When the British first sent Anson Mk.I aircraft to Canada, they disassembled them, crated them, and loaded them aboard ships. But they forgot to load the bolts that held the airplanes together. When they arrived, the Canadians couldn't reassemble them, because the British bolts were a different size and Canada didn't have any in stock! Through a quirk, the Anson Mk.III entered service before the Mk.II. The Mk.II was built in Canada for use in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and featured hydraulically-retracted landing gear. This was a big improvement over the Mk.I which needed 144 turns of a hand crank to raise the undercarriage up or down. But there were problems with the hydraulics, so the Canadians resorted to building the Mk.III variant which, again, used a hand crank.
![Avro Anson | The Multipurpose "Faithful Annie" [Aircraft Overview #14]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9jKC-liGz7w/mqdefault.jpg)
Superb video, beautifully produced thank you.
Dad flew Ansons at 41SFTS in 1943/44, on his way to piloting Lancasters with 582 Pathfinder squadron.
When the British first sent Anson Mk.I aircraft to Canada, they disassembled them, crated them, and loaded them aboard ships. But they forgot to load the bolts that held the airplanes together. When they arrived, the Canadians couldn't reassemble them, because the British bolts were a different size and Canada didn't have any in stock!
Through a quirk, the Anson Mk.III entered service before the Mk.II. The Mk.II was built in Canada for use in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and featured hydraulically-retracted landing gear. This was a big improvement over the Mk.I which needed 144 turns of a hand crank to raise the undercarriage up or down. But there were problems with the hydraulics, so the Canadians resorted to building the Mk.III variant which, again, used a hand crank.