with W.O. Ernie Patterson and W.O. Harry Parker on over 50 Ops in Lancasters with Pilot Alex Throne DSO DFC. |
 Flight Sergeant Alan Payne DFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £15 | Joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 and trained as an Observer in the UK and in South Africa but served as Bomb Aimer with 630 Squadron and later 57 Squadron on Lancasters completing 29 operations. Based at RAF East Kirkby Alan took part in the Battle of Berlin from November 1943, culminating with a raid on Nuremberg at the end of March 1944. Alan was then transferrred to Transport Command where he completed a full tour as a navigator on Halifaxes wtih 620 Sqn Transport Command in Palestine supporting the 6th Airborne Divison. He died on 24th January 2018. |
| Warrant Officer Reg Cleaver (deceased) *Signature Value : £35 | Served with 419 (Moose) Squadron RCAF. Reg Cleaver was a Flight Engineer and Co-pilot on Halifaxes until On his 17th operation on 24 June 1943, on a raid to Wuppertal, his aircraft was shot down by German Fw190 nightfighters. After initially evading capture he was eventually captured in Holland where he was beaten by the Gestapo and taken as a PoW to Stalag Luft 6 until the end of the war. He died aged 89 when his car hit a tree in Brandon, he was given a funeral with full military honours at St. John the Baptist Church in Brinklow. |
| The Aircraft : | |
| Name | Info |
| Lancaster | The Avro Lancaster arose from the avro Manchester and the first prototype Lancaster was a converted Manchester with four engines. The Lancaster was first flown in January 1941, and started operations in March 1942. By March 1945 The Royal Air Force had 56 squadrons of Lancasters with the first squadron equipped being No.44 Squadron. During World War Two the Avro Lancaster flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 618,378 tonnes of bombs between 1942 and 1945. Lancaster Bomberss took part in the devastating round-the-clock raids on Hamburg during Air Marshall Harris' "Operation Gomorrah" in July 1943. Just 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations, and the Lancaster was scrapped after the war in 1947. A few Lancasters were converted into tankers and the two tanker aircraft were joined by another converted Lancaster and were used in the Berlin Airlift, achieving 757 tanker sorties. A famous Lancaster bombing raid was the 1943 mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley. The operation was carried out by 617 Squadron in modified Mk IIIs carrying special drum shaped bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis. Also famous was a series of Lancaster attacks using Tallboy bombs against the German battleship Tirpitz, which first disabled and later sank the ship. The Lancaster bomber was the basis of the new Avro Lincoln bomber, initially known as the Lancaster IV and Lancaster V. (Becoming Lincoln B1 and B2 respectively.) Their Lancastrian airliner was also based on the Lancaster but was not very successful. Other developments were the Avro York and the successful Shackleton which continued in airborne early warning service up to 1992. |
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