I was saddened to hear of the passing of Norman Parker who many will remember through the film, ‘Secret Spitfires.’
I had the pleasure of visiting Norman on numerous occasions to share his memories of aviation and local history.
One of my favourite stories surrounded his reconstruction of one of the famous “bouncing bombs” that were used by the RAF in the famous dam-busting raid in the last war.
Read more: Former secret Spitfire engineer Norman Parker dies aged 98
Norman explained that he decided to undertake the project to attract recruits to the Royal Observer Corps No 14 Group – a group which he had served for over 20 years as an observer officer.
Members of the group found the bomb at Ashley Walk, Godshill – it was one of three dug up in the New Forest where they were used in wartime exercises.
Norman recalled: “When the two shattered ends of the bomb were first retrieved from Ashley Walk, my initial intension was to simply clean and paint them and present them to the RAF Museum. As work proceeded, I realised that with not too much extra work I could give the bomb a third dimension and produce an impression of the overall shape and size.
"So the bomb became a fairly massive chunk of rusty iron work that sat on the end of my drive! I began collecting other pieces of old iron from which to fashion the structure."
As the bomb started taking its original shape, Norman built a support structure via an old caravan chassis purchased for £10 - the bomb was then suspended to show how it rotated as the bombs did when dropped from Lancaster bombers to destroy the dam.
Eventually the re-constructed bomb was presented to RAF Scampton. “My intension was to toe the whole structure behind my car” said Norman, “However, the prospect of a bomb travelling up the M1 proved to be not very practicable!”
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