I hope this isn't too silly a question........... I have been looking at Operation Chastise (mainly as I am reading John Sweetman's book) and I was looking at the aircraft serial numbers. For example Gibson's Lanc' was AJ-G ED932/G. Am I correct in guessing that ED932 was the batch of those aircraft, in which case where does the /G come from. Was the AJ referring to 617 Sqn. Many thanks for any help explaining it all Steve
Steve, The letters 'AJ' will be the squadrons code letters, all the aircraft in that squadron will carry the same code. The letter 'G' after the serial number meant 'Guard' the aircraft was not to be approached, each aircraft would have been given a 24 hour armed guard for security reasons. Looking at 'British Military Aircraft Serials' I find that all the 617 Squadron aircraft came from the same batch ED303 to EE202 of Lancasters built at Manchester, the squadron was allocated 23 Lancaster B.IIIs. Might be worth looking here. Dambusters
Thanks Peter, The link is where I had been looking. The 'G' makes sense. So, I think I how have this clear Gibson's Lancs serial no. was ED932 and PA474 is the one that flies today. Any idea how they were allocated their call sign ie Gibson's was G - George Steve
AFAIK the Squadron codes were allocated randomly through normal administrative procedure ; there wasn't too much time for niceties as the aircraft mostly arrived at Scampton a very short time before the Operation. Call-signs were standard RAF phonetic ( S-Sugar, G-George, O-Orange etc ). The exception was ED909 'P-Popsie' which wasn't standard RAF but I think reflected the humour and self-confidence of Mick Martin and crew.
