Brendan Bracken, centre, from the Ministry of Information, with some aircrew from the Augsburg raid. Deverill is not pictured here. RPA/War Background/PR & Publicity/Augsburg

The wartime RAF was a consummate expert at PR. Spectacular Bomber Command operations were lavishly covered in the Media, their reports being based on information and photographs released by the Air Ministry, working closely with the Ministry of Information. One operation which was covered in great detail was the April 1942 Augsburg raid, carried out deep into Germany in broad daylight. It incurred heavy losses but the survivors were lionised.

Ernest Deverill, centre, with other 97 Squadron aircrew after the Augsburg raid.

RPA/Collections/Ernest Deverill

See also this link: Ernest Deverill – Y-York after Augsburg

The greatest publicity coup of the war was the Dams raid of 16-17 May 1943. Of the many spectacular raids, this is the one which is most remembered in modern times, mainly due to Guy Gibson’s superb book Enemy Coast Ahead and the 1955 film The Dam Busters, starring Richard Todd as Guy Gibson.

In one of the post-raid publicity photographs, Gibson can be seen below, fourth from the left, with fellow 617 Squadron aircrew who flew on the Dams operation.