Delivered to No. 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton on 29 June 1942, Lancaster R5868—later S for Sugar—epitomizes the astonishing durability of this British heavy bomber. Flying 137 operational sorties when the average Lancaster life expectancy was barely twenty-one, R5868 raided targets from Wilhelmshaven to the Normandy coast and even served with the Pathfinder Force. With four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and a cavernous bomb bay capable of hauling 22,000 lb, the Lancaster carried the night offensive deep into the Reich. It also bore Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb against the Ruhr dams. By war’s end, thousands of Lancasters had dropped a substantial portion of Bomber Command’s total tonnage, cementing their place in aviation legend.