(although wasn’t the Bismark spotted by a Lend Lease PBY flown by an American?).

I thought that Catalina Z/209 was commanded by F/O (?) Dennis Briggs (RAF) with Ensign Tuck Smith (USN) as second pilot, though the latter may have been at the controls at the time the Bismarck was sighted?

Dambusters 2 – The Kembs Dam?

The Kembs Dam. This was another No 617 Squadron special operation. The Kembs Dam on the Rhine, just north of Basle, held back a vast quantity of water and it was feared that the Germans would release this to flood the Rhine valley near Mulhouse, a few miles north, should the American and French troops in that area attempt an advance. The Squadron was asked to destroy the lock gates of the dam. 13 Lancasters were dispatched. 7 aircraft were to bomb from 8,000ft and draw the flak, while the other 6 would come in below 1,000ft and attempt to place their Tallboys, with delayed fuses, alongside the gates. American Mustang fighters would attempt to suppress flak positions during the attack. The operation went according to plan. The gates were destroyed but 2 Lancasters from the low force were shot down by flak

Channel Dash – I guess that it would need a bit too much hardware to be anything other than CGI!
(posted seconds after the above post! )

Another question, was there a facility for the rear crewman to load extra ammo drums for the canons?

This is described in Jimmy Rawnsleys book ‘Nightfighter’ – with the problems of handling the drums whilst John Cunningham was trying to keep behind an evading bomber!
Did the later versions change to belt feed cannons?

Great pictures, thanks. One thing is troubling me; why does the IIID S1077 look like it has its floats on backwards …. !

I thought that a lot of the spotting for Naval bombardment during the landings was carried out by the Mustangs of the TAF (No 2 Sqn?)

…. I once had an upgrade from Business to First on AF and was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt at the time 😀

Of course not, you are english types!