THE DAMBUSTERS!

Here in Blighty  it’s the 70th Anniversary of the famous Dambusters raid which began on the evening of 16th May 1943.

To mark the occasion I've put together a few photos I took of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight including one of the two remaining flying Lancaster Bombers, as well as a fly - by, all  filmed at the Southport Airshow last year.

The daring raid was carried out by 133 RAF airmen, flying 19 Lancaster bombers armed with the ‘Bouncing Bombs’ designed by Sir Barnes Wallis.

617 Squadron, better known as The Dambusters was led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. It’s mission was to destroy the great dams of Germany.

At 21.28, the first waves of Lancasters  took off from RAF Scampton, heading out in across the North Sea.

At 00.28 Gibson ran the first attack on The Mohne Dam. His flew exactly 60ft above the ground at a speed of 230mph. The bomb was released. It bounced three times  and sank, exploding short of the target.

German gunners reacted quickly and as the next Lancaster made it’s bombing run  anti aircraft fire ripped into the plane causing it to drop it’s bomb too late. It bounced over the dam,  destroying a power house.

With two Lancasters acting as decoys the next aircraft approached the dam, which was beginning to crumble.  The bomb struck and the dam finally collapsed.

With one target down the squadron headed towards the Eder Dam.

At 01.54, the second dam had been breached . A third dam, The Lister was to be attacked,  followed by a forth, The Sorpe, however the aircraft tasked with the job was shot down over the heavily defended town of Hamm.

At 06.15 the last surviving plane landed at RAF Scampton. The Dambusters mission was over.