14 May 2008

Dambusters anniversary anticipates recovery of bombs

This Friday [16th May 2008] is the 65th anniversary of the famous "Dambusters" raid, during which Lancaster bombers of the RAF’s 617 Squadron destroyed two German dams with the "bouncing bomb" invented by Sir Barnes Wallis. Various commemorative events are taking place around the country to mark the anniversary of this famous raid.

Dr Iain Murray of the University of Dundee’s School of Computing is currently researching Wallis’s scientific work and is visiting Lossiemouth, current home to 617 Squadron, on Friday.

"The squadron holds a number of historical photos and documents relating to their wartime activities, and I was keen to review this as part of my research" said Dr Murray, the offer of visiting on the day of the anniversary "being just too good to turn down".

He will also be interviewing 617 aircrew who fly the "swing-wing" Tornado aircraft - the original work on swing-wing development was another of Barnes Wallis’s projects, which was carried out secretly in the decade following the war, eventually reaching fruition in the Tornado.

A smaller version of the "bouncing bomb", known as Highball, was designed to sink the German battleship Tirpitz though never used in anger. Many were dropped on tests by 618 Squadron in Loch Striven, off the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. Dr Murray and Peter Pritchard of PDS Dive / Archaeological Divers Association (UK) have reviewed archive films to find the exact location of the ships that were used as targets during the trials in 1943 and 1944, with a view to recovering some of the bombs for museums.

"There must be dozens of these bombs on the bottom of the loch," said Dr. Murray, "but the loch is very deep and out of the range of recreational sports divers".

The team are currently looking for commercial sponsors to support a diving expedition to the loch, which will survey and locate some of the Highball bouncing bombs and establish the possibility of recovering them so that they can be placed in a museum. No complete examples of the smaller bomb, which are spheres about 1 metre in diameter, currently exist in museums for display.

For further information, please contact:
* Dr Iain Murray, School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN.
(01382) 384155 Fax: (01382) 385509
e-mail: irmurray@computing.dundee.ac.uk.

* Peter Pritchard, Pritchard Diving Services
www.pds-dive.co.uk.

* Archaeological Divers Association (UK)
www.underwater-archaeology.org.uk/BouncingBomb.

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E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk