Lancaster B Mk III LM449 of No. 619 Squadron in flight from Coningsby
3,030
Units built
History
The B.III was built alongside the B.I and was externally indistinguishable from it: the difference lay under the cowlings, where it carried Merlins made under licence by Packard in the United States. Those engines used Bendix-Stromberg pressure-injection carburettors, which required slow-running cut-off switches in the cockpit.
The two designations were effectively interchangeable — swapping the engines was enough to move from one to the other, and it was occasionally done. Almost all B.IIIs came from Avro's Newton Heath works. Production figures differ by source: the English reference encyclopaedia gives 3,030 aircraft and the Spanish edition 3,039.
Multimedia
Loose formation of six Lancaster B Mk III of No. 619 Squadron flying above cloudsLancaster Mk III of No. 619 Squadron on a test flight from Coningsby, February 1944Lancaster B Mk III ED831 of No. 9 Squadron taking off at Bardney for the raid on FriedrichshafenHeavily laden Lancaster B Mk III of No. 106 Squadron taxying to the runway at MetheringhamLancaster Mk III of No. 103 Squadron waiting on the flarepath at Elsham Wolds before a raid on DuisburgGround crew guiding a Lancaster Mk III of No. 49 Squadron to its dispersal at Fiskerton after a raid on BerlinCrew posing on Lancaster B Mk III ED905 Press on regardless after its seventieth operational sortieMechanics at work on an engine of Lancaster B Mk III LM577 Edith of No. 218 Squadron at Chedburgh
