No. 5 Group RAF effective squadrons of Bomber Command, personified by No 617 Squadron the "Dambusters", formed from 5 Group aircrew in March 1943. Most of the group's main airfields were around Lincoln, including RAF Scampton. By the end of the war the group had grown to 15 squadrons. The group was noted for its high accuracy bombing, being involved the sinking of the "Tirpitz" in November 1944 and the shattering of the strategic Bielefeld railway viaduct in March 1945. The Group introduced new weapons operationally, including Barnes Wallis's "bouncing" and his Tallboy and Grand Slam "earthquake" bombs. The group was disbanded on 15
No. 617 Squadron RAF both RAF and Royal Navy personnel, operating both from RAF Marham, and from the Royal Navy's new "Queen Elizabeth" class aircraft carriers. It will fly alongside the Fleet Air Arm's 809 NAS as part of the Lightning Force. 617 Sqn is expected to return to Marham in the summer of 2018 following training at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. On 6 June 2018, a quartet of F-35s of 617 Squadron, supported by three Voyagers and an Atlas, made an eight hour flight across the Atlantic to become the first of the UK's aircraft to be based permanently