This is the first of the chain of waters on the Longendale Trail, Bottoms Reservoir. A glance the other way is a reminder that this is a Pennine journey as you enjoy the easy track alongside the reservoirs. It's also a junction point of other long distance routes - the Trans Pennine Cycle Route (Liverpool to Hull), long distance walkers' Pennine Way, and the Pennine Cycle Route all interconnect here alongside the reservoirs.

The story of the bouncing bomb introduces itself at this point too. During the second world war, scientist Barnes Wallis invented a bouncing bomb and here, on the Longendale reservoirs, the British airmen practised dropping the new missile. Normal bombs had done little damage to the German dams (the dams were crucial in providing power for Germany's steel-producing factories and water supplies) and endless experiments were undertaken to find the right way for bombs to be effective. The idea was to drop a bomb that would skip along the water and hit the dam - the same technique as skipping a flat stone across calm water. And the similarity of the reservoirs here to the physical layout of the Ruhr Valley reservoir meant that the Lancaster bombers could practice their low level flying prior to the attack on the Ruhr dams. Later, 'The Dambusters' film, in 1955, was filmed here, although the nighttime scenes were thought to be too dangerous and were replicated by over exposing the film to simulate the darkness swoops of the Lancaster bombers. The bomb worked, its success played its part in the victory of World War II, and there are still occasional fly pasts to commemorate it.

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