Matthew Ferguson painted this artwork on a 4000 pound "cookie" bomb to celebrate the 2000th operation by No. 424 "Tiger" Squadron. The bomb was loaded into Lancaster RF-128 (QB-V) and delivered on 21 March 1945. The aircraft was known as "Victorious Virgin" and was flown by F/L J. F. Thomas and crew. The art shows a winged tiger breaking out of an Easter egg and this particular bomb was a special present for Hitler from the squadron. It was dropped on the oil refinery at Hemminstedt, near Heide, Germany. The nose art image on the Lancaster was based on the November 1944 "Varga" pin-up that appeared in Esquire magazine.
This is the only known nose-art, ever painted on a bomb.
And happy Easter all.



Regards Duggy

Maybe not as artistic, but they had a much smaller canvas....er... bomb to paint on!

Thanks Duggy

The Varga Girl on the Lanc is also very unusual I would have thought. What a beautiful skin that would make! Ranwers Lancaster is firmly embedded in DBW so a lot of people have it now. As its an old-school Frankenplane though I bet its a really nasty one to get to grips with. Nobody has even got close, so the default skin is all the world has...

As a result of this post I was surprised to find more Bomber Command Nose Art:-
http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/noseartnlsfull.html