Lancaster flypast pays eightieth anniversary tribute to Dambusters
T
he solely remaining airworthy Lancaster bomber within the UK took to the skies on Tuesday to mark the eightieth anniversary of the Dambusters raid.
The airplane, one in every of solely two Lancasters nonetheless in operation, flew over former air bases in Lincolnshire on the anniversary of the mission to assault German dams on 1943.
Part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), airplane PA474 took off from its base at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire for a flypast over the RAF Museum at Hendon, London.
Its return journey took it over 28 former Bomber Command air bases in Lincolnshire.
Spectators lined the edges of bases and close by roads to catch a website of the airplane.
Squadron Leader Mark Sugden, Officer Commanding the BBMF, mentioned: “The Dambusters Raid was one of the most audacious raids in the history of the Royal Air Force, and we at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight are proud to commemorate the bravery, dedication and sacrifice of all those involved.”
Nineteen Lancasters, crewed by 133 airmen, took half in Operation Chastise on the evening of May 16-17, 1943.
Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the raid focused three dams within the industrialised Ruhr area of Germany utilizing the “bouncing bomb” invented by Barnes Wallis.
They efficiently breached the Mohne and Eder dams whereas the Sorpe was broken.
Eight Lancasters have been shot down through the raid, which was immortalised within the 1955 movie The Dam Busters, with 53 airmen killed.
The anniversary was marked with a tribute night on the International Bomber Command Centre at Lincoln which included excerpts from interviews with George “Johnny” Johnson, the final surviving member of the Dambusters who died in December aged 101.