Flying with Dambusters heroes: Experience a virtual flight in a Lancaster bomber

UNDER the light of a full moon, the giant wings of the Lancaster bomber are tilted into a swerving descent as the rumbling Merlin engines power effortlessly to 230mph. I hear the voice of the pilot, Wing Commander Guy Gibson. "Stand by chaps, I'm going to look the place over," he is saying as gun positions on the top of the Möhne dam in Western Germany come into full view.

Seconds later enemy fire, a mesmerising line of red dots, passes the cockpit like shooting stars.

"I am going to attack," says Gibson, in his cut-glass English accent, seemingly unmoved by the blizzard of bullets cutting through the darkness towards us.

Suddenly the front gunner lets rip in return as theWing Commander shouts: "Down, down!" I have been transported back to May 1943 and am reliving what it was like to be on of one of the Lancaster bombers involved in Operation Chastise - made famous by The Dam Busters film - as Britain tried to paralyse Hitler's hydro-electric power source.

It is made possible by a virtual reality experience that has just opened at the Royal Air Force Museum at Colindale, north London.

Called Dambusters: Immersive Histories, its title lives up to its billing as I step into the boots of the RAF crew who took part in one of the war's most audacious raids.

I put on what looks like a life jacket but is in fact a so-called Haptic vest which was designed for the gaming industry and simulates physical sensations, such as punches, kicks and body movement.

Suddenly I experience what feel like vibrations down my neck and back, recreating the sensation of being inside a Lancaster.

I don the Virtual Reality (VR) goggles and headphones and I am there, on May 16, 1943, when Chastise was launched from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

It feels eerily realistic, as if I am sitting in the cockpit of the Lancaster, hovering just 60 feet above the water, heading straight for the curved wall of the dam. A total of 133 men on 19 Lancasters left on what was to become, arguably, 617 Squadron's greatest single achievement.

Films and books do not do justice to the courage of the air crews that night, but now, 76 years after Chastise, this VR experience brings the whole operation to life.

It has been created by tech studio All Seeing Eye with input from No 617 Squadron official historian, Robert Owen.

"This experience isn't about explaining all the facts of the mission," says Olie Kay, Associate Creative Director at All Seeing Eye. "It's about exploring the human story of the real people who were on the aircraft and communicating an authentic sense of place of what it may have been like to be there."

As well as destroying the Möhne dam, other dams were breached, including the Eder. Accuracy was one of the most crucial factors of the mission and mist which obscured the bombers' visibility meant that the third dam, the Sorpe, remained intact.

Destroying the dams slowed down Hitler's war machine because the hydro-electric power that fuelled it was dramatically cut. The raids lasted hours but for the Immersive Histories project, the action has been condensed into 10 minutes.

I was given the role of navigator, which meant I could listen in to all the intercom conversations.

The images were so vivid that it looked as though Wing Commander Gibson was a few feet away from me in the pilot's seat - so close I could reach out and touch him as he fine-tuned the luminous green dials in the cockpit.

In fact, Gibson, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for Chastise and became the most highly decorated British serviceman at the time, died in a failed raid 18 months later, at the age of 26.

Taking the role of the navigator made me curious about the real person who performed so magnificently on that fateful night.

Back in the heart of the action, two of the Lancaster's spotlights shoot beams of light on to the inky water below to help the bomb aimer pick the right moment, as we prepare to release the payload: the top-secret bouncing bomb, a giant metal drum hanging below, packed with 7,000 pounds of high explosives.

I can hear data coming over the intercom that says the bomb is spinning at only 460 rotations; it needs to spin backwards at 500 rotations per minute.

Then, at the crucial moment, two words crackle over the intercom: "bomb gone", and with that I and my six comrades think we have just made history by being the first Royal Airforce crew to drop a BarnesWallis's bouncing bomb.

But have we? I watch eagerly as the Lancaster pulls away from the dam. A massive spray of water shoots into the night sky, but I can see that the dam wall is still intact.

Coolly, Gibson is calling in another Lancaster.

Circling nearby, we have a perfect view of our comrades as their bomb drops at just the right moment, again sending water shooting into the sky.

But the Lancaster bursts into a ball of flames, having been hit - despite the best efforts of Gibson to lure the German gunners' fire towards us instead.

In the third attempt, with yet another Lancaster, the mission is finally completed and I can see a 100-yard hole blown into the dam, which sends millions of gallons of water flooding into the valley below.

Then we head off to the nearby Eder dam to complete the mission before heading for home.

On a second flight, I get to be the wireless operator Flight Lieutenant Robert Hutchison, then 25, who also perished during a raid on the Dortmund-Ems canal.

Of the 133 men who went on the mission, 53 did not come home and three were captured. Eight Lancasters were shot down.

With the VR experience over, there is much more to see in the exhibition.

Furniture from Barnes Wallis's actual office is on display, with his round glasses resting on his desk, and you see the large drawing board he used to sketch out his bouncing bomb idea. There's also a replica bouncing bomb in a glass case. Behind a curtain lies the star of the show.

It is a plywood mock-up of the modified glass capsule put into the nose of the Lancaster especially for Chastise. It was here that pilot officer Harlo Torger Taerum, known as Terry, changed the course of history.

Born in Alberta, Canada, the 23-year-old's main job was monitoring the plane's altitude by observing the convergence of the two spotlights on the water below which marked the point when the plane was 60 feet above the target - the precise moment when the bomb had to be dropped.

"At the RAF Museum we are very interested in new ways of interpreting and sharing the stories of the Royal Air Force," says Barry Smith, Director of Visitor and Commercial Development.

"The opportunity to actually invite our visitors to be part of the Dambusters story is one that we are very excited about. I can honestly say that our visitors are in for a treat."

 A 10-minute experience costs £10.