5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Dambusters

The Dambusters raid of May 16–17, 1943 — Operation Chastise — saw 19 Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron attack the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams using Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb. Eight aircraft were lost that night, along with 53 aircrew. The downstream flooding killed over 1,600 people, the majority of them forced laborers in the Ruhr valley, a casualty figure rarely foregrounded in commemorative treatments of the operation.

Alderney, a Crown dependency with no direct connection to the raid, has issued commemorative five-pound pieces under royal authority since the 1990s. The .925 silver specification here matches the standard Royal Mint commemorative blank used across most Crown dependency issues of this period.