It should have been fiction but it was fact. Sixty-four years ago today a handpicked squadron of RAF pilots, led by a dashing young war hero took off on a mission to flood out HitlerÂ’s war machine by destroying the dams which supplied hydroelectric power to the Ruhr. It was a task deemed impossible owing to the massive construction of the targets. In their bomb bays was a unusual weapon designed to skip across the surface of the reservoir and crawl down the face of the dam until they reached its most vulnerable point to explode. The bomb itself was the product of an eccentric British scientist who had once designed airships.Sixty-four years ago, the Lancasters of 617 Squadron took off from RAF Scampton at sunset on May 17, 1943 . . . .