The dancer and the hero (From Penarth Times)

The dancer and the hero

ONE of the most celebrated Britons to have fought in the Second World War married a dancer from Penarth and spent the evening celebrating at a golf club in Penarth when news arrived that he was to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

Wingcommander Guy Gibson, leader of the legendary Dambusters raid, immortalised in the famous movie, married Eve Moore, a Penarth dancer who featured in West End shows, in 1940.

The romance began in early December 1939 when Gibson was spending three days leave at his brother's home in Coventry where Moore was performing. Gibson was smitten after seeing the young dancer perform on stage and later courted her at an after-show party.

The couple married the following year on November 23 at All Saints Church in Penarth.

Eve's parents, Mr and Mrs Ernest Moore, lived in Archer Road, Penarth, and the couple were married at All Saints Church on November 23, 1940.

Gibson flew his Blenheim bomber to Cardiff from his base in Lincolnshire for the wedding.

Eve's parents, Mr and Mrs Ernest Moore, lived in Archer Road, Penarth.

Ernest Moore was a keen golfer playing at Glamorganshire Golf Club and his new son-in-law joined as an honorary member.

Gibson carried out the Dambusters raid in May 1943 and was spending his post-raid leave in Penarth when he received the call telling him he had won the VC. Gibson and his in-laws spent the night celebrating at Glamorganshire Golf Club.

Guy Gibson, the son of a Russian-born civil servant, was born on August 12, 1918 in Simla, India. His father Alexander James Gibson moved the family to Cornwall in 1921.

Guy was educated at St Edward's School in Oxford and joined the Royal Air Force in 1936. By the outbreak of the Second World War he had become a bomber pilot with 83 Squadron and won the Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1940.

At the age of 23 Gibson was promoted to the rank of wing commander and in 1943 he was selected to carry out a highly-dangerous attack on five hydroelectric dams on which the Ruhr industrial area depended.

Barnes Wallis advised the Royal Air Force to use the new bouncing bomb he had been developing at the National Physics Laboratory in Teddington.

The success of the operation involved precision bombing.

On the night of May 16, 1943, Gibson led 19 Avro Lancaster bombers, each carrying one bomb.

It took five attempts to breach the Moehne Dam.

Gibson then led the three remaining Lancasters to attack the Eder Dam.

Only 11 of Gibson's 19 bombers survived the mission.

Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross for his role in the Dambusters mission.

After the raid he was sent on a lecture tour of the United States.

He wrote a book titled the Enemy Coast Ahead and became a prospective Conservative Party candidate for Macclesfield.

Gibson returned to duty in June 1944.

On September 19, 1944, Gibson flew on a raid on Rheydt.

He never arrived home and later it was discovered that Gibson and his navigator, James Warwick, had been killed when their plane crashed in the Netherlands.