THE LEGENDARY Dambusters mission of the Second World War has been digitally recreated by experts at the University of Southampton for a new Channel 4 documentary series, marking the 60th anniversary of the "bouncing bomb" mission.

Dr Kenji Takeda and Dr Simon Newman developed computer flight simulators for teaching and research in the university's school of engineering sciences to recreate the flight deck of a Lancaster bomber for the series, which starts tonight.

On May 16, 1943, Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron flew a historic raid on the dams of the Ruhr Valley, using the "bouncing bomb" famously developed by Barnes Wallis.

For the anniversary documentary, BAFTA award-winning director Gary Johnstone, commissioned by Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel to make the series, wanted to take advantage of the latest computer technology to see whether modern-day RAF recruits were up to the task completed by the 1943 crews.

Eight were assigned to the programme, with the ultimate aim of reflying the Dambusters mission.

Dr Takeda said: "Having heard news of the ongoing work in developing off-the-shelf flight simulators for teaching and research here at the University of Southampton, he contacted me and my colleague Dr Simon Newman to see if we could help.

"After scratching our heads we came up with a monstrous system comprising five computers driving a total of ten displays - the biggest of which measured 36 feet wide by 10 feet high.

"If that wasn't enough, we had to build all of this to fit a full-size replica Lancaster fuselage in Meridian TV's studios, away from the relative calm of our laboratory on campus."

The Southampton team relied on software specialists Just Flight to provide a stunningly detailed aircraft model, which took over two years to develop.

The Dambusters will be shown on Channel 4 tonight and next Monday at 9pm, and across Europe on the Discovery Channel in May.