At the Bomber Command Museum of Canada at Nanton, Alberta, plans for a building expansion project to the north of the existing display hall are being drawn up, which will include a larger tarmac area in order to enable the museum’s Avro Lancaster X FM159 to give taxiing demonstrations. The machine has recently had a near-exact replica of the ‘Upkeep’ bouncing bomb fitted, and the fuselage-side code letters have been changed to AJ-M, those worn on the No 617 Squadron aircraft flown on the Ruhr dams raid during the night of 16-17 May 1943 by Flt Lt John Hopgood. Two of Hopgood’s crew — navigator Fg Off Ken Earnshaw and bomb aimer Flt Sgt James Fraser — were members of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Earnshaw and Hopgood were among the five fatalities when AJ-M crashed three miles from the Möhne dam after being hit by flak in the course of the attack. Fraser and the Australian rear gunner, Plt Off Anthony Burcher, survived to become prisoners of war.
