Avro Lancaster ‘S-for-Sugar’ carried out an incredible 137 combat sorties during World War Two and proudly thumbed its nose at Hermann Göring. Andrew Simpson and Nigel Price profile this Bomber Command veteran…
As war gripped the world in 1939, an overconfident Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring made a comment akin to: “No enemy aircraft will fly over the Reich territory”, so sure was he that his Luftwaffe controlled the skies over mainland Europe. Famously, the air force leader had to eat his words as the Allies hit target after target across Germany from May 1940 onwards. However, the Luftwaffe exacted a terrible price – more than 44% of Bomber Command’s aircrew were killed in action, while some 18,000 were wounded or taken prisoner.
To keep up spirits, one Lancaster crew with an especially high number of successful operations to its credit mocked the Reichsmarschall by adorning its aircraft with his infamous quote, along with an arrow pointing to nearly 100 mission marks. That aeroplane was Avro Lancaster Mk.I R5868/PO-S, an incredible machine that not only has pride-of-place within the RAF Museum’s collection, but is the world’s oldest surviving example of the legendary type. Affectionately known as ‘S-for-Sugar’, due to its squadron code letter, R5868 flew a remarkable 137 operations between 1942-45, a total only surpassed by Lancaster Mk.III ED888 with 140.
Constructed by Metropolitan-Vickers in Manchester, R5868 was originally part of a 1939 order for 100 twin-engined Avro Manchesters. While the first 43 were built as such, the rest, including R5868, were completed as Lancasters. Rolling out from the company’s Mosley Road facility in mid-June 1942, it was moved by road to Avro’s Woodford site for final assembly and flight testing. However, with Bomber Command’s urgent need for replacement airframes, it was quickly taken on charge by 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, where it became ‘OL-Q-for-Queenie’. Delivered on June 29 , R5868 was accepted by grounds crewman LAC Pollard, who would be responsible for it during its time with the unit, along with LAC Ron Paget and Sgts Jim Gill and Harry Taylor.
Quirks and night-fighters
A raid on the German coastal town of Wilhelmshaven opened R5868’s incredible mission tally. With Sqn Ldr Ray Hilton DFC, a very experienced pilot then on his second tour, at the controls, the aircraft left Scampton just after midnight on July 9 carrying a full load of incendiaries. Airborne for more than four hours, the crew returned with no reported incidents, although Hilton noted the Lancaster was flying with one wing low. While the engineers tried to solve the problem, no solution was ever found. It is said that every aeroplane has its quirks and it seems this was Queenie’s.
Around this time, R5868 acquired her first nose art: a scantily-dressed woman kneeling in front of a bomb. This was later replaced by a devil thumbing his nose and dancing in flames, and the moniker ‘Devils of the Air’, ultimately replaced by Göring’s unwise words. Like all of 83 Squadron’s airframes, Queenie’ was thrown into near-constant action across the width and breadth of Germany. With raids against most of the major cities, including Bremen, Cologne, Duisburg, Frankfurt and Hamburg, R5868 would visit Berlin no fewer than eight times before the war’s end.
On August 18, 1942, the aircraft flew with the newly formed Pathfinder Force’s first operational sortie, a strike against Flensburg in Northern Germany, having moved to RAF Wyton in Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire) three days before. Loaded with nothing but flares, it was one of six 83 Squadron Lancasters assigned to the strike. However, hazy conditions over the target resulted in R5868 and three other machines not dropping their payloads.
With 30 raids flown between early July and December, Queenie was engaged by Luftwaffe fighters twice. The first occasion was during a daylight raid to Essen, the Ruhr’s second largest city, on July 18. Attacked by a pair of Focke-Wulf Fw 190s, skilful flying and impressive teamwork from the crew resulted in R5868 escaping unharmed. The second skirmish took place during the early hours of July 26 at 15,000ft over Duisburg, with Hinton’s crew again fending off two Fw 190s, as well as a Messerschmitt Bf 110 night-fighter.
Following R5868’s first trip to Berlin on January 16, 1943, records show that it was withdrawn from operations until mid-February. It is believed it may have been re-engined at this point with Rolls-Royce Merlin 22s. Whatever the reason, it was back in action for a sortie to Wilhelmshaven on the night of February 11-12. By this time, the bomber, then known across the squadron as ‘The Queen’, had become renowned for her reliability. She had never once returned due to mechanical issues.
Aussies and VIPs
Missions to St Nazaire in France and Cologne, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Essen, Dortmund and Düsseldorf in Germany all followed in quick succession. A strike on Essen on July 25-26 was among the more unusual missions during its time with 83 Squadron.
While the raid itself was straightforward, R5868 carried several VIP observers on board, including the commander of the US Army Air Force’s VIII Bomber Command, Brig Gen Fred Anderson, and 5 Group’s navigation officer, Sqn Ldr A Price. One of 600 Lancasters taking part, Queenie dropped 9,000lb of bombs and five green target indicators during the 4hr 37min sortie. With the raid resulting in an inferno that could be seen from more than 100 miles away and smoke rising to 20,000ft, Gen Anderson remarked that the fires were one of the most awe inspiring sights he had ever beheld.
Soon after, the unit started its conversion to the Lancaster Mk.III, while its Mk.Is were reassigned across Bomber Command and training units. Queenie completed her last ‘run’ with 83 Squadron, a strike on Milan, Italy, on August 15, 1943. By then, R5868 had completed an unprecedented 67 ‘ops’ and flown some 450 flying hours, 368 of them in combat.
On September 1, R5868 joined 467 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force at Bottesford in Leicestershire, was recoded ‘PO-S-for-Sugar’ and allocated to B Flight as a replacement for the previous ‘S-for-Sugar’ (ED500), which had crashed during a nocturnal cross-county training exercise; thankfully, the crew survived.
After several air tests, the Lancaster flew its first operational sortie with the unit on the night of September 27, a strike on Hanover loaded with a single 4,000lb store and 104 30lb bombs, plus 1,260 4lb incendiaries. On returning home, the crew were forced to divert to Wittering in poor weather due to a number of minor technical snags. The airframe was soon back in action, being dispatched with a full war load to strike Bochum in western Germany on September 29. This was swiftly followed by attacks on Munich (October 2), Kassel (October 3) and Frankfurt (October 4). Three days later, Stuttgart was the target, with R5868 dropping a single blockbuster, along with 72 30lb bombs, and nearly 1,000 incendiaries. All 17 of 467’s aircraft made diversionary landings due to bad weather, with ‘Sugar’ arriving at RAF Tangmere, West Sussex, after 6hrs 50mins in the air. This disrupted the following night’s strike on Hanover as crews were unable to get the aircraft back to Bottesford in time and allow sufficient rest between sorties. As a result, just four crews were available, despite having serviceable aeroplanes. Records show that R5868 and another Lancaster were loaned to 207 Squadron at neighbouring Langar for the raid.
Weary warrior
Although R5868 was just 16 months old, by October 1943 the near-constant stream of operations had started to take its toll on the bomber, with comments such as “Recommend aircraft unreliable for ops” and “This aircraft is only fit for a conversion unit” starting to appear in her operational record book. But the raids kept coming, with Hanover, Düsseldorf and Modane in France all on the receiving end of the Lancaster’s payload.
Despite apparent issues, Sugar was still admired by her crews. Sgt Steve Bethell, who regularly flew R5868 as a 19-year-old air gunner, later revealed: “Sugar was affectionately held as being capable of finding its own way back from any target in Europe, but a navigator was carried just in case!”
With 467 Squadron’s stay in Leicestershire coming to an end on November 11 that year, R5868 was ferried to the unit’s new base of RAF Waddington in the heart of Lincolnshire’s ‘Bomber County’. Almost immediately, she was back in action as the pace of ops intensified, Berlin being the target on November 18, 22 and 23. Disaster was narrowly avoided during another trip to the ‘Big City’ on November 26, while in the hands of Fg Off Jack Colpus. Just after releasing its bombs, ‘Sugar’ was caught by searchlights and Jack threw the bomber into a dive, before ferociously ‘corkscrewing’ to evade them. Suddenly, the rear gunner reported that they had collided with another aircraft. After much agonising, and not realising the full extent of the damage, Jack landed at RAF Tholthorpe in North Yorkshire with some 5ft of the port wing missing (interestingly, when speaking after the war, Colpus commented he had put R5868 down at RAF Linton-on-Ouse). Investigations revealed the other aircraft involved was the Lancaster Mk.I DV311 of 61 Squadron, its crew also surviving to tell the tale.
A look at the 467’s Operation Record Book reveals a humorous anecdote regarding the incident: “Flying officer J A Colpus tried Aussie Rules Football with another Lancaster and tried to bump it out of the sky. The aircraft went into a severe dive to port, but by applying full rudder and aileron trim the aircraft straightened, but it still needed a lot of pressure on both the rudder pedals and the control column to maintain height. The aircraft was our old reliable ‘S for Sugar’. In this kite the pilot and navigator go to sleep coming home, for it knows its way back from almost any target.”
It was the aircraft’s 96th combat sortie. ‘Sugar’ was pulled from operations and sent for repair. It would be February 1944 before she flew in combat again.
Ton-up Lanc
As R5868’s operation tally approached 100, the aircraft’s nose art was changed to poke fun at Göring. With an arrow pointing to the growing number of bomb marks and the Distinguished Service Order ribbons ‘awarded’ to the Lancaster for completing its first and second tours of 30, the Reichsmarschall’s vain boast was recreated in early February 1944 by LAC Ted Willoughby, one of the aeroplane’s engine fitters, with the help of Flt Sgt Dan Smith.
Adopted by Australian Plt Off ‘Jack’ McManus and his crew, the airframe was soon back over the ‘Big City’ on the night of February 15-16. However, mechanical problems soon troubled one of its Merlins, which failed over the target. Less than a week later, R5868 was forced to abort a sortie for the first time, but went on to carry McManus and his crew safely on eight further ops. The last of these was again to Berlin on March 24, but the port outer Merlin failed, while the port inner developed a serious oil leak… resulting in the reluctant decision to jettison their bombs.
On the night of July 18-19, by which time ‘Sugar’ had again lost another engine, been overhauled, been rejected by one pilot, flown its 100th raid and attacked again by night-fighters, her main plane was damaged during a raid on the railway yards at Revigny in Northern France. According to pilot Max Johnson, the bomber was targeted by medium flak, resulting in 126 rivets ‘popping’ from the starboard wing. As well as this, the fuselage was severely wrinkled in several areas. At first, it was thought repairing the machine would have been impractical, but Avro later carried out the needed work.
By November 1944, R5868 was again ready for service and returned to 467 Squadron early the following month. As well as the repairs, the bomber had been repainted, fitted with four brand new Merlin 22s and modified to the latest specifications, including an H2S radar and a ‘Rebecca’ navigation aid. At some point between this date and February 1945, its fuselage code letters gained a yellow outline – a practice that 5 Group had begun in late August 1944. She returned to ops with a daylight strike on the Urft Dam on December 8. It was the aircraft’s 117th raid.
With the mission tally continuing to rise over the following months, including raids on Munich, Gydina in Poland and the Czechoslovakian city of Brux, R5868 was taken offline in February 1945 and spent six weeks flying around USAAF bomber bases in East Anglia on a promotional tour. Perhaps conscious of possible mechanical problems that would defeat the PR value, ‘Sugar’ carried two engine fitters and one rigger (airframe mechanic), along with representative crewmen from 5 Group, all of which were RAF.
Returning to operations, ‘Sugar’ flew its 137th and final mission on April 23, 1945, in the hands of Fg Off Laurie Baker. The target was Flensburg, but due to heavy cloud cover over the objective, the crew elected not to drop the 11,000lb war load. With the aircraft returning home safely, R5868 closed her wartime account with 795 flying hours, having dropped some 466 tons of bombs.
From bombing to repatriation
With the war in Europe coming to an end in late April 1945, Bomber Command took part in Operation Exodus – the repatriation of prisoners of war. Having been used as a weapon for so long, R5868 played a key part in these mercy missions. On April 25, she was flown by Wg Cdr Ian Hay to the Belgian capital of Brussels to finalise details surrounding the return of prisoners. Flying back that same day, the aircraft was carrying 20 passengers when she landed at Westcott, Buckinghamshire.
Several years later, George Wing described that trip: “The memory of those lads’ faces will always be with me – even though at the time I was only 20 myself. To see them sat on the floor of the aircraft, trying to negotiate the main spar, and the cheers when we came over the white cliffs of England. One of my happiest flights.”
‘Sugar’ was the first to undertake such a relief flight and went on to perform at least another three such sorties during early May. On the 7th of that month, senior RAF officers were flown across Germany onboard R5868 to observe the effects of the bombing raids and check the suitability of its airfields so POWs could be flown directly out of Germany. The 6hr 45min trip included stops at Mannheim, Kitzingen, Wurzburg and Frankfurt, with just the pilot and navigator, Ian Hay and Fg Off Reg Boys, being allowed to step off the aircraft during these stopovers.
Fortunately, unlike so many other Lancasters with history that ended up being scrapped, R5868 was set aside for preservation during the summer of 1945. A staff officer at Bomber Command, Air Cdre Thomas Fawdry, had written to the Air Historical Branch (AHB) reporting it was surplus to requirements. In his letter, he asked “whether any special disposal arrangements were required”, due to its record number of sorties, noting that it was: “in very good condition and suitable to carry out exhibition flights if necessary.”
This suggestion was accepted by the Air Ministry librarian, who at the time had the responsibility for historic aircraft. The AHB replied on July 30 requesting the aircraft be retained in storage and, as a result, ‘Sugar’ was dismantled and transported to Wroughton, Wiltshire, on August 27. Declared as non-effective stock two years later, she was allocated the maintenance serial 7325M on March 13, 1956, before being struck off charge three days later.
Pride of place
In 1959, R5868 returned to Scampton and, following a starring appearance at the station’s Battle of Britain Weekend commemorations in September that year, was put on display at the station’s main gate. However, it was soon the centre of controversy following complaints that it was distracting drivers on the nearby A15. Lighted at night, it was claimed that the yellow illumination could cause confusion. Investigated by the local council, the bomber was later moved back from the road.
On July 7, 1970, Jack Bruce, deputy keeper of the RAF Museum, and Fg Off R M Forder from 71 Maintenance Unit (MU) surveyed the airframe and estimated it would take some 2,000-man hours to restore it externally for display. However, it was vital that such an important machine was preserved, so it was formally passed to the still embryonic RAF Museum at Hendon in London on August 26, 1970. On the night of November 23-24, Sugar was moved to 71 MU’s base at Bicester in Oxfordshire on eight Queen Mary trailers. By then the airframe, in particular the wings, was plagued by corrosion. With a restoration team led successively by Chief Tech Henry, Sgt Thomason and Chief Tech Stanley, the Lanc’ was stripped of paint by a team from RAF St Athan, South Wales, and treated for corrosion, before having its interior repainted.
While the control surfaces were recovered by staff from the Shawbury, Shropshire-based 27 MU, the engines were steam cleaned and new Perspex panels for the canopy and turrets were made. With a replacement astrodome from an Avro Shackleton, a replica H2S radome was built and fitted. Unbelievably, during the work, a clip of three machine gun rounds dated 1941 was found in the front turret.
Again loaded on multiple Queen Mary trailers, R5868’s move to Hendon was completed on March 12, 1972, following an overnight stop at RAF Northolt. Fascinatingly, due to height restrictions at Hendon, the bomber had to be partially assembled and painted in the open, before being hoisted into the museum. On winching it into the building, there was less than 3in clearance between the tail and the hangar wall.
Repainted as ‘S-for-Sugar’, exactly as it had been at the end of the war in Europe, most of the work was finished by the end of the month. With the remainder of the external restoration tasks completed by August 8, a ceremony was held to mark the end of the project in June the following year, with many of those involved in R5868’s wartime service attending. In April 1982, ‘S-for-Sugar’ was moved into the newly constructed Bomber Command Hall, which today is known as Hangar 5, where it remains as a constant reminder of the bravery of those who flew and fought in her, as well as the rest of Bomber Command.
