This is page three of KB882's 1945-1964 history. Click here for page 2.
KB882 returned to primarily operational flights in 1960. In January she flew her first ice reconnaissance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, followed by one more in January and another in February. These ice recces were normally flown at 10-day intervals and lasted 2 or 3 days. They were credited with improving the safety of shipping in the Gulf, thereby reducing winter insurance rates, and allowing a longer shipping season at the Port of Montreal. KB882 also conducted six northern recces and participated in four air shows. That year also saw two more interesting missions. In May, Squadron Leader W.P.J. Becker and crew took the aircraft for a six-day over-water training mission. These flights normally involved trips to Bermuda. Then in November, Flight Lieutenant R.W. Manthorpe and crew were one of the escorts for the new DeHavilland DHC-4 Caribou flown to Egypt where they were used by No. 115 Air Transport Unit, which was part of the Canadian Contingent to the United Nations Emergency Force.
KB882’s activities in 1961 and 1962 were very similar to those of 1960. The aircraft was again heavily involved in operations, with most flights being Arctic recces and ice recces of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1962 alone, KB882 conducted seven of the squadron’s Arctic recces, or half of the Squadron’s total. For the Arctic missions, the main staging bases were Goose Bay, Resolute Bay, Frobisher Bay and Thule in Greenland. These missions could last up to one week.
Perhaps the most interesting and least known of the aircraft’s missions occurred from 1 to 11 November 1962. Flight Lieutenant C.O. Huntley flew what the operations record book indicates as a “special maritime exercise” to Greenwood, later operating from Torbay, Goose Bay and Frobisher Bay. This was the period shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The RCAF’s maritime patrol Lancaster’s had been heavily involved in searching for, detecting and maintaining contact with Soviet submarines in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. In the period after the Crisis had subsided, American and Canadian forces maintained a high state of vigilance to ensure that the Soviet Union would not renege on its agreement to withdraw its missiles from Cuba. While KB882 was not equipped to detect submarines, the RCAF did conduct aerial patrols of the waters off Newfoundland, Labrador and into the Davis Strait not only to monitor the movements of Soviet “trawlers”, but also as insurance against the possible moves of Soviet submarines through these waters. During the Crisis, a large Soviet fishing fleet was located off the northern peninsula of Newfoundland in international waters. The location of certain trawlers within the fleet was a concern to American and Canadian military authorities.
For KB882, 1963 started in maintenance. She and fellow 408 Squadron Lancaster KB839 went to Charlottetown for replacement of the No. 2 and 3 fuel tank stress panels and other minor modifications. KB882 was out of service from 7 February to 18 April. By this time, the RCAF was having increasing difficulties keeping the Lancaster’s flying. Spare parts, and especially the Merlin engines, were becoming hard to find or expensive to repair and overhaul. For 1963, KB882 was used sparingly. The RCAF made plans to withdraw the Lancasters from service, with an order to this effect being released on 20 December 1963. The Lancasters would be withdrawn from service on 31 March 1964, to be replaced in the interim at 408 Squadron by Dakotas.
