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Britain's war was not even one day old (on Sept. 3, 1939) when dark, easy-smiling Guy Gibson flew his first bombing mission--to Kiel's ship canal. By late 1943, Wing Commander Gibson was the only one left of his 1939 squadron's 26 men. "Great Guy" Gibson had become a legend in the R.A.F. He was the famed "Dam Buster" (so dubbed by Winston Churchill after the spectacular Moehne and Eder dam-breaching raids); Britain's most decorated airman (the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross and bar, the Distinguished Service Order and bar); "the most experienced bomber pilot in the world."

Last week the Air Ministry sadly posted 26-year-old Guy Gibson as missing--ten weeks after he had failed to return from a mission as master bomber in a night attack on Rheydt, now in the path of the U.S.-British advance to the Rhineland.

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