Eighty years ago tonight, 133 airmen across 19 Lancasters departed from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.
Their sortie - often summed up by many as ‘audacious’ and ‘daring’ - would see eight of the planes shot down, with 53 of the crew never returning.
Flying low enough to evade radar whilst skimming the tops of the trees, and then just 65ft above the water, at speeds of 230mph, these were the Dambusters.
This evening we remember the bravery, ingenuity and selflessness of those men of Bomber Command who dared to fly into and strike right at the industrial heartlands of Nazi Germany, helping to turn the tide of the Second World War.
