Intrepid scuba divers are preparing for a daring underwater mission to recover two historic bouncing bombs.
Six members of the East Cheshire Sub-Aqua Club will dive to the bottom of a Scottish loch to recover giant Highball bombs like the ones featured in the Second World War film The Dambusters.
The exciting project, led by Mark Paisey, from Poynton, is to recover the bombs so they can be put on display in British museums in time for the 75th anniversary of the Dambuster raid, in 2018.
Mark, 52, who is also BSAC’s North West Regional Coach and a highly skilled BSAC First Class Diver, said: “We like diving with a purpose.
“This is an expedition where we’re bringing together people from all over the UK and it’s nice to have a result to it at the end. We intend to map the two areas where the Highballs lie using a side scan sonar to see exactly how many there are. We need a fair degree of experience for the dive. One of the areas where the bombs are is 35m deep and the other is 55m. It will be great when one of the highballs is sitting in the museum.”
Mark will be joined by Loz Broome, 58, from Poynton, Henry Paisey, 19, from Bollington, Ken Burrows, 61, from Chelford, Fred Santos, 35, from Macclesfield and Kevin Phillips, 50, from Sandbach.
The Macclesfield diving club members will be joined by five divers from across the UK for the expedition in July.
Kevin Phillips who is diving officer at Macclesfield-based East Cheshire Sub-Aqua Club, said: “It’s exciting to be involved in such a large scale project with such historical significance. The sense of adventure is something we all love, and we’re looking forward to working with a great team, and building our experience as BSAC divers.”
The bombs, which were never operational and do not contain explosives, are among more than 200 codenamed Highball by the military and tested at Loch Striven, with archive footage of the testing used in the 1955 ‘The Dam Busters’ film. They were intended to be used on enemy ships but never became operational.
The project is being backed by Mary Stopes-Roe, the daughter of British engineer, Sir Barnes Wallis, who invented them.
Mary Tetley, BSAC Chief Executive Officer said: “We are absolutely delighted that the skills of some of our divers are being used to help bring this iconic piece of military heritage to the surface so the story can be shared with future generations.”
For more go to www.bsac.com .