I'm always impressed by the guys who got their wings, went to a Spit squadron at probably 19 years old, were shown the taps and then told 'Off you go, don't bend it.'
I'm the same as you, inspired to fly by a plethora of wartime autobiogs and brought up on Sunday afternoon B/W films like Reach For The Sky and Angels 15.
As I fly over Lincolnshire I'm amazed at how close the bomber airfields were to each other. Many are still visible and their circuits must have overlapped with each other. In fact my house is built on the old site of RAF Skellingthorpe which is about a minutes flying time from Lincoln Cathedral, half that time in a Lanc.
One of the popular 'scenic Sunday' flights from here is to go up the Peak District to the top end of Derwent Dam and fly down it and Ladybower, which are the dams the Dambusters flew down when they were training. You can't help but think as you hurtle down at a whole 110kts that those guys did it in the dark, twice as fast and 60 ft off the deck, then did it for real while getting shot at after finding a dam in the middle of Germany in the dark. Different breed of men.
Incidentally my Dad has a fantastic book about the guys who flew the Lancs in the film and what they had to do, I'm damned (scuse the pun) if i can remember what it's called. They were Lincoln pilots from Hemswell if memory serves me right.