THE story of Sir Barnes Wallis and RAF 617 Squadron is well known to the world, having been immortalised in the film The Dam Busters in 1955.
Hailed a technological marvel, Sir Barnes had invented a drum-shaped, rotating device that would bounce over the water, roll down the dam's wall and explode at the base.
Using Sir Barnes' revolutionary bouncing bomb, the British were able to carry out devastating attacks on the Mohne and Edersee dams in May 1943, causing widespread flooding in the Ruhr Valley.
Hailed a monumental success by the Government at the time, its effect on the outcome of the Second World War has been debated by historians, but Sir Barnes' legacy has endured.
His daughter, Elisabeth Gaunt, still has the marbles with which her father first experimented the theory of skimming bombs across the water, a story retold in the first scene of The Dam Busters film.
"They were my marbles and I have them in my front room," said Mrs Gaunt, who lives in Dorking. "I am very proud of the story and of my father as well.
"I think all the anniversary memorials have been wonderful and I am happy that my father and the dambusters are getting the praise that they deserve."
Born in Ripley, Derbyshire, in 1887, Sir Barnes moved to Effingham in 1930, where he spent the rest of his life with his wife Molly, until his death 49 years later.
The family home was White Hill House in Beeches Lane, where it is believed he carried out some of his early bouncing bomb experiments on a nearby pond.
The inventor was also instrumental in the founding of the King George V Playing Fields, before his burial at St Laurence's Church, where his grave can be visited today.
His other daughter, Mary Stopes-Roe, told the Advertiser that she and her siblings had enjoyed a "wonderful childhood" in Effingham.
"It is a lovely, pleasant village and father was very involved in local things," she said.
"I admired him very much and I'm amazed and overwhelmed in the interest people have in him.
"It has been very moving and has brought tears to my eyes."
