World War 2 - Lancaster Bomber Pilot Peter Dowling

Malta

1945 World War II - Dowling Part of Main Air Offensive

Bomber

The son of World War One veteran Private Frederick Dowling (Middlesex Regiment) Peter Grant David Dowling joined the Royal Air Force for duty in World War Two.

Peter was from Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey. Kingston was and is still a leafy suburb of London.

After training in RAF Gosport Peter was posted as a pilot to duty with 115 Squadron around 5 May 1945 at 7A C.H.U. Blyton, Lincolnshire, England

He flew RAF Lancaster bombers with Squadrons 116(?) and 115. These are a massive aircraft with extensive payload for its time. Raids were mostly across Nazi Germany.

Avro Lancaster

There were many variations on the Lancaster. Mk 1 was the most succesful heavy night bomber used by the RAF in this war.

Seven seater, four 1640 Rolls Royce Merlin engines. Maximum speed of 462 km/h (287 miles per hour) carrying a 5,443 kg bomb load. Length 21.2 metres, span 31.1 metres, height 6.25 metres.

Two trainable machine guns in each of the nose and dorsal turrets, four in the tail turret and possible one in the ventral turret. 8,165 kg bomb-load.

115 Squadron	This was the first squadron to be completely equipped with the radial-engined Lancaster Mk.II, when this type replaced Wellingtons at East Wretham in March 1943.
Group	No. 3 Mk.II, March 1943-May 1944 Mks. I & III, March 1944-January 1950 Mk.I(FE), January 1946-January 1950
Operations	First Mine laying, 20/21 March 1943 Raids 261 Mine laying 27 Sorties 4,678 Losses 110 Lost in Accidents 22
Squadron Code Letters	'KO'. C Flight used both 'A4' and 'IL', but the former was to become the nucleus of 195 Squadron and these codes were transferred to that unit in October 1944.
Stations	East Wretham, Norfolk Little Snoring, Norfolk, 6 August 1943 Witchford, Cambridgeshire, 26 November 1943 Graveley, Cambridgeshire, 10 September 1945 Stradishall, West Suffolk, 9 September 1946 Mildenhall, West Suffolk, 15 February 1949
Unit Notes	Lancaster ME803 completed 105 operations. In September 1949 the squadron began to receive Lincolns, but on 1 March 1950 the unit was disbanded.
Source:	Avro Lancaster, The Definitive Record - Harry Holmes. Airlife Publishing England 1997. ISBN 1 85310 721 2

Peter also went on to serve in RAF Northolt, Kenley, Hatfield, Eastchurch, South Cerney and also in Bulawayo in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Source:- Peter's son Andrew Dowling (September 2001). If you were one of Peter's colleagues or know of anyone who served with him in the war Andrew would really appreciate hearing from you. Contact Andrew on Andrew.Dowling56@btinternet.com.