Dambuster who unleashed the bomb to write their names into history: 'Johnny' ... trends now

Of all the RAF's heroic exploits in the Second World War, none were more daring than the Dambusters raid. Carried out by moonlight on the night of May 17, 1943, the successful attack by the elite crews of 617 Squadron on a vital part of the Nazis' infrastructure has passed into legend for its valour and ingenuity.

Bold in its conception, magnificent in its execution, 617's triumphant mission was one of the turning points of the war, for it showed Hitler's regime was not invincible.

Now the final remaining link to that epic of wartime courage has been broken. Our nation has lost the last crewman who took part in that spectacular assault on the Reich, which became an inspirational symbol of British defiance.

At the age of 101, Squadron Leader George Leonard 'Johnny' Johnson has died, nearly 80 years after he took part in the raid as a bomb aimer in one of the 19 Avro Lancasters that were charged with smashing a trio of dams in the Ruhr valley, the industrial heart of Germany.

Lying on his stomach at the front of the plane, finger poised on the bomb-release mechanism, Johnson had the heavy responsibility of choosing the moment to drop the Lancaster's deadly cargo.

It required tremendous nerve, steadiness and judgment, particularly when enemy fire grew in intensity as the Lancaster approached its target. But those were qualities that Johnson had in abundance, even though he was aged just 22 at the time.

'What was going on didn't bother me in the least,' he recalled, revealing the extraordinary indifference to danger that characterised the men of Bomber Command.

'My job was to get that bomb as near as possible to that mark. I was concentrating on that.'

At the centre of the raid, codenamed Operation Chastise, was the 'bouncing bomb' designed by Barnes Wallis, the pioneering aeronautical engineer at the Vickers company. 

This cylindrical weapon aimed to evade the strong underwater netting designed to repel torpedo attack, by skipping across the reservoir like a thrown pebble before exploding at the mighty wall of each targeted dam: the Mohne, the Eder and the Sorpe. 

Such an audacious innovation required both a special plane to carry it and courageous, skilful men to drop it in exactly the right spot.

This was precision aerial bombing on a scale never attempted before. The four-engined Avro Lancaster bomber was the ideal aircraft. It was both highly manoeuvrable — necessary for flying at the very low level of 60 feet — and had a huge loading capacity due to its large bomb bay, originally designed for torpedoes.

The crews were equally suited for their role in 617 Squadron, which was specially created for the Dams raid. They were hand-picked by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, a fearless, uncompromising leader who had a ferocious work ethic and rigorous standards.

Johnson had been in 97 Squadron serving with warm-hearted, self-confident American pilot Joe McCarthy, known as 'Big Joe', when he and the rest of his Lancaster crew were signed up for 617 in early 1943. Initially they were not told the purpose of their mission.

Once the raid was underway, Johnson showed exactly the kind of determination and concentration that appealed to Gibson. He and McCarthy were part of a unit ordered to hit the Sorpe dam, which the RAF knew would be the most difficult to breach because of its construction, a concrete core in a huge earth rampart.

The thickness of the dam wall was too great even against an 8,500lb bomb spinning across the water, so the most damage could be caused by a hit from directly above.

Having sighted the target, McCarthy took his plane down to 60 feet

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