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Roundup:Britain re-forms legendary RAF squadron Dambusters

Xinhua, May 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

More than 70 years after it was formed to carry out one of the most daring raids of the Second World War, Britain's Royal Air Force announced Monday the legendary Dambuster squadron is back.

On May 16, 1943, the RAF's 617 Squadron flew on a mission over enemy territory to use a revolutionary bouncing bomb to destroy dams in Germany.

The successful mission was captured in a post-war film, The Dam Busters, ensuring the legend lived on forever.

Britain's Ministry of Defense (MOD) used the May 16 anniversary to announce that 617 Squadron is being re-formed, this time to fly the RAF's latest warplanes, the F-35B Lightning jets, using the nickname, The Dambusters.

The new Lighting jets are a world apart from the prop-powered Lancaster bombers that carried out the daring raids during WWII.

The dambuster's mission, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson in 1943, involved attacks on three dams and led to the disruption of much of Germany's war production.

The new squadron has been created by recruiting elite members from both the Royal Navy and the RAF.

They are being trained in the United States to learn how to pilot the stealth bombers -- and have adopted the Dambusters nickname in memory of the legendary fliers.

Wing Commander John Butcher, 35, the new commanding office of 617 Squadron, said: "Gibson and his men flew at very low level to the target, with limited enemy awareness of what they were doing.

"The F-35B Lightning uses stealth technology to hide from enemy radar systems, effectively making the aircraft invisible. This is a significant tactical advantage as an enemy cannot fight what he cannot see.

The new 617 Squadron will be a combined team of Royal Navy and RAF personnel who will fly from both land and sea, based from RAF Marham and deployed periodically on the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

They will return to Britain in 2018 from their current training base of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. Endit