PURBECK author Jenny Elms's latest book chronicles the exploits of her uncle and heroic Dambusters pilot John 'Hoppy' Hopgood.

John Vere Hopgood was second in command of the Dambusters Raid of May, 1943.

During that daring operation his Lancaster bomber - call sign M-Mother - was hit by flak. Despite being wounded, with his aircraft ablaze, the RAF pilot managed to gain enough height to enable two crew members to parachute to safety.

The plane crashed moments later and John 'Hoppy' Hopgood was killed, aged 21.

"I always knew my uncle was a heroic Dambuster pilot," explained Jenny. "But it was not until 1993 when I was privileged to accompany my aunt Marna, John's older sister, on a 50th anniversary dams raid trip to Germany, that I realised the full extent of his bravery and the high esteem in which he was held."

On their return Jenny was shown her uncle's logbook and letters, which would play a huge part in her latest work.

"Then in 2010 on visiting my aunt Marna, who by then had dementia, in a nursing home in Marlborough, I found the battered case holding all these unique family documents under her bed and felt the time had come to rescue them."

Jenny said that once she started word processing the letters, while cross referencing them to her uncle's log book, and interspersed with Marna's letters, the story fell into place.

"It was if their mother (my grandmother) Grace had kept all the right bits for that very purpose," she said. "The title M-Mother not only stands for the Lancaster's call sign, but his letters mainly began My Darling Mother, and the Dambusters raid took place on Mothering Sunday in Germany."

Jenny's book, published by The History Press, is called M-Mother: Dambuster Flight Lieutenant John 'Hoppy' Hopgood. Jenny combined the book launch with a screening of The Dam Busters film, which immortalised the air raid, at Wareham's Rex Cinema.

The 'Dambusters' 617 Squadron successfully broke two large dams in Germany using experimental 'bouncing bombs'. Winston Churchill described it as a 'gallant operation' causing 'unparalleled devastation'.

Operation Chastise, the attack on German dams, took place 72 years ago, on May 16 & 17.

Jenny, along with the wife and daughter of Dambusters' bomb-aimer John Fraser, attended the Dam Busters screening at the Rex Cinema on May 19.