No. 617 Squadron RAF that New Zealand film director Peter Jackson and David Frost would co-produce a re-make of the film. It has been scripted by Stephen Fry and will be directed by Christian Rivers. The last living Dam Buster pilot at the time, New Zealander Les Munro (1919-2015), offered his services as a technical adviser. In 2010 the National Archives released documents that showed it was considered using 617 Squadron to target the Italian leader Mussolini in July or August 1943. The British believed if Mussolini was killed it might take Italy out of the war. It would have been a flight carried
No. 5 Group RAF successfully trialed by No.617 Squadron and its commanding officer, Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire, using the de Havilland Mosquito, and later the North American Mustang. Cheshire was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross and taken off active operations. By mid 1944, using the Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight and the 12,000 lb Tallboy bomb, No. 617 achieved a bombing error of only 94 yards at the V Weapon launch site at Abbeville. 5 Group staff also developed other various techniques, such as the '5 Group corkscrew' used to evade enemy fighters, and the 'quick landing system'. The group had some of the most