His Majesty met 18 Second World War pilots and air crew after looking around a Lancaster bomber and admiring Spitfires and Hurricanes in an aircraft hangar at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.
Paying tribute to their bravery, he said: “Thank God for all these men – people like you who looked after us.”
And after hearing about their missions over enemy territory, the King added: “Being shot at all the time… the horror of it.”
The event was hosted by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which conserves the historic aircraft for aerial displays.
Operation Chastise – better known as the Dambusters Raid – took place overnight from 16 to 17 May 1943 and saw bouncing bombs dropped on German dams by 617 Squadron. It forced the Nazis to divert resources from the Atlantic Wall – their coastal defences against an Allied invasion – to repair the catastrophic damage.
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