Germany, 17th May, 1943. At 12:28 a.m., under a clear sky and a bright moon - and a harrowing barrage of anti-aircraft fire - 24-year-old Wing Commander Guy P. Gibson releases an "Upkeep" mine from the belly of his Avro Lancaster bomber, "G for George", from a height of a mere sixty feet. The huge 4.6-ton cylinder, back-spinning at a rate of 500 times per minute, hits the water of Mohne Dam reservoir with a colossal splash before bouncing its way toward the reinforced-concrete wall of the dam. There it will sink until its depth-sensitive fuse releases the fury of its 3-ton payload of high explosive, intended to blast a massive hole in the dam and cripple Nazi war production by flooding the industrial heartland of Germany in the Ruhr Valley further downstream. So begins the first act of a unique wartime drama that will earn the men of R.A.F. 617 Squadron their immortal nickname: The Dambusters. 53 of the 133 aircrew taking part in this mission will never return. Gibson will survive the mission, earning a Victoria Cross for his remarkable courage as he repeatedly flies his aircraft in tandem with others as they make their runs, attempting to draw enemy fire away from them. He will lose his life sixteen months later when his Mosquito aircraft crashes in Holland after a target-marking mission to Rheydt. The cause of the crash will never be fully determined. ----- A big thank you to Touchwood for the superb Poser Lancaster model (imported to Bryce). I had to "modify" it a little to build the bomb harness in the belly and remove the dorsal turret - just as was done in reality. I also altered the textures to match the markings of 617 Squadron's Lancs at that time. The identification letters and serial numbers are all authentic, although you can only see them on Gibson's aircraft here. Everything else was created in Bryce, with Photoshop postwork.