America’s military and industrial power was by now overwhelming, and over three million Japanese servicemen and civilians were dead. In the Far East, Japan was embroiled in a bloody, and ultimately futile, war of attrition against the United States and its British Commonwealth and Chinese allies. Cheshire duly set off for the Marianas in the western Pacific, arriving at the huge American air base on Tinian Island at the end of the month. He was also informed that he had been selected by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to witness the dropping of the bomb on a target in Japan. In July 1945, Group Captain Cheshire was working dejectedly at a desk job in Washington DC when he was told, in the strictest secrecy, about the $2 billion-dollar Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb. Cheshire’s unconventional approach to low-level target marking brought the squadron success and his fourth operational tour ended with him perfecting the technique at the controls of a Mustang fighter.
617 Squadron, the celebrated ‘Dambusters’. In March 1943, aged 25, he became the RAF’s youngest group captain but chose to forfeit his rank in November to take command of No. In November 1940, Cheshire, while still a pilot officer, was awarded his first Distinguished Service Order for bombing Cologne in a flak-damaged Whitley and bringing the aircraft safely home.