Britain's last surviving Dambuster has urged the public to help fund a life-size sculpture of one of the Lancaster Bombers which carried out the heroic mission.
George 'Johnny' Johnson, 97, has backed what he called 'incredible' plans for the 95-foot landmark, entitled On Freedom's Wings, to be installed by the A46 in Lincolnshire.
Lincolnshire earned the title of Bomber County for its role in World War II as 27 RAF Bomber Command bases, a third of all those in the UK, were based there.
The first Lancasters went into service with 44 Squadron at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire in 1942, and the Dambusters squadron was based at RAF Scampton in the county before the famous raid in 1943.
An artist's impression of the proposed Lancaster Bomber sculpture in Lincolnshire, which earned the title of Bomber County for its role in World War II when 27 Bomber Command bases were located there
George 'Johnny' Johnson (pictured with a model of the sculpture), 97, has backed what he called 'incredible' plans for the 95-foot landmark, entitled On Freedom's Wings, to be installed in Lincolnshire
The Bomber County Gateway Trust has already raised £280,000 from businesses, councils and members of the public but at least £150,000 is still needed to complete the project.
They are accepting donations on a JustGiving page.
Mr Johnson is backing the project and hopes it will be completed before he and Britain's last remaining Bomber Command pilots die.
He said: 'On Freedom's Wings will be a representation of the pivotal role which the County of Lincolnshire played in the Second World War.
'It is a wonderful idea to commemorate all personnel of RAF Bomber Command.
'How incredible would it be for my fellow veterans to be able to witness its completion. I would certainly like to see it erected in my lifetime.'
He added: 'The Lancaster was, in my opinion, the finest heavy bomber of World War Two.
An artist's impression of what the monument, entitled On Freedom's Wings, will look like from a distance in Lincolnshire
'This sculpture will be recognised as a symbol of sacrifice made by nearly 58,000 men and women who served with Bomber Command.
'It will represent the pivotal role which the County of Lincolnshire played in the Second World War.
'I hope it means as much to the people of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire as it does to me.'
He was one of 113 airmen from the Royal Air Force 617 Squadron who flew to Germany for Operation Chastise - the Dambusters raid - on the night of May 16, 1943.
The mission set out to destroy three dams deep within Germany's Ruhr valley in order to set back Hitler's war effort.
Fifty-three of the airmen were killed in the raid and Mr Johnson is now the last one surviving.
The sculpture will also honour Lancaster R5689 (VN-N), which crashed near the site on its way home from a mission over the Baltic Sea in September 1942, killing five of its seven crew.
Mounted on a steel frame, the monument will appear to be in flight as tens of thousands of motorists drive past it on the A46.
It will be 95 feet high - taller than Gateshead's Angel of the North - and have a wingspan of 102 feet, a length of 85 feet and will be mounted 49 feet above ground level.
A drawing of the planned monument which will be 95 feet high, taller than the Angel of the North in Gateshead, and have a wingspan of 102 feet
Excavation work has already taken place and building work on the steel frame is scheduled to start later this year.
The trust is raising money through donations and is also holding an auction in May, where an oil painting of two Lancaster bombers - signed by Mr Johnson - will be up for grabs.
Ken Sadler, trustee and project director of the Bomber County Gateway Trust, said: 'This will hopefully be a very special landmark with nothing else like it in the East Midlands.
'This area was so significant in the RAF's history and it seems everyone feels it's high time that the link between the county and the RAF is properly recognised.
'With such a prominent, elevated position, it will be seen by so many people on a daily basis, hopefully evoking pride and respect of our aviation heritage.'
How the Lancaster turned Bomber Command's dream of a hard-hitting aerial offensive against Germany into a reality
The impact of the Lancaster went far beyond the Dams raid. The plane dramatically enhanced the potency of Bomber Command, turning the RAF strategists' dreams of a hard-hitting aerial offensive against the Reich into a practical reality.
During the crucial years before the D-Day landings in 1944, the nightly Lancaster raids on Nazi Germany effectively formed a second front in Europe alongside the epic struggle by the Soviet Union in the east.
Flying over 156,000 missions against Germany and its ally Italy, the plane dropped around 608,000 tons of bombs.
So bullish at the start of its campaign of European conquest, the Reich was forced on to the defensive by the Lancaster. More than two million Germans were engaged in anti-aircraft duties by early 1944.
Yet, as the Dams raid proved, the Lancaster was not just a broadsword. Its finesse meant it could also make pin-point attacks.
It was the bomber that sank the German battleship the Tirpitz in November 1944, that destroyed one-third of German submarines in their ports and wrecked the transport system in occupied France in the run-up to D-Day, paralysing the movement of German reinforcements.
Britain's last surviving Dambuster George 'Johnny' Johnson (right), 97, with Wing Commander John Butcher - commanding officer of 617 squadron - at an event at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire last year to mark 75 years since the Dambusters raid
In August 1943, 324 Lancasters led a devastating raid on the Nazi experimental research station at Peenemunde in the Baltic where the V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets were being developed.
With a maximum weight of over 30 tons, far heavier than the RAF's previous generation of bombers such as the Wellington and the Hampden, its standard version could lift on average 14,000lb of bombs.
Towards the end of the war a specialised version could carry the colossal 22,000lb Grand Slam 'earthquake' bomb, the biggest conventional weapon dropped during the conflict.
The Lancaster could not just carry a far heavier load than any of its rivals, but it could also fly much further. It had a range of 2,350 miles, thanks to its six fuel tanks which held 2,154 gallons.
Altogether, the Lancaster squadrons used up an astonishing 228million gallons during wartime sorties.
The Dambusters: How bouncing bombs - and incredible flying by RAF pilots - flooded the Ruhr valley and delivered a crucial blow to the Nazi war machine
On May 16, 1943, 19 Lancaster bomber crews gathered at a remote RAF station in Lincolnshire for a mission of extraordinary daring - a night-time raid on three heavily defended dams deep in Germany's industrial heartland.
The dams were heavily fortified and needed the innovative bouncing bomb - which bounced on the water over torpedo nets and sank before detonating.
To succeed, the raiders would have to fly across occupied Europe under heavy fire and then drop their bombs with awesome precision from a mere 60ft above the water.
19 Lancaster Bomber crews armed with Bouncing Bombs set off to attack several dams in Germany on May 16, 1943
The Eder Dam, pictured, was destroyed as part of Operation Chastise on the early hours of the morning on May 17, 1943
The Mohne and Eder Dams in the industrial heart of Germany were attacked and breached by mines dropped from specially modified Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron.
The Sorpe dam was was also attacked by by two aircraft and damaged.
A fourth dam, the Ennepe was reported as being attacked by a single aircraft (O-Orange), but with no damage.
Up to 1,600 people were estimated to have been killed by floodwaters and eight of the 19 aircraft dispatched failed to return with the loss of 53 aircrew and 3 taken prisoner of war.
Wg Cdr Guy Gibson, Officer Commanding No. 617 Sqn, is awarded the VC for his part in leading the attack.
The raid, orchestrated by Guy Gibson and the RAF's 617 'Dambuster' Squadron, was seen as a major victory for the British, and Wing Commander Gibson is recognised as one of the war's most revered heroes.
Their success was immortalised in the classic 1955 film The Dambusters, its thrilling theme tune and gung-ho script evoking the best of British derring-do.
Eight of the bomber crews were lost while a further three were forced to turn back. Of the 133 men sent out, 53 were killed and three were taken prisoner by the Nazis
Who were the RAF Bomber Command and what did they do?
The RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968 and was responsible for the strategic bombing of Germany during the Second World War.
When the command was founded in 1936 it was only intended to be a deterrent, but the reality when war broke out three years later was very different.
Bomber command crews suffered incredibly high casualty rates. A total of 55,573 died out of 125,000 (44.4 per cent mortality rate), 8,403 were injured and 9,838 became prisoners of war.
Most who flew were very young and the vast majority were still in their late teens. Crews came from across the globe – from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all corners of the Commonwealth, as well as from occupied nations including Poland, France and Czechoslovakia.
It took astonishing courage to endure the conditions they faced. Flying at night over occupied Europe, running the gauntlet of German night fighters, anti-aircraft fire and mid-air collisions.
The RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968 and was responsible for the strategic bombing of Germany during the Second World War
But it was not until 1942 that the Bomber Command gained a real sense of direction, with the introduction of Air Marshal Arthur 'Bomber' Harris.
Harris was appointed as commander in chief of Bomber Command in February 1942, with instructions to start attacking German industry, much of which was located in large cities.
His objective was to destroy Germany's industrial might and create a collapse in the morale of the civilian workforce, breaking Germany's will to fight on.
Times were hard. Victory seemed distant, and chivalric notions of war fighting had been burned away in the fire of the Blitz. U-Boats were roaming the Atlantic, sinking merchant shipping in an effort to starve Britain into submission.
The prospects of success were uncertain. Morale among British workers had largely held firm in the teeth of prolonged attacks by the German Air Force.
Harris, however, firmly believed that through a combination of improved aircraft like the Lancaster and Halifax, better training and navigational aids, and a ruthless will to press the attack, Bomber Command could knock Germany out of the war.
Bomber command crews suffered incredibly high casualty rates. A total of 55,573 died out of 125,000 (44.4 per cent mortality rate), 8,403 were injured and 9,838 became prisoners of war. Pictured: Wellington Bomber air crew who took part in the raid on Heligoland
In May 1942, Harris launched his first 'thousand bomber raid' against Cologne.
The scale of the attacks shocked Germany, but the country continued to fight. Further attacks did have a devastating effect on the Nazi war economy.
Albert Speer, the German armaments minister, believed that a series of raids like that on Hamburg in August 1943, repeated in quick succession, might well have compelled Germany to surrender. But that wasn't the case.
Other more specialised operations also took place. The famous 'Dam Busters' raid of May 1943 shocked the world with its audacity, as Guy Gibson's 617 Squadron launched a daring raid on the dams surrounding the Ruhr Valley.
Other attacks, like that on the battleship Tirpitz the following year, eliminated the German navy's last major surface ship.
Raids in 1944 and 1945 against German 'V weapon' launch sites were also a crucial defensive measure, helping to limit attacks from flying bombs and rockets on British cities.
Bomber Command switched its attentions to tactical objectives in early 1944, helping to pave the way for D-Day, the allied invasion of occupied Europe.
It played a vital and highly effective role attacking infrastructure around the invasion beaches. Attacking railways, roads and other transport links created chaos behind German lines, preventing the defending forces from massing to repel the landings.
The closing months of the war saw arguably the most controversial operations, such as the raid on Dresden in February 1945.
In four huge raids by the RAF and United States Army Air Force, a firestorm destroyed the city centre and killed thousands of civilians.
It took astonishing courage to endure the conditions they faced. Flying at night over occupied Europe, running the gauntlet of German night fighters, anti-aircraft fire and mid-air collisions. Pictured: Bomber Command crews prepare for the raid on Heligoland
The planners of the raid argued the city was a vital communications hub and needed to be targeted. The critics said that Germany was well beaten and the bombing was needless.
The truth is that it was a time of total war, and ideas about the boundaries of conflict were very different than those we have today.
Bomber Command did not win the Second World War independently - but the war could not have been won without their efforts.
The RAF's attacks forced Germany to divert invaluable men, guns, aircraft and equipment to defend its airspace, effectively opening a second front long before D-Day.
The young men of Bomber Command faced dangers that today we can barely imagine, all in defence of our freedom. Their sacrifice and extraordinary courage should never be forgotten.
Source: Bomber Command Memorial
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News Photo Last Dambuster urges the nation to dig deep to fund Lancaster memorial
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