Harold Brownlow Martin and finally Avro Lancasters, they completed their tour in October 1942, Martin being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). Martin's penchant for low flying contributed to his selection in March 1943 for assignment to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron under Wing Commander Guy Gibson. Martin took part in the "Dambusters" raid on the night of 16/17 May 1943. He piloted the Lancaster bomber AJ-P "Popsie" (officially known as AJ-P "Peter") in the first formation, which was assigned to attack the Möhne Dam in Western Germany. Martin's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire during the attack, but he successfully accomplished
The Man Who Never Was (book) victim of an airplane crash, the non-existent Royal Marine Major William Martin, who had letters in a briefcase that hint at a forthcoming Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia, rather than the obvious target of Sicily. In 1950 Duff Cooper, a former cabinet minister who had been briefed on the operation in March 1943, published the spy novel "Operation Heartbreak", which contained the plot device of a corpse – with papers naming him as William Maryngton – being floated off the coast of Spain with false documents to deceive the Germans. The British security services decided that the best response