Claims to Fame - The Lancaster by Norman Franks (ISBN 1-85409-311-8) 
 

One cannot say with any real accuracy just how many Lancasters flew on operations but it had to be around 6500. Yet of this supposed total, only 34 - a mere 1.9 per cent - managed to complete 100 or more ops. The highest number of operations completed by a Lancaster was a miraculous 140 . 
 

ND875 - NUTS 
 

Part of aircraft order No 1807, this Avro-built machine came off the production line in early 1944 as a MKIII, having 4 Merlin 38 engines. After going to No 32 MU on 9 April it was assigned to No 7 Squadron PFF on the 14th , but a week later was re-assigned to No 156 Squadron PFF  at Upwood, Huntingdonshire and coded GT-N. 
 

ND875 began ops on 24/25 April with a raid to Karlsruhe in the hands of Squadron Leader H. F. Slade DFC, who had with him that night the Squadron Navigation Leader, Squadron Leader A. J. Mulligan DFC (Mulligan was to receive the DSO that summer). Herbert Frank Slade flew the aircraft on 12 sorties before becoming tour-expired at the end of July, having completed a total of 58 ops with the Squadron, for which he received an immediate DSO. ND875 was also flown by the CO, Wing Commander T. L. Bingham-Hall DSO DFC, who had come to the Squadron in the same month as this aircraft. 
 

Among other notable pilots to fly ND875 were Squadron Leader A.W.G. Cochrane, who would end the war with the DSO DFC and two Bars, Squadron Leader T.E. Ison DSO, DFC, Squadron Leader P.F. Clayton DFC, who arrived from No 582 Squadron in August 1944, and Squadron Leader Reg F Griffin DSO, DFC. Cochrane had already flown a tour on Wellingtons and by February 1945 had himself completed 80 operations. He flew at least 14 of these as either Master or Deputy Master Bomber. 
 

ND875 flew on D-Day, was shot-up by a night fighter on 23 June which knocked-out the port outer engine (becoming Cat AC), then flew over Caen when the Allied outbreak started. On 7 October, Thomas Ison flew a 'Long Stop' mission to Cleve, his duty being to ensure bombers did not overshoot the bomb-line and drop their loads onto Allied troops in the Nijmegen Salient. 
 

In total, Ison took ND875 on 17 trips, and Cochrane four - including one during which, acting as Master Bomber over Goch on 7/8 February 1945, they collided with another aircraft. Although the Lanc lost a chunk of its port wing, Cochrane continued to direct the bombing and stayed over the target until all had bombed. 
 

Its 100th op was recorded as being flow on 24 March 1945 with Squadron Leader Clayton in command, on another 'Long Stop' sortie for a raid against a  Benzol plant near Dortmund. ND875 was credited with a total of 108 raids, although not all can be verified, but the aircraft certainly flew over 100 ops. 
 

ND875 went to No 1660 CU on 26 July, then to No 1668 CU on 20 October, where the aircraft remained until March 1946, when it returned to No 1660 CU. Its final service was with no 1653 CU with effect from 9 November 1946 and then the Lanc went to No 15 MU on 9 May 1947 where it was Struck off Charge  on 28 August.