All was quiet in the Ruhr valley on the night of 16/17 May 1943. Bright moonlight illuminated the night sky and the normally dark waters of the huge lakes, held back by the mighty dams, glinted brightly. The scene was somewhat different at RAF Scampton as nineteen Lancasters and 133 men from the recently formed 617 Squadron prepared to carry out a series of precision raids deep behind enemy lines. This highly secret mission went under the code name Operation Chastise, but the world would come to know it as the Dambusters Raid.
The peace at the Möhne Dam was shattered soon after midnight when Guy Gibson in Lancaster AJ-G made the first attack. The flak gunners, relaxing in their turrets, had no idea what was to come. One-by-one, following Gibson’s lead, the modified Lancasters flew into a curtain of deadly gunfire and somehow maintained a precise height of 60ft and speed of 230mph – calibrated perfectly to allow their Barnes Wallis designed bouncing bomb to strike the dam wall, sink and explode.