Ref. 28693-36A LETTER of condolence, apparently from the leader of the Dambusters' raid to the mother of a man who failed to make it home, has been withdrawn from a Swindon auction after it was felt it it might not be genuine.

It had been thought that Wing Commander Guy Gibson wrote the letter to the parents of Flt Sgt Charles Roberts, a trainee accountant from Norfolk.

Like 52 other men in eight Lancaster bombers, Flt Sgt Roberts died on the night of May 16-17, 1943 three others were taken prisoner.

He was the navigator of an aircraft shot down after helping to spearhead the breaching of a dam, which was vital to the Nazi war machine.

But research by Dominic Winter Book Auctions, in Maxwell Street, has now revealed the letter may be a contemporary copy of the real letter, made by Flt Sgt Roberts' family and given to his fiance as a keepsake.

Dominic Winter stressed that the vendors had made a genuine error.

The letter, had it been in Gibson's hand, was expected to raise up to £2,000.

Mr Winter said: "When we announced that we had the letter, we were contacted by a person with connections to the Gibson family, who suggested there was something odd about the handwriting.

"We obtained samples of the real handwriting from RAF Hendon, and it was different.

"We do our utmost to ensure that items sold at the auction house are described accurately hence our extensive research."

In arguably the most famous bombing raid of the Second World War, 19 Lancasters flew to the Ruhr, in Germany, with the bouncing bombs designed by the engineer Barnes Wallis. Only 11 returned.

Gibson refused to send the standard, typed letters of condolence which were usual sent to the bereaved during the war.

He insisted on remaining at RAF Scampton while the remainder of his men went on leave, and handwriting letters to the families of the men who died.

l The Dambusters' raid was subsequently immortalised in a 1954 film which starred Michael Redgrave as Wallis and Richard Todd as Gibson.

The Lancasters and their bombs destroyed the Moehne and Eder dams and badly damaged the Sorpe dam, flooding hundreds of square miles of land and destroying factories producing supplies for Hitler's armed forces.

Gibson, already the holder of multiple Distinguished Flying Crosses and Distinguished Service Orders, was later awarded the Victoria Cross for exceptional leadership.

He was killed in September 1944 when his two-seater Mosquito aircraft was shot down during an operation over the Netherlands. He was 26

Barrie Hudson