Knight and his bomb aimer did not find the approach any easier, aborting their first ‘run’ Knight climbed and circled for another go. With bomb aimer P/o Johnson happy with the line and distance the mine was released, 3 perfect bounces and impact almost dead centre. A brief pause and the now familiar explosion, this time as Knight and Gibson circled,the dams centre section seemed to evaporate in a surging torrent of water. Gibson called ‘job done’ and instructed everyone to head for home. The 4 Lancasters now thundered across Germany, hedgehopping and hurdling power lines. With the sun at their back, anything in range took a shot, the sound of 16 Merlin engines attracting fire from guns that couldn’t even see them. Out of Germany and across Holland, “coast coming up”, everyone unscathed, out over the sea near Ijmuiden. A coastal defence battery fired one last salvo at the low flying aircraft and in a flash of flame ED887 / AJ – A, ‘Dinghy Young and his crew were gone. With everyone home that was coming home, there were debriefings before anyone would be allowed to eat or sleep. When Gibson saw Andersons report he exploded! With the Sorpe Dam intact and so many lives lost he was furious at Andersons ' lack of effort '. The following morning, amongst scenes of wild jubilation tinged with sadness for lost friends , there were individual, crew and squadron photos. By lunch time Gibson had Anderson and his crew on a truck back to their old squadron, their names never to be uttered around Scampton again. Barnes Wallis was mortified by the loss of life “just to prove my theory” as he put it. Of 19 aircraft, 8 had not returned, 53 young men had made the ultimate sacrifice, and 3 more would see out the war as POWs. German estimates after the floods were about 1,657 killed with 1,026 of these POWs and forced labourers at least 493 of these were women. 617 Squadron was in business, but missing one thing, a competition was run among air and groundcrews to design a squadron shield. Two designs were chosen with one an outright winner among the Scampton personnel. However when the King and Queen visited Scampton on May 27th they were offered the final choice. The first shield, designed by Cpl Vic Grey (one of the ‘B’ Flight fitters) depicted a pair of chained hands with the chain about to be smashed by a large hammer, below this the motto ‘Alter the Map’. The King and Queen however prefered ( along with almost everyone else) the second (designer unknown) this depicts a dam, split by three bolts of lightening above the motto ‘Apres Moi Le Deluge’ ( After Me The Flood). Of the survivors, 34 were decorated at Buckingham Palace on 22 June, with Gibson awarded the Victoria Cross. There were five Distinguished Service Orders, 10 Distinguished Flying Crosses and four bars, two Conspicuous Gallantry Medals, and eleven Distinguished Flying Medals and one bar. AVM Cochrane had asked Gibson to make ‘one more trip’ and good to his word Gibsons flying days were over (for now). Gibsons life became an endless round of after dinner speaking, interviews, photo sessions and a tour of the USA addressing trainee bomber crews and War Bond Drives. After seven days off for the aircrews and three days off for the groundcrews it was back to business for the men of 617 'Dambuster' Squadron…….. END (?) DID YOU ENJOY THAT ?..... and that was only their first mission, they flew many more and continued their association with Barnes Wallis…. Gibson had predicted History OR Destruction for 617 squadron, their place in history was assured but 617 squadron would come alarmingly close to making it History AND Destruction, but would you really be interested in that ?.