Rail travellers lodged a record number of complaints - more than after the Hatfield disaster, when trains were delayed by massive repair programmes.

BBC: Rail complaints at record levels

Albert Speer, the German armaments minister, expressed amazement that the repair operations were left untroubled by further bombing raids which would have delayed the vital reconstruction and turned a nuisance into a major crisis.

BBC: The Dambusters raid: How effective was it?