Operation Chastise – the Dambusters Raid, as it became known – undertaken by nineteen Lancasters of 617 Squadron on the night of 16 May 1943, was the most audacious bombing raid of the Second World War. For the loss of eight aircraft, the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany’s industrial heartland were breached and a famous if controversial victory won.

John Sweetmans’s book is the most comprehensive account of this legendary mission, from the development of Barnes Wallis’s ‘bouncing bomb’ (in reality a revolving depth-charge) to every moment of the raid itself, under the charismatic command of Guy Gibson, VC.

RRP; £9.99

This edition published by Orion Books, in 2002.

This edition is paperback and contains 296 pages with numerous black and white photographs.