Il Corriere dei Piccoli #18 (1971) page 7 by Breccia

"La Bomba rimbalzante" ("The Bouncing Bomb"). Il Corriere dei Piccoli translated is Courier of the Little Ones. Cover date May 2, 1971.

Translation is the first additional image.

When I first saw the page I was stunned by the texture of the sky and smoke intersected by search lights, chiaroscuro faces of the pilot and probably his navigator, details and lighting of the bombers, and flow of the story.

Translating the page I was excited to learn it's about the British dambuster mission to breach the Ruhr Valley dams to cripple German industry in 1943. The pilot in the story is Wing Commander Guy Gibson who led the mission.

The mission was extremely dangerous, requiring pilots to fly their Lancaster heavy bombers at low level--100 feet--to evade German radar. They became more vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and ran the risk of running into power lines and other obstacles.

At the target the newly developed bouncing bomb forced the bombers to fly straight and level a mere 60 feet (18 meters) above the reservoir in the face of German guns. Panel 9 shows how the pilots maintained their altitude, overlaying two spotlights under the nose and fuselage.

They also used a two-pronged device to line up the towers at either end of the dam to know when to drop the bomb. 

The British developed the bouncing bomb because conventional bombing had failed.

Shaped like a barrel, the bomb bounced on the water to avoid defensive nets and spun backwards to slow it to a stop against the dam. The bomb then sunk under the water next to the dam wall to amplify the explosion sufficiently to break through. 

The mission breached two of three dams, disrupting hydroelectricity for factories and tying up German resources to repair them. Unfortunately the British didn't follow up with conventional raids to disrupt their reconstruction. 

Eight of nineteen aircraft and 56 crew members were lost. Squadron commander Gibson survived the raid but died later in the war during a pathfinder mission. 

The 1955 movie The Dam Busters portrays the struggle of the bomb's inventor to secure official approval, his challenges developing and testing the device, and Gibson's selection of pilots and crews for the mission, culminating in the raid itself.

(Source: "Dambuster Bouncing Bomb Tests at Reculver and Manston" by History of Manston Airfield, May 1, 2025, updated February 12, 2026 and Wikipedia)