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noun: RAF slang
c. 1945, 427 Squadron – War Diary, page 32, log entry for July 24, 1943:24/7/43 […] This was one of the best ops. the Squadron has ever done. There were no "boomerangs" and no losses and according to the crews, Hamburg "had it".
, Orion, →ISBN, quoting the above:the adjutant's office of 427 Sqn declaimed in the Operational Record Book […] ‘ […] This was one of the best ops the squadron has ever done. There were no boomerangs and no losses.’]
2015 August 1, Chris Jory, Lost in the Flames: A World War II RAF Bomber Command novel, McNidder and Grace Limited, →ISBN, →OCLC:I won't tolerate boomerangs on this squadron. You'll damn well go out again tomorrow.
2022 January 11, Ian Campbell, Thinks He's a Bird: From Postal Clerk to Pathfinder Pilot, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:This was the 'boomerang' (also called 'early returns'), where a crew aborted a flight and returned to base before completing a mission.
verb: RAF slang
c. 1945, 427 Squadron – War Diary, page 59, log entry for November 19, 1943:19/11/43 Twelve aircraft were detailed for a raid on Leverkusen, and as many became airborne. Two however, boomeranged, "S" due to u/s of rear guns and starboard inner failure, and "U" due to the failure of all electrically controlled instruments, and the cutting out of port inner engine.
2007 September 20, Peter Jacobs, quoting Les Bartlett, Bomb Aimer Over Berlin: The Wartime Memoirs of Les Bartlett DFM, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 76:Out of the nineteen aircraft which took off, two 'boomeranged' [returned to base with various faults]; the inter-com of one was U/S [unserviceable] and in another the bomb aimer 'passed out'.
2012 May 1, Martin W. Bowman, quoting Sgt Eric Jones, Lancaster: Reaping the Whirlwind: Reaping the Whirlwind, The History Press, →ISBN, →OCLC:This was the only time I 'boomeranged' (RAF jargon for an abortive sortie). We turned round and went back to Fiskerton.
2021 September 29, Jeff Steel, Joe Shuttleworth, Best of Times, Worst of Times: Bomber Command, Two Men, One War, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:A non-return at this stage was not a matter of immediate concern, as there was always a chance an aircraft had 'boomeranged' with engine trouble and put down at another station.