In this section, eHangar.com brings to you the largest collection of aviation art in the world depicting this famous World War II mission. Some of the artwork have been published as prints, others are originals. Some of these aviation artists are famous, others are less so, while others are budding aviation artists paying tribute to their heroes on canvas. Enjoy!

Operation Chastise was the code name given to one of the most audacious air raids of World War Two.

When, on the night of 16/17 May, 1943, nineteen Lancasters with 133 men of the specially formed No. 617 Squadron took off from RAF Scampton, it was the culmination of months of training shrouded in secrecy. Their target - revealed to the crews only a short time before departure - were the mighty hydroelectric dams that lay in the heart of the Ruhr; the Mohne, Sorpe, Ennepe and Eder Dams.

Led by the mercurial Wing Commander Guy Gibson, already a veteran of over 170 bomber missions, the elite unit were under no illusions about the dangers of the attack. They would face night-fighter interception and heavy flak on the way to and from the target, and a barrage of ground fire as they ran in to drop their lethal cargo. To add to the danger they would need to fly, in complete darkness, at precisely 60 feet above the water to release the unique 10,000lb hydrostatic bombs designed by Barnes Wallis.