THE BOMB AIMER

John Bell, 96 Pilot officer, No 617 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command (the Dambusters squadron)

I WAS A 21-YEAR-OLD PILOT OFFICER and had been with my squadron for six months by the time D-day came around. For the whole of May we had been withdrawn from bombing operations and put on navigation exercises in close formation over the North Sea without knowing why. Then on 5 June we were assembled under great secrecy and told we were going to take part in the invasion.

Ours was one of the earliest actions of D-day, which helped sow seeds of confusion among the enemy. At around midnight on 5 June, I was sent out in one of eight Lancaster bombers heading over the Channel towards Calais at about 3,000ft, flying abreast at two miles apart. It was very technical flying: a series of precise loops. We were required to fly forwards for about 80 seconds, then turn around and go back for 60 seconds, then head forward once more.

As bomb aimer, my job was to drop what we code-named ‘Window’, thin aluminium strips designed to interfere with the German radar, which I thrust out of a flare chute at the rear of the aircraft at intervals of a few seconds, indicated by a green light operated by the navigator. We were trying to give the impression that the invasion was taking place and that Calais, rather than the Normandy beaches, was the real target. A few miles east of us another squadron of Stirling bombers was doing the same, while below us a number of small Navy boats were causing a bit of noise designed to draw German attention. They were all spoof raids while the real thing got underway.

Two or three days later we were sent out to France equipped with two new weapons, 12,000lb ‘earthquake bombs’. We called them Tallboys. They had been designed by Barnes Wallis [the engineer who invented the bouncing bombs used by the Dambusters]. We dropped one on a tunnel covering a railway line leading towards the invasion area to stop the Germans sending reinforcements. Suffice to say that tunnel stayed out of action for the rest of the war.

Life after the war Left the armed forces: 1977 (retired as wing commander) / Lives in: West Sussex / Family: married in 1946, one daughter, four grandchildren, seven greatgrandchildren / Career: retired after leaving the military

‘We dropped a 12,000lb “earthquake bomb” on a tunnel covering a railway line to stop the Germans sending reinforcements. Suffice to say, it stayed out of action’

Right John Bell today, at home in West Sussex. Below During the war. Bell took part in a crucial action to confuse the Germans about the target of the invasion