Description:

1943

AF 4010 HRS
ENG 155

Permit to April 2026

Very well known aircraft seen at all the flying, needs a new home. Absolute opportunity to acquire a bargain.


Built at Rearsby, Leicestershire, LB375 was the 89th aircraft produced from

an initial batch of 100 Auster Mk.Is for the Royal Air Force. It was initially

assigned to 653 Air Observation Post (AOP) Squadron at Penkhurst,

Kent, in December 1942. Formed that June, 653 AOP Sqn had flown de

Havilland Tiger Moths as an interim measure prior to receiving Austers.

LB375 was transferred to No. 43 Operational Training Unit at RAF Larkhill,

Wiltshire, in March 1943 for use in the tuition of army co-operation air

observers. With the introduction of improved Auster variants, the aircraft

was allocated to 451 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for light

liaison duties in March 1945. Equipped with Supermarine Spitfire XVIs, 451

Sqn was based at RAF Matlaske, Norfolk when issued LB375.

From August 1945, the unit received Spitfire F.14s in anticipation of

deploying to Germany on September 14, 1945. Initially stationed

at Fassberg, 45 miles south of Hamburg, 451 Sqn moved to Wunstorf, 14

miles northwest of Hanover, on 27th of that month. The squadron flew from

RAF Gatow, west of Berlin, between November 28 and December 30, 1945

before being disbanded at Wunstorf on January 21, 1946. LB375 was

demobbed in March of that year and allocated the civilian registration G-

AHGW.

The aircraft was returned to Rearsby, where it was civilianised before being

sold to London Aeroplane Club at PanshangerAerodrome, Hertfordshire, in

1946. The following year, it was acquired by Short Brothers and Harland

Ltd and based at Rochester, Kent.

G-AHGW then passed through a number of private owners before being

purchased in 1975 by Carl Butler. Having repainted the aircraft in its RAF

colours, Butler would later fly it as part of the Military Auster Flight

alongside Mk.V G-AJGJ/RT486, AOP.6 G-BNGE/TW536, T.7 G-

ASAJ/WE569 and AOP.9 G-BKVK/WZ662

The aircraft was stored in 1996, being acquired with another Auster I, G-

AHSD/LB323, by Brent Owen in 2016.

LB375 is currently owned by Simon Tilling the CEO of the Light Aircraft

Association and has been flown in by Emma Taylor who recently converted

to the type

LB375 is understood to have had one of the longest in-service flying

careers of any World War Two Auster.