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The information board above will be supplied with the Upkeep.

Barnes Wallis

Since the beginning of Hitler's re-armament of Germany in contravention of the terms of the Versailles treaty, the British Government had looked at ways to degrade Germany's industrial capacity in the event of war.

In February 1943, the Assistant Chief Designer at Vickers Armstrong, Barnes Wallis, revealed his idea for "air attacks on dams" which would deprive the German arms industry of its vital water supply and cause a "disaster of the first magnitude". Wallis, in co-operation with the Air Ministry had designed and tested a "bouncing bomb"; codenamed 'Upkeep'. In the days before computer-aided precision bombing, Wallis bouncing bomb would maximise the chances of actually hitting a dam and destroying it. His test showed that it would need to be dropped from 60 feet, at an angle of 7 degrees from the horizontal, a ground speed of 220mph and with back spin. It would then bounce across the water to the target and on contact with the dam, crawl down the under-water face and explode.

Impressed with the concept, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, ordered Barnes Wallis to prepare the bouncing bombs for an attack on the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams in the Ruhr for May 1943.

A superb 4/5 scale replica of the famous bouncing bomb dropped by 617 Sdr on the Ruhr Dams during WWII.

The night of 16/17 May 1943 was clear with a full moon, perfect conditions for the raid. The nineteen specially modified Lancaster's of 617 Squadron were despatched in three waves from RAF Scampton. Gibson led the first wave of nine aircraft and was the first to attack the Möhne Dam. His mine was released at 00:28 on the morning of 17 May but despite successfully detonating, the weapon failed to breach the Dam. After two further abortive attacks by the second and third aircraft in the flight, the dam was finally breached by Squadron Leader H.M Young's Lancaster. Gibson meanwhile accompanied Young on his approach to divert the Anti Aircraft Fire from the dam towers onto himself and to allow his gunners to provide covering fire. Shortly afterwards, Gibson radioed back to England the prearranged code word, indicating that the dam had been breached.

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The Möhne dam after the raids

The second wave of five Lancasters flew to the Eder Dam. The first two mines failed to breach it, but shortly before 02:00, it was destroyed by the Lancaster flown by Pilot Officer Les Knight. Of the third wave of five aircraft, two were shot down on the outward journey and the remaining three had great difficulty in finding their targets since heavy mist had gathered. One pilot did manage to locate and attack the Sorpe, but although damaged, the dam was not breached.

Lancaster modified for the dam raids

Another pilot dropped his mine on what he thought was the Ennepe Dam, without result, while the remaining crew could not identify their targets in the thick mist and returned home.It was a long night and only eleven of the nineteen Lancasters made it safely back to RAF Scampton.

617 Squadron

The squadron was formed on 21st March 1943, at Scampton, near Lincoln, under the command of Wing Commander Guy Gibson (above centre), who had distinguished himself as an outstanding bomber and night-fighter pilot during the early war years. He was granted the unprecedented privilege of selecting crews from other squadrons of Bomber Command to fly Lancasters on a special, highly-secret operation. Gibson himself was not told for some weeks that the task was no less than the breaching of the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams, which stored more than 300 million tons of water vitally important to German industry.

UP Keep 4/5 scale replica stand and information board

Sorry to see this go

This is a classic very early  first production MkXIV Bombsight. Dated 1943. It is in excellent condition but is missing the sight glass. I will supply a repalcement to the purchaser. It comes supplied in its box but this adds greatly to its weight. This bombsight was used throughout the war in heavy Bombers such as the Lancaster. The early Mks are extremely rare 

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Cannon Cowling(pg4 arm)

Currently unknown aircraft, any ideas? its made of stainless steel. Contact us

£125

Aiming Computer(pg4 arm)

Good original wartime aiming computer used to calculate the trajectory of antiaircraft guns.

£55

Mk VII Bombsight 1940(pg4 arm)

A superb used Mk VIIA Bombsight date 1940 Battle of Britain. This bombsight came from the son of a an ex Bomber pilot who actually used this in combat. When it was replaced with the Mk XIV he managed to keep his old bombsight. Its in its original box with a classic 1940 Battle of Britain date. This ranks as one of the rarest parts on the site as most of these sights were scrapped early in the war.

A Whitley Bomber

The Mark VII was, used on the Avro Anson (188mph), the Airspeed Oxford (182mph), the Sunderland (213mph), the Battle (240 mph, max.), the Whitley (cruised at 185, top speed 220) the Hampton, and planes like the Vickers Stranraer and the Walrus (160mph and 135mph, respectively).  The early Wellingtons were slow at 230mph top speed, but later versions were faster, so variants would have used both the MK VIII and MK XIV sights in the course of the war. 

 The Hendon Museum has a Supermarine Walrus with a mark VII sight hung over the right side of the front gunner's position, in an exposed position.  In fact the Mark VII usually came equipped with a long leather lanyard that clipped onto the left hand side of the sight  so that bomb aimers could be in the open breeze of various aircraft and not risk losing the whole thing out of the open hatch

£1400

This is believed to be a bomb arming or Bomb release switch from an ME 109. Its in good used condition and the buttons function.

£75