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Alan K | all galleries >> Canberra >> Australian War Memorial (Gallery) > 091231_105345_4212 Visitors Come, Visitors Go (Avro Lancaster Mk 1 G for George) (Thu 31 Dec 09)
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31-Dec-2009 AKMC

091231_105345_4212 Visitors Come, Visitors Go (Avro Lancaster Mk 1 G for George) (Thu 31 Dec 09)

Australian War Memorial, Campbell (Canberra), ACT

The Avro Lancaster heavy bomber was the mainstay of RAF's Bomber Command (which utilised quite a few Australian squadrons as well) in World War II. Their night time raids inflicted a huge amount of damage on German cities and industries, but the cost was extremely high in both aircraft and crews.

However some aircraft were anomalies, and Lancaster Mk I "G for George", 460 Squadron RAAF was one of them. Ordered in 1940, it went into service in October 1942 and flew around 90 operations as the bomb markings on the fuselage beneath the pilot show. It continued in service until a raid on Cologne on 20 April 1944. After that it was retired and sent to Australia to help support the raising of war bonds. It was finally declared surplus and donated to the Memorial, which is doubtless its final resting place.

Here I made deliberate use of the long exposure times required by the low lighting within the museum to create a "ghost-like" effect of some of the visitors. G-George sits there day in and day out, as people come, look, and vanish again.


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