Man I wish I could have seen this !
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A HUGE Lancaster bomber took to the skies today to mark the 60th anniversary of the famous "Dambuster" raids, which used "bouncing" bombs to destroy dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr Valley during World War II.
Thousands of spectators gathered on the banks of Eyebrook Reservoir, near Corby in central England, which was used for training runs by the Royal Air Force 617 Squadron during the war.
Flanked by a Spitfire and a Hurricane fighter plane, the bomber swooped low over the water, before heading to the south coast of England, where the innovative bouncing bombs, invented by Barnes Wallis, were tested.
Wallis' son Christopher, 68, was among those gathered on the coast to witness the fly over.
"He was a very creative, artistic man," he said of his father. "All his great thoughts came when he was in bed. This idea was supposed to come from the family ... skimming stones on the water."
The Dambuster unit was charged with the task of breaching dams in the Ruhr area of Germany, which provided vital power to key German industrial centers.
The Dambuster operation was costly. Eight of the 19 Lancasters were lost, and 53 of the 133 crew were killed. Some 1,300 people downstream of two burst dams also died.
Lancaster pilots used towers on the dams to position their planes ahead of their attacks. The cylindrical bouncing bombs were spun before they were dropped and would bounce across the surface of the water and explode on impact with their target.
