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World War II: Great Britain
Aircraft of Great Britain in WWII.
Hosted by Rowan Baylis
Lancaster Gas Patch
Antoni
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: June 03, 2006
KitMaker: 574 posts
AeroScale: 573 posts
Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 05:34 PM UTC
In my collection of 300 Squadron Lancaster photos several of the aircraft have a circular patch painted on the nose. It turns out these are gas indicator patches found, it seems, only on 1 Group Lancasters. What I haven't been able to find out is why they were there. It is difficult to see what use they would be at 30,000ft at night and in a place where the crew would not be able to see them anyway. Does anybody know why they were applied?
brandydoguk
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England - North, United Kingdom
Joined: October 04, 2002
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Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 06:29 PM UTC
Hi Antoni,

I have seen photos of the gas patches applied in a square shape on the port wing of some lancasters as well as spitfires and hurricanes. I
think they were used as a warning of gas attack for aircrew who had just landed and groundcrews when working on the aircraft.

As they were dispersed around the airfields it would be dificult for any gas alarm to be received at every location. The patches would have given immediate warning of danger to those actually working on the airframe.
Antoni
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: June 03, 2006
KitMaker: 574 posts
AeroScale: 573 posts
Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 07:10 PM UTC
Square gas patches were painted on the wings of all aircraft types at the beginning of the war when the threat of gas attacks was taken seriously but discontinued. But these aircraft were operating in daylight and the crew could see the patches on the wings. Why in 1944/45 was there concern over gas attacks when the Germans had never used it up until then? A Lancaster flying at over 20,000ft isn't going to fly through a cloud of mustard gas. If you think the airfield might come under gas attack then you put indicators around the airfield.

I haven't seen any square gas patches on Lancaster wings but I have known the hatch for the life raft to have been mistaken for them.
almonkey
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: March 23, 2003
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Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 10:37 PM UTC
heres a pic of me taken last week, the square patch on the lancasters wing is definitely the life raft hatch (they had a model of a lanc ditching with the hatch opened and the raft floating out of it)
Antoni
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: June 03, 2006
KitMaker: 574 posts
AeroScale: 573 posts
Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 11:12 PM UTC
[quote]heres a pic of me taken last week, the square patch on the lancasters wing is definitely the life raft hatch (they had a model of a lanc ditching with the hatch opened and the raft floating out of it)[quote]

Hello Phil,
That looks like East Kirby? I have a whole sequence of photos of 300 Sqn unpacking the life raft. E-mail me if you want to see them.

[email protected]
almonkey
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: March 23, 2003
KitMaker: 2,124 posts
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Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 11:33 PM UTC
yeah, thats east kirby, while i was there for some strange reason (can't think why!) i bought a lancaster model kit, well the airfix BBMF box set, so i'd like to see your pics definitely. can i pm you my email?
Antoni
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: June 03, 2006
KitMaker: 574 posts
AeroScale: 573 posts
Posted: Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 01:00 AM UTC
I put my email address at the end of the post. [email protected]. Send an email and I will reply with attachment, they're in a pdf file.
almonkey
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
Joined: March 23, 2003
KitMaker: 2,124 posts
AeroScale: 788 posts
Posted: Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 11:24 PM UTC
sory antoni, i missed that bit in your post, email is on the way!
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