Science of dambusting investigated

Engineers have staged a peaceful recreation of one of the most famous bombing raids in British history as part of a study into the science behind the attack.

A team led by a Cambridge University academic said it built a "bouncing bomb" then staged a rerun of the 1943 Dambusters raid over a lake in British Columbia, Canada.

Hugh Hunt, who is based at Cambridge University's department of engineering and who led the team, said it was the first time that the "engineering complexity" of the raid had been examined.

"There's no massive mystery in a theoretical sense, but the fact that no-one has been able to repeat the mission meant that there was no-one alive who knew whether it was difficult, easy, or indeed possible," said Dr Hunt.

Pilot Guy Gibson led the raid by Lancasters from the RAF's 617 Squadron in May 1943, attacking dams feeding Germany's industrial heartland with "bouncing bombs" created by scientist Barnes Wallis.

Dr Hunt added: "Our pilots had no-one shooting at them, the engineers could use things like bowling machines to test their theories, and the whole thing was only at one-third scale - even then it was hard enough."