The crews of Daisy

F/O Peter Tulk was posted to 419 squadron on November 30th 1944. Together with his crew he flew his first operation on Christmas Eve of 1944. His first operation flying VR-D "Daisy" was January 28th 1945 on a raid to Stuttgart this is also the first listing of KB839 in the operations log. Tulk's crew flew "Daisy" on eleven other operations adding a "pup", below the Daisy and pups nose art for each operation. Daisy of course was the name of the family dog in the comics "Blondie", which also included numerous "pups" in the cartoons and movies. Tulk and crew flew a number of other Lancaster aircraft during their tour.

On January 6th of 1945 Tulk was promoted to F/L, no record of when the crew and F/L Tulk left 419 squadron, last operation flown by the crew was on April 22 1945. Tulk's last operation flying VR-D was on March 24th 1945. The last operation Daisy flew on was made by another crew captained by P/O D. E. Rickert who had flown Daisy on the two previous operations. ( April 4/5 and March 31st.)
The Lancaster was flown by other pilots beside Rickert and Tulk, but by far Tulk flew the most number of operations with KB839, and he and his crew gave her the name "Daisy".
Tulk's crew posted to 419 in November of 1944 were:
Navigator Sgt. A. Williams
B/A F/S C.R. Sheney
W/Op Sgt. R. M. Fonton
F/E Sgt. J. T. Mulholland
U/G Sgt. J. A. Coleman
R/G Sgt. R. M. Morrison

Rickert's crew posted to 419 February 28th 1945 were:
Navigator F/O W.S. MacAlpine
B/A F/O G.N. Dittmer
W/Op F/S R.C. Cooper
F/E P/O A. C. Thomas
U/G Sgt. R. C. Hayman
R/G Sgt. K. W. Gunby

Daisy was also flown by F/O William Smith ( 2 Ops) and F/L H. A. Metivier (2 Ops)
Daisy survived the war and returned to Canada on June 5 1945 and was to be part of "Tiger Force" #661 Wing at Yarmouth, N.S. She was sent to Avro Canada at Malton. There converted to Mk10AR(Arctic Reconnaaissance) many modifications were made to her including as six camera positions, search/navigational radar, electronic surveillance aerials, and new nose and rear fairing, with the survival equipment in the rear turret.
With the end of the war in the Pacific, VR-D was used by two other squadrons and eventually taken out of service in 1961. On June 18th 1963 flew non-stop around the world twice in less then an hour, kind of, then dropped a time capsule at the North Pole. She eventually returned to Greenwood in 1964 as a proposed pedestal mount; repainted in 419 colours and preserved at RCAF Greenwood. She now is on display in Greenwood Museum to resemble Lancasters which flew out of RCAF Station Greenwood from 1949.