With no firm descision as to exactly what 617 Squadrons roll would be, the first duty was to bring in new aircraft and crews to make up for those lost on the Dams Raid. Flt Lt Allsebrook had arrived a few days after the raid , with Flg Off ‘Cab’ Kellaway arriving at the end of June and Plt Off ‘Bunny’ Clayton and Sqn Ldr George Holden on July 2nd. Holden took over as ‘A’ Flight Leader though ultimately he was brought in to replace Gibson as C/O. Dams survivor David Maltby , having been promoted to Squadron Leader the day after the raid, took over as ‘B’ Flight Leader. In early July 1943 a second major mission was planned for 617 squadron to take place in July or August, just months after the Dambuster raids. The plan was for the squadron to fly another extremely low level operation, this time over Rome and to assassinate Benito Mussolini by bombing his headquarters and his residence. The plan was devised by Air Marshal Harris and had the backing of Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary. In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, dated 13 July 1943, Eden wrote: "Harris has asked permission to try to bomb Mussolini in his office in Rome and to bomb his residence simultaneously in case the Duce is late that morning. Eden reported that Mussolini's headquarters, the magnificent Palazzo Venezia in central Rome, and his private residence, Villa Torlonia, were both "unmistakeable" and could easily be identified by British bombers. Importantly, neither was within 1,500 yards of the Vatican, which the Allies had promised not to damage. "I suggest that if Mussolini were killed or even badly shaken, at the present time this might greatly increase our chance of knocking Italy out of the war at an early date. I therefore ask your permission to lay the operation on," Eden wrote. However within two weeks, Mussolini was ousted by the Grand Council of Fascism and replaced by a caretaker government led by King Vittorio Emmanuele III and Pietro Badoglio, who negotiated a surrender to the Allies. Meanwhile 617 Squadron continued training in ‘Dambuster’ techniques, much of the flying done along the same routes used for the dams raid. They also began to re-equip with standard Lancasters. Exercises being carried out with a mixture of both types of aircraft. By mid-July boredom had begun to settle in, crews becoming restless at the continued inactivity. With the long training period before the dams raid, most of the squadron had flown only the one mission in three and a half months, while their Scampton neighbours 57 Squadron were flying an average four per week. At the end of the second week in July No 617 Squadron was tasked with it’s second mission…… a bombing raid to Norther Italy. With several Dams raiders still under repair, even with replacements the squadron was under strength and so borrowed some aircraft from 57 squadron. Taking off on July 15th, 12 aircraft were split into two groups. Led by Holden, the first group bombed the electricity sub-station at Aquata Scrivia. Although several target buildings became engulfed in smoke, several crews obtained direct hits, with newly commissioned Plt Off Townsend also hitting an ammunition train with spectacular results. The second group, led by David Maltby, attacked the sub-station at San Polo d'Enza. Although they had some difficulty locating the target due to haze, good results were reported and the operation was considered a moderate success. After bombing the squadron landed for a few welcome days ' lay over ' at Bilda in North Africa. Leaving Bilda on the 24th they were to bomb docks at Leghorn on the Tuscany coast on the way home. Allsebrook had an eventful flight when en-route,a prop shaft sheared and his starboard outter prop spun off into the sea. He pressed on and bombed an oil dump. Arriving back at Scampton after midnight on the 25th, he had been flying for over nine hours.....