Herne Bay has two special links with the famous 1943 Dambuster Raid.
Prototypes of the bomb were tested at sea off Reculver, observed by inventor Barnes Wallis and his team from the land. The bombs were actually mines filled with a harmless substance, and many were retrieved from the mud to be analysed at nearby RAF Manston, but enough still remained to be raised in later years, as is the case with the example in the Museum.
A young pilot who lived up on East Cliff called Warner ‘Bill’ Ottley flew on the Dambuster Raid and sadly was killed. He had been too young to join up at the start of the war, and had originally belonged to the Home Guard.
Visit the Museum to see:
the Dambuster prototype ‘bomb’ from World War Two
images of Bill Ottley
Ottley’s posthumous medal