The wreck of a 617 Squadron Avro Lancaster has become a tourist attraction in Sweden
The substantial remains of a former 617 Squadron Avro Lancaster still reside on a meadow near the village of Porjus in northern Sweden, where it crashed on October 29, 1944, following a raid against the German battleship Tirpitz.
This particular Lancaster, serial number NF920, was built by Armstrong Whitworth at Baginton, Warwickshire and was delivered to the RAF on August 12, 1944. Assigned to 617 Squadron, the Lancaster was allotted the code letters KC-E and named Easy Elsie. The raid flown on that fateful day, code-named Operation Obviate, was the second RAF Lancaster raid against the German warship Tirpitz. The first strike had taken place about six weeks earlier, on September 15. A third raid was flown on November 12, finally sinking the vessel that Churchill dubbed ‘The Beast’. All three raids involved Lancasters of IX(B) and 617 Squadrons.
