Canada

Dambusters mission recreated in Canada

Engineers have staged a peaceful recreation of one of the most famous bombing raids in British history.

A team led by a Cambridge University academic built a "bouncing bomb" then staged a re-run of the 1943 Dambusters raid over a lake in Mackenzie in British Columbia, Canada as part of a study into the science behind the attack.

A 30ft high and 130ft wide dam was specially built to see if the Dambusters raid could be reconstructed.

Team leader Dr Hugh Hunt said it was the first time that the "engineering complexity" of the raid had been examined.

He said: "There's no massive mystery in a theoretical sense but the fact that no-one has been able to repeat the mission meant that there was no-one alive who knew whether it was difficult, easy, or indeed possible.

"The question was really finding out whether anyone could do it again."

Pilot Guy Gibson led the raid by Lancasters from the RAF's 617 Squadron in May 1943 - attacking dams feeding Germany's industrial heartland with "bouncing bombs" created by scientist Barnes Wallis.