This skin was a request from EZGlider.
617 Squadron "The Dambusters" became the RAF's most famous squadron as a result of their first mission, the May 1943 raid to destroy Germany's Ruhr dams using Barnes Wallis' bouncing bomb. As this had to be dropped at night at only 60 feet above the water a special squadron of Bomber Command's best crews was formed and trained for the task. The mission was a partial success, two of the four dams attacked were destroyed, considerable hydro power was lost and a large area of Germany flooded. However the cost was high, eight of the nineteen aircraft sent failed to return. The propaganda value of the raid however was considerable.
After the raid 617 was kept together and became a specialist unit. It was one of the squadrons that attacked and sank the battleship Tirpitz using another of Barnes Wallis' inventions, the 12,000lb Tallboy bomb. Wallis' biggest bomb however was the 22,000 lb Grand Slam bomb. This was designed to penetrate deep into the ground with the resultant explosion's shockwave causing an earthquake effect that would shatter the foundations of any structure in the vicinity. 32 Lancasters "Specials" were created to carry this monster bomb, with 24 of them delivered to 617 Squadron in spring of 1945. These had more powerful engines and their front and upper turrets removed to save weight. 617 used Grand Slams to destroy several high value targets like the reinforced V-1 launching building at Calais, the U Boat pens at Brest and the Bielefeld viaduct.
This skin represents one of 617 Squadron's Grand Slam "Specials". Unusually most of these were painted in a daytime camouflage scheme, with the normal black underside colour replaced with Medium Sea Grey. Squadron code letters were outlined in yellow and repeated on the top and bottom of the horizontal tail to aid in formation forming.
