RAF Scampton originally referred to as "Squadron X", was formed at Scampton in order to carry out the proposed raid, codenamed Operation Chastise. More commonly referred to as the "Dambusters Raid", the raid would go down as the most famous and widely remembered in the history of the Royal Air Force. On the night of 16–17 May 1943, 617 Sqn despatched 19 Lancasters from Scampton. Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the main bulk of the squadron attacked the Sorpe, Eder and Möhne dams with an additional aircraft tasked to perform an attack on the Schwelm Dam. Both the Eder and Möhne
RAF Scampton arrangement replicated across all of the Expansion Period airfields: Technical Area, Station Offices, Officers’ Mess, Sergeants’ Mess, Airmen’s’ Quarters, Married Quarters, and Officers’ Married Quarters. Roads were arranged either parallel or perpendicular to Ermine Street "(A15)" with the Guardroom at 90-degrees to the main entrance and the Station Headquarters facing Ermine Street. This resulted in the base occupying an area of 360 acres. As it developed, RAF Scampton made an increasingly dramatic imposition on the surrounding rural landscape such as to the Lincolnshire Edge, a Jurassic limestone ridge, which forms the distinctive backbone of the county from Whitton on the