Tributes paid to last surviving Dambuster pilot who was based in Shropshire

The heroic pilot was based in Shropshire for a short period in the early 1940s as he completed his flying training before embarking on a glittering military career.

John Leslie Munro, known as Les, was one of 19 heroic pilots from the famous 617 Squadron who took part in the daring "bouncing bomb" attacks on German dams in 1943.

The raids, which saw drum-shaped bombs bounced off the water before exploding against the dam walls, have gone down in history as some of the finest wartime aerial assaults and have also been credited with changing the course of the Second World War.

He died yesterday morning in hospital in Tauranga, following what his friends described as a "lifetime all about service". And his death has prompted a renewed effort from The International Bomber Command Centre to locate all living veterans who served in Bomber Command during the war.

The IBCC, at Canwick Hill, Lincolnshire, is to unveil its first phase later this year and wants to ensure that every living veteran of Bomber Command is issued with a personal invitation to attend the event.

Currently they have some 900 names, but as Bomber Command was an international effort it is likely that there are more veterans in the UK, and across the globe, that are still to be identified. Squadron Leader Munro's death, which came following heart problems, leaves just two surviving crew members of the Dambusters missions.

Friends today described how Squadron Leader Munro had a "special aura" about him and was regarded among his peers as being "invincible".

But, in a nod to his characteristic humility, they revealed how he was always "a little embarrassed" about the attention he received as a Dambuster.

Sqn Ldr Munro's eldest son Graeme said his father had lived an "incredibly long life given what he's had to go through".

He received a Distinguished Service Order in April 1944 for his "unfailing devotion to duty and his example of gallantry and leadership".