Editing G for George (section)

==History==
G-George flew 90<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/george/ |title="G For George" Avro Lancaster |publisher=[[Australian War Memorial]] |accessdate=5 November 2015}} The operational record linked from this page lists only 89.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ozatwar.com/ghistory.htm |title=History of "G for George" |publisher=ozatwar.com |accessdate=5 November 2015}}</ref> operational sorties over occupied Europe with 460 Squadron, and is the second most prolific surviving Lancaster, behind ''R5868'' S for Sugar of [[No. 83 Squadron RAF]]/[[No. 463 Squadron RAAF]]/[[No. 467 Squadron RAAF]] (137 sorties). Most operational Lancasters were shot down before they had reached 20 [[sortie]]s: of the 107,085 sorties by Lancasters despatched in bombing raids on Germany 2,687 aircraft went missing.<ref>Moyes 1976, p. 328.</ref> G-George has the added distinction of bringing home, alive, every crewman who flew aboard it.

Upon retirement from combat duty in 1944, G-George was flown to Australia by an all-RAAF crew of [[RAF Bomber Command|Bomber Command]] veterans, and played a major part in raising [[war bond]]s during a round-Australia publicity trip. Post-war, it was left to decay in the open air at [[RAAF Base Fairbairn]], before being moved to the AWM in the early 1950s.

In 2003, G-George returned to display at the AWM in the new ANZAC Hall after a five-year restoration program at the [[Treloar Resource Centre|Treloar Technology Centre]], which restored the aircraft as faithfully as possible to its wartime configuration.<ref>{{cite web |title=Conservation project Lancaster G for George |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/about/our-work/projects/gforgeorge |publisher=Australian War Memorial |accessdate=11 September 2018}}</ref> It is displayed in conjunction with a sound and light show that attempts to convey something of the atmosphere of a World War II Bomber Command raid, and incorporates a German [[88 mm gun|'88' flak gun]] and a [[Messerschmitt Bf 109|Bf 109]] fighter. The display is based on a sortie captained by [[Flying Officer]] "Cherry" Carter to [[Berlin]] on "Black Thursday" December 1943, so called because Bomber Command lost 50 of the 500 bombers detailed for the raid - more than half were lost in landing accidents due to bad weather.

G-George serves as a memorial to all Australians who [[Australia and the Empire Air Training Scheme|flew]] with Bomber Command, and to the 1,018 dead of 460 Squadron.

The designation 'G-George' comes from the [[Allied Military phonetic spelling alphabets#RAF radiotelephony spelling alphabet|RAF phonetic alphabet]] in use at the time. Individual aircraft of a squadron were allocated a letter and would be referred to using the corresponding word from the phonetic alphabet. This identification letter ('G') would be painted on the side of the aircraft in conjunction with the two-letter squadron code, in this case 'AR-G'. Many other RAF squadrons would also have had their own 'G-George', but allied to a different squadron code such as Spitfire 'XE-G' belonging to No. 123 squadron RAF.