Hally versus Lanc

Heroes Remember

Hally versus Lanc

Transcript

Well my main experience was in the Hali. I liked it, I liked the Hali. I would have liked to have done more in the Lank. I think in some respects, gee I don’t want to be disloyal to the Hali because that’s my airplane, there’s no doubt about that, but there are some respects that the Lank is a better airplane, it could carry a bigger bomb load to Berlin, but it couldn’t do a lot of the things that the Hali did. The Hali turned into a glider tow plane, it did all kinds of things that the Lank never did. And we got radial engines in the Hali that would give us a little more altitude than the Lank and I believe it would fly about five miles an hour faster than the Lank, now, maybe I am being biased, I don’t know. But I think, I would have liked to be on Lanks though. My skipper didn’t like Lanks, that was one of the reasons we didn’t go on them. He thought, it might have been just an excuse that he didn’t want to, he thought that they were unstable in one direction either for and after, naturally, but, you know what I think that might of been, I think that might have been just an excuse.

Description

Mr. Bower-Binns discusses some pros and cons of Halifax and Lancaster bombers.

John Bower-Binns

John Bower-Binns was born in Ottawa, Ontario. One of two children, he was born on March 7, 1921. He had two uncles in the Royal Air Force, inspiring him to build model aeroplanes. There being a six month waiting list for naval enlistment, Mr. Bower-Binns opted for the Air Force. After being screened out of the pilot queue, he became a navigator. After crewing up in England, he flew many bombing missions, including one to Berlin. Mr. Bower-Binns was fortunate to fly with the same crew during his entire tour of duty. A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, he achieved the rank of Flight-Lieutenant during his Second World War service.

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