The fuselage of an iconic World War Two Lancaster bomber believed to be “lucky” has been returned to the Australian War Memorial (AWM).<\/p>\n
G for George is one of the memorial’s most beloved and well-known exhibits and has been in storage for the past five years while the memorial underwent significant redevelopment.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people lined Anzac Parade in Canberra to see the aircraft’s fuselage return to the memorial under police escort. The aircraft will now be reassembled to return to public display.<\/p>\n
Murray Vogt’s father Brian flew with the 460 Squadron, of which G for George was a part, in the war.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Murray Vogt turned out to watch G for George drive by, in honour of his father’s service. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n
Mr Vogt was among those watching on.<\/p>\n
“It reminds us of the service of dad and all of his friends and mates who helped to defend Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Dad was pretty stoic and didn’t really talk about bad experiences, he spoke of mateship and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
“It’s a great thing for people to see and understand some of the sacrifice people have made.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An aircraft pin on the collar of Murray Vogt. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n
A ‘powerful moment’<\/p>\n
AWM director Matt Anderson described the aircraft as a “significant” part of the institution’s collection.<\/p>\n
“Of all the moments this morning, the most powerful moment for me was when school children spontaneously applauded as she came around the roundabout,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson still remembers the first time he saw George. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n
“It just reminded me of the first time I saw George \u2014 I was 10 years old \u2014 and they will have that memory now forever.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very powerful moment, it’s a historic moment.”<\/p>\n
Known as the ‘Lucky Bomber’<\/p>\n
The aircraft carried out 89 bombing missions over Germany and occupied Europe between 1942 and 1944.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Lancaster aircraft G for George of No. 460 Squadron RAAF. (Supplied: Australian War Memorial)<\/p>\n
There were zero casualties among the 250 aircrew who flew on George throughout the war, leading many to believe the aircraft was “lucky”, according to AWM senior historian Lachlan Grant.<\/p>\n
“There were no casualties amongst the aircrew flying on George itself but over 80 of the aircrew who flew G for George were later killed in operations flying in other Lancasters and other squadrons,” he said.<\/p>\n
“All of those who flew on it considered it a lucky aircraft and it got them home safely.”<\/p>\n
Dr Grant said George had “a lot of very near misses”, returning to base damaged on several occasions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From left to right: Lachlan Grant, AWM historian; Emily Hyles, AWM curator; Garth O\u2019Connell, AWM curator. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)<\/p>\n
A new exhibition<\/p>\n
Over the next month, the remaining parts of G for George will be transported to the war memorial where it will be fully reassembled.<\/p>\n
It will form the centrepiece of a new exhibition, opening to the public next year, after renovations at the memorial are complete.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
G for George arriving on a truck at the AWM where it will be the centrepiece of a new exhibition. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)<\/p>\n
Emily Hyles, a curator at the memorial, said the exhibition would provide powerful new insights for visitors.<\/p>\n
“We have got a lot of new objects that have never been on display before and in doing that we can tell our visitors a whole range of new stories,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What we are very keen to do is always tell the stories of the people behind those objects.”<\/p>\n
Her fellow curator Garth O’Connell said George was an “icon”.<\/p>\n
“I have been coming to the memorial since I was a little boy and I have got drawings I have done from age seven on my office wall here of G for George,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It has been a professionally and personally very rewarding experience to help put George back on display and to help bring other stories to life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fuselage of an iconic World War Two Lancaster bomber believed to be “lucky” has been returned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2666,64,63,32187,2667,32184,32185,44,32186],"class_list":{"0":"post-35203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-war-memorial","12":"tag-canberra","13":"tag-g-for-george","14":"tag-lancaster","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-world-war-two"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}