Lancaster
As the war in Europe come to its conclusion, in autumn 1944, thoughts started to turn to the Pacific and the planned invasion of Japan ('Operation Downfall'). The Tiger Force' was to be Bomber Command's contribution to this as they would provide a number of squadrons to help in the build up to the invasion. US Chiefs of Staff, in principle, accepted the offer of the Lancaster squadrons on the 27th October 1944. The major obstacles for this plan was the availability of airfields in range of Japan.
One of the ways to increase the Lancaster's range, alongside air-to-air refuelling was the addition of a 'saddle tank' behind the cockpit. This could hold an extra 1,200 imperial gallons of fuel and a pair of Lancaster B.Mk Is (HK541) and (SW244) would be modified accordingly and this was called the Very Long Range Lancaster. This idea was discarded in favour of air-to-air refuelling which was then itself unnecessary after the airbases on Okinawa became available.
