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Bill Townsend
| Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased) Pilot and Captain of Lancaster AJ-O, he attacked the Ennepe Dam. Transferring to the RAF from the Army in 1941, Bill Townsend served a tour as a pilot with 49 Squadron, before joining 617 Squadron, at the time a Flight Sergeant. As part of 617 Squadron Bill Townsend flew Lancaster ED-886 codenamed AJ – O for Orange in the famous dambuster raid of May 1944. Flight Sergeant Townsend flew his bomber and crew in the third wave of the famous raid. After the first two dams (Mohne and Eder) were breached, O for Orange was tasked to attack the Ennepe dam. With no anti-aircraft firing at them, they had time to do three trial runs before they released their bomb, but it failed to damage the dam. Forced to fly back at tree top level by enemy action, his Lancaster was the last to return. It limped home short of one engine. He was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for his courageous actions in the raid. Bill Townsend was later promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He had been a pupil at Monmouth and after the war studied at Lincoln College, Oxford. He became a business man and a civil servant after his studies. FLt/Lt Townsend passed away in April 1991 , there with a flypast by 617 Tornadoes at his cremation on the 15th April 1991 |
Items Signed by Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased) |
| Inbound to Target - The Dambusters by Robert Taylor. (B) SOLD OUT | The crews of 617 Squadron that took part in the epic Dambusters raid on the night of 16/17 May 1943 were among the finest in the RAF. They were the elite of Bomber Command, and when they left RAF Scampton that night, the skills of their pilots - som...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
| Wellington by Robert Taylor. Price : £140.00 | Published in 1980 this rare art print shows Wellingtons of 425 Squadron RCAF, with the aircraft KW - E and KW - N clearly shown. This superb prints carry the rare original signature of FLt/Lt Townsend who passed away in April 1991. These were th...... | |
| Lancaster by Frank Wootton. Price : £400.00 | Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the maiden flight of the Avro Lancaster on 9th January 1941. ...... | |
| Bomb Away! The Third Assault by Robert Taylor. (C) SOLD OUT | On the night of 16th - 17th May 1943 nineteen specially modified Lancasters of No.617 Squadron departed from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on one of the most secret and daring bombing operations undertaken during World War Two. The ultra-secret oper...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
Packs with at least one item featuring the signature of Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased) |
| Wellington Bomber Print Pack. Pack Price : £300.00 Saving : £260 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : Overdue by Gerald Coulson. Wellington by Robert Taylor. Dawn Return by Anthony Saunders. (APB) Wellingtons by Keith Woodcock. (B) | |
| Wellington Bomber Prints. Pack Price : £285.00 Saving : £323 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : Overdue by Gerald Coulson. Wellington by Robert Taylor. The Loch Ness Wellington by Ivan Berryman. Evening Departure by Gerald Coulson. | |
| Vicker Wellington Bomber Prints. Pack Price : £300.00 Saving : £340 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : The Loch Ness Wellington by Ivan Berryman. Wellington by Robert Taylor. Dawn Return by Anthony Saunders. (C) Overdue by Gerald Coulson. | |
Pack 532. Pack of two Wellington bomber aviation prints by Robert Taylor and Ivan Berryman. Pack Price : £170.00 Saving : £190 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : Wellington by Robert Taylor. The Loch Ness Wellington by Ivan Berryman. | ||
Wellington Bomber Prints by Gerald Coulson and Robert Taylor. Pack Price : £210.00 Saving : £190 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : Overdue by Gerald Coulson. Wellington by Robert Taylor. |
Aircrew Signature Wellington Bomber Prints by Robert Taylor and Anthony Saunders. Pack Price : £145.00 Saving : £135 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : Dawn Return by Anthony Saunders. (C) Wellington by Robert Taylor. | ||
Signed Wellington Bomber Aircraft Prints by Robert Taylor and Ivan Berryman. Pack Price : £200.00 Saving : £160 | Aviation Print Pack. ...... Titles in this pack : The Loch Ness Wellington by Ivan Berryman. Wellington by Robert Taylor. |
Squadrons for : Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased) | ||
A list of all squadrons known to have been served with by Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased). A profile page is available by clicking the squadron name. | ||
Squadron | Info | |
Country : UK Founded : 15th April 1916 Fate : Disbanded 1st May 1965 Cave canem - Beware of the dog | No.49 Sqn RAF 49 Squadron was formed on 15th April 1916, during the First World War. In the course of the war, it flew DH4 and DH9 aircraft before disbanding in July 1919. Reformed in 1936, they flew Hind and Hampdens before war broke out in 1939. It was in a Hampden of 49 Sqn that Roderick Learoyd won the first Victoria Cross awarded to Bomber Command, when on the night of 12th August 1940, he and four other aircraft attempted to breach the heavily defended Dortmund-Ems canal. The squadron transferred to Manchesters and Lancasters, and after the war to Lincolns, before being disbanded once again on 1st August 1955. Less than a year later, on 1st May 1956, the squadron were reformed, equipped with Valiant V-Bombers of Britain's nuclear deterrent programme, but exactly nine years later, with the aircraft grounded, the squadron disbanded for the last time. | |
Country : UK Founded : 23rd March 1943 Apres mois, le deluge - After me, the flood | No.617 Sqn RAF Full profile not yet available. |
Aircraft for : Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased) | |||
A list of all aircraft associated with Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend CGM DFM (deceased). A profile page including a list of all art prints for the aircraft is available by clicking the aircraft name. | |||
Squadron | Info | ||
Manufacturer : Avro Production Began : 1942 Retired : 1963 Number Built : 7377 | Lancaster The Avro Lancaster arose from the avro Manchester and the first prototype Lancaster was a converted Manchester with four engines. The Lancaster was first flown in January 1941, and started operations in March 1942. By March 1945 The Royal Air Force had 56 squadrons of Lancasters with the first squadron equipped being No.44 Squadron. During World War Two the Avro Lancaster flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 618,378 tonnes of bombs between 1942 and 1945. Lancaster Bomberss took part in the devastating round-the-clock raids on Hamburg during Air Marshall Harris' Operation Gomorrah in July 1943. Just 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations, and the Lancaster was scrapped after the war in 1947. A few Lancasters were converted into tankers and the two tanker aircraft were joined by another converted Lancaster and were used in the Berlin Airlift, achieving 757 tanker sorties. A famous Lancaster bombing raid was the 1943 mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley. The operation was carried out by 617 Squadron in modified Mk IIIs carrying special drum shaped bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis. Also famous was a series of Lancaster attacks using Tallboy bombs against the German battleship Tirpitz, which first disabled and later sank the ship. The Lancaster bomber was the basis of the new Avro Lincoln bomber, initially known as the Lancaster IV and Lancaster V. (Becoming Lincoln B1 and B2 respectively.) Their Lancastrian airliner was also based on the Lancaster but was not very successful. Other developments were the Avro York and the successful Shackleton which continued in airborne early warning service up to 1992. |
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