Innholdsfortegnelse for The Dambusters i The Dambusters

As one that took part on the Dams Raid although not reaching my target due to flak damage sustained when crossing the Island of Vlieland, I am naturally interested in the contents of this book and its historical accuracy. When I entered the RNZAF on 7 July 1941 I never thought for a moment that I would take part in an operation that would be recognised at the time and over subsequent years as a major event in the history of the British War Effort in the air. Likewise, when on 97 Squadron I volunteered with my crew to serve on a new squadron being formed to undertake a special operation, I had no idea of what the target may be. This lack of knowledge of the target was also…

Like other national and provincial newspapers, the News Chronicle published a reconnaissance photo of the breached Möhne, dubbing it the “Greatest Air Picture of the War”. The paper exclaimed that “millions of tons of water were sweeping over Hitler’s great arms centre in the Ruhr”, the “River Eder in full flood” and repeated Sir Arthur Harris’s claim of “a major victory”. The importance of the raid for civilian morale is indirectly revealed on this same page with a note that sirens had been sounded the previous night in London and the pleas for money via the “Wings for Victory” campaign to provide more aircraft to combat the increasing U-boat menace.…

The Airco DH4 two-seat biplane day bomber first flew in August 1916, and went into service with No. 55 Squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in March 1917. Powered by one 250hp Rolls Royce Eagle engine, it had a maximum speed of 119mph (192kph) at 3,000 feet (900 metres) and a ceiling of 16,000 feet (4,900 metres). It carried two 230lb (105kg) or four 112lb (51kg) bombs in racks under the fuselage or lower wing. In the front cockpit, the pilot manned one Vickers 0.303-in fixed machine-gun and the observer in the rear had either one or two Lewis 0.303 machine-guns mounted on a Scarff ring. No. 55 Squadron flew DH4s in the Independent Bombing Force, which attacked German industrial targets in 1918. One pilot of a DH4, the future Biggles…

The Sorpe (Target Z) had a different construction to all the other target dams. It comprised a central concrete core, nominally watertight, but inevitably with minor cracks, and porous, sloping supports of stone and earth on each side at a 1:2.25 incline. Unlike gravity dams, an “earth dam” such as the Sorpe could not allow excess water to wash over it and this was taken away by a sluice beside the dam. Water supplies were extracted via an intake tower upstream, so no important machinery existed at the dam itself. The Sorpe, situated at the northern end of a reservoir containing 94 million cubic yards (72 million cubic metre)s of water, was 1,965 feet (600m) long and 190 feet (58m) high. Located six miles (10 kilometres) southwest of the Möhne…

William Maxwell “Max” Aitken, Baron Beaverbrook, was a Canadian businessman, who settled in Britain in 1910 and shortly afterwards was elected to Parliament. Created Baron Beaverbrook in 1917, the following year he joined the government as Minister of Information. During the inter-war years, Beaverbrook expanded his newspaper interests, raising the profile and circulation of the Sunday Express and Daily Express. His long-standing friendship with Winston Churchill took him into government again in May 1940 as Minister of Aircraft Production (MAP), in charge of a ministry comprising some departments (transferred from the Air Ministry) run by RAF officers and others led by scientists. The Ministry exercised a wider remit than simply improving aircraft production, taking an active interest in the ways in which aircraft could be used and the weapons they…

The earliest 1/50th scale models of the Möhne Dam were built at the Road Research Laboratory, Harmondsworth, during the third quarter of 1940, with “preliminary tests” being reported in November. “A more carefully prepared model” was then planned at the Building Research Station (BRS) at Garston, near Watford, and constructed between 25 November 1940 and 21 January 1941. Dr Norman Davey, Head of Structural Development, and A.J. Newman, Head of the Concrete Section, designed and built the model, which was 42 feet (12.8 metres) long, three feet (0.9 metres) high and two feet (0.6 m) wide at the base with 15 feet (4.6 metres) between the mock towers. Situated among trees below the main office complex, the model dam blocked a small stream which acted as the Möhne reservoir. As…

During the First World War, Edgar Rainey Ludlow-Hewitt served with distinction in the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front, rising to brigadier-general by the Armistice. During the interwar years, he commanded the RAF Staff College at Andover, was successively Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Iraq and India and was appointed KCB in 1933. He became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) Bomber Command in 1937. Ludlow-Hewitt was at High Wycombe, when Bomber Command planned to neutralise the Ruhr industry by attacking 45 specific targets in flying 3,000 sorties over a fortnight, while accepting a loss of 176 bombers. This led to the alternative proposal to hit the Möhne and Sorpe dams, and on 28 July 1938 in listing electricity power stations in Germany as priority targets, he wrote: “I have not included…

Group Captain F.W. Winterbotham, Head of the Air Section of MI6, was so impressed by Barnes Wallis’s scheme for his 10-ton bomb that in mid-1940 he decided that he “must summon the Air Staff … without delay” to support it and later ensured that Winston Churchill’s scientific adviser, Professor F.A. Lindemann, received a copy of A Note. When Wallis approached him with his new idea of the bouncing bomb, Winterbotham hoped this time it would be “a properly baked pie – not under-cooked blackberries”. The letter to Garro Jones stemmed from frustration at the lack of progress made after the successful Nant-y-Gro contact explosion in July 1942. Winterbotham included a page of notes outlining the project so far (included here).…

The successful mid-1942 test results encouraged the RAF to allocate a Wellington bomber for more exploratory trials. Wallis was planning a weapon measuring about 7ft 6ins (2.3 metres) in diameter, so a 4ft 6in- (1.4-metre) sphere installed in a Wellington would provide intermediate calculations beyond those obtained with two-inch (five-cm) spheres. Before any such trials could take place (planned at Weybridge under Vickers-Armstrong’s control), scientific doubts about the practicality of Wallis’s proposals arose. Professor E.N. da C. Andrade (a member of the AAD Committee) had challenged the scientific basis for Wallis’s 10-ton proposal, and similar reservations surfaced concerning the bouncing bomb. Even before the Teddington tests were completed, Dr Pye wrote dismissively: “I think we can safely say that the gravity dam is a hopeless proposition.” On 29 September, Wallis…

On 3 February 1943, the day after he secured Lord Cherwell’s approval, Wallis learnt that the RAF would only agree to “preliminary design work”. Nine days later, a lukewarm appreciation reached the Air Staff: “Model experiments, mathematical analysis and full-scale drops of a smaller weapon, all indicate that the Upkeep the codename for the bouncing bomb] project is technically feasible”; this was well short of unqualified approval. On 13 February an Air Ministry meeting, not attended by Wallis, considered “the development and possible operational use of the spherical bomb.” It learnt, slightly erroneously, that Upkeep would include a 7,500lb (3,400kg) charge, weigh 11,000lbs (5,000kg) and be 84 inches (2.1 metres) in diameter. Success at Chesil Beach was acknowledged, but the meeting felt there was no proof that the weapon would…

Three days later, Wallis was summoned to another meeting in London, this time at the MAP chaired by Air Vice-Marshal F.J. Linnell (Controller of Research and Development) to receive another shock. The atmosphere was altogether less confrontational, the decision of 23 February swept aside. In stressing need for absolute security, Linnell revealed that the Chief of the Air Staff (Portal, who had sponsored the 1940 attack on the Möhne) wanted “every effort” to mount the dams operation in spring 1943. Three Lancasters were to be modified immediately for Upkeep trials, another 27 similarly altered for use by the operational squadron. 26 May would be the latest date for striking the dams – soon brought forward to 19 May, just 11 weeks away. The “mines” (a term employed in subsequent documents)…

Calculations and directions connected with the fitting of two Aldis lamps to the Lancasters modified for the Dambusters raids for establishing Upkeep’s release height of 60 feet (18.3 metres). Devised by Ben Lockspeiser, Director of Scientific Research at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, these are jottings of his early thoughts. The word “spotlight” has become misleading, “the other near the tail” also misinterpreted. The two positions, as shown, were (front) in the camera slot, (rear) at the back of the bomb-bay, but with the beams angled to meet forward of the leading edge of the starboard wing.…

RAF Scampton lies six miles (10 kilometres) north-west of Lincoln. Opened in 1916 as Brattleby, the following year it assumed the name of the nearby village. Before becoming a training base in the closing months of the First World War, it housed FE2b aircraft (a two-seater pusher biplane) as part of the Royal Flying Corps’ defence against German airships. Closed in 1919, Scampton was reopened and expanded in 1936 as a bomber station, and three years later Nos 49 and 83 Squadrons of No. 5 Group were stationed there; in the latter, Flight Lieutenant Gibson completed his first bombing tour. The station continued to operate two squadrons from its grass runway, but in March 1943 one had moved out so that hard runways could be installed. 617 Squadron was therefore…

At the beginning of March 1943, a range off the north Kent coast in Reculver Bay was chosen for further dropping trials, with the test aircraft flying from RAF Manston. The area was secluded, with agricultural land sloping southwards towards the water and no private houses in the vicinity. Vickers test pilot R.C. Handasyde surveyed the area in the Chesil Beach Wellington on 9 April. The following evening, Wallis landed at Manston in one of the modified Lancasters, piloted by “Mutt” Summers, to brief Vickers-Armstrong staff about the forthcoming trials. Inert-filled practice Upkeeps with their central cylinder, additional packing outside and retaining wooden exterior were loaded at the RAF station by service personnel under the supervision of Vickers-Armstrongs staff. At the range itself, on shore Vickers-Armstrongs staff recorded the performance…

Three days before the operation, no live drop of Upkeep had taken place. So on 13 May, flying five miles (8 kilometres) off Broadstairs on the east coast of Kent, Flight Lieutenant Longbottom released a Torpex-filled, fully armed Upkeep from 75 feet (23 metres). Cameras mounted ashore and in the second modified Lancaster flown by R. Handasyde at 1,000 feet (305 metres) and 1,000 yards (914 metres) behind recorded seven bounces over “almost 800 yards (731 metres)”. The plume of water, which rose after the underwater explosion, reached an estimated 1,500 feet (457 metres). Gibson flew with Handasyde as an observer and an Air Staff officer, Group Captain W. Wynter-Morgan, was in Longbottom’s rear gunner’s position to see Upkeep slow to 55mph (88kph) after release. Barnes Wallis thought: “We obtained…

The Operation Order explained that the industrial Ruhr relied “to a very large extent” on water from massive reservoirs and that “destruction of TARGET X [Möhne Dam] alone would bring about a serious shortage of water for drinking purposes and industrial supplies”. “Next in importance” was “TARGET Z [Sorpe]”. To the east of the Ruhr, “in the Weser District the destruction of TARGET Y [Eder] would seriously hamper transport in the Mittelland Canal and in the Weser [river]”. Successful attacks on “TARGET D [Lister]” and “TARGET E [Ennepe]” would increase the impact of breaching the Möhne and Sorpe dams, “TARGET F [Diemel]” if the Eder were broken. “Twenty Special Lancasters” – 19, in reality – would be divided into three waves. The First Wave, led by Gibson, would comprise nine…

Harold Brownlow Morgan “Mick” Martin was an Australian, who in 1940 enlisted in the RAF, where he became a bomber pilot. Between October 1941 and 1942, he completed a tour and gained a reputation for low flying. He was instructing at a Heavy Conversion Unit, when Gibson rang him with an invitation “to come to the party”. Martin duly gathered a crew and arrived at Scampton on 31 March 1943. During Operation Chastise, he flew in Gibson’s leading formation of three and was the first to reach the Möhne Dam, because the other two had become detached. Martin released the third Upkeep, after Hopgood’s aircraft was shot down. Following his attack, Martin flew in with Young and then Maltby to help them combat the defences. Once the Möhne had been…

John Leslie (“Les”) Munro entered the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1941 and, after training in Canada, first flew as a bomber pilot with 97 Squadron at Woodhall Spa the following year. Having completed 22 operations, for which he was awarded the DFC, he joined 617 Squadron in March 1943 with four of his regular crew, a replacement bomb-aimer and rear gunner being recruited before arrival at Scampton. Destined to attack the Sorpe Dam during Operation Chastise, his Lancaster was badly damaged by flak and he was forced to turn back over the Netherlands. With his wireless equipment destroyed and unable to communicate, Munro almost collided with another early return as he came in to land again at Scampton. Munro remained with the Dambusters Squadron and was promoted Squadron…

Fred Tees was an apprentice hairdresser when he joined the RAF to become an air gunner. In March 1943, he was flying in 207 Squadron with Pilot Officer Ottley, who heard that Gibson was forming a new squadron and “wangled” a posting to Scampton. Ottley’s crew took their Lancaster with them, and the five NCOs shared an empty married quarter there. His aircraft, AJ-C, was the first of the Third Wave to take off at 00:09 on 17 May. AJ-C encountered occasional searchlights and pockets of flak at which Tees, in the rear turret, “fired away”. The Lancaster flew so low that, at one point, he looked up as it passed below a church steeple. When the Lancaster was shot down near Hamm at 02:35, Tees was the only survivor…

Extracts from the log book of Sergeant Charles Brennan, flight engineer of Flight Lieutenant J.V. Hopgood’s aircraft, which was hit by flak as it attacked the Möhne Dam. With the starboard wing ablaze, Upkeep was dropped late, bounced over the dam wall and struck the large power station, which was destroyed when the fourth self-destructive device worked after 90 seconds. Meanwhile, Brennan having vainly tried to quell the fire, helped Hopgood boost power so that the aircraft climbed enough for three members of the crew to escape by parachute (two surviving to become PoWs). Preoccupied as he was, Brennan had no chance to get out and his body was one of four found in the wreckage of AJ-M 3.7 miles (6 kilometres) northwest of the Möhne near Ostoennen. The log…

All three attacking aircraft caused damage to the Eder Dam. Flight Lieutenant Shannon claimed to have “made gap 9ft wide towards the east” (righthand side from the valley) and undoubtedly damage did occur in this area. Squadron Leader Maudslay’s Upkeep hit the top of the dam wall and most of the explosion went upwards, but it damaged the road along the crest and the ashlar parapets at its sides. Later reports suggested that lateral cracks were also caused in the structure of the dam. Pilot Officer Knight’s Upkeep created a V-shaped gap just right of centre. At the bottom of the breach, the wall was 59 feet (18 metres) thick and an estimated 30,000 tons was lanced from the structure. 201.9 million cubic yards (154.4 million cubic metres) out of…

Albert Speer became an architect, like his father and grandfather, and was lecturing at the Technical University of Berlin when he joined the Nazi Party in 1931. He swiftly established himself by helping to design the Olympic Stadium (1936) and the German pavilion at the Paris Exhibition (1937). He used searchlights to create “a cathedral of light” for the Nuremberg rallies, redesigned the Reich Chancery and became a close associate of Adolf Hitler, about whom he said “All I wanted was for this great man to dominate the globe.” When war broke out, he was planning a grandiose rebuilding of Berlin, and in 1942 succeeded Fritz Todt as Minister for Armaments and Munitions. In the early hours of Monday 17 May 1943, he received “most alarming” news that the Möhne…

On 18 May a special edition of L’Amerique en Guerre was produced to be dropped on occupied France. The leaflet announces the “devastating attack by the RAF” which caused a “breach of 100 metres, through which water flowed to expose the mud and sand along the banks of the reservoir…Ruhr factories flooded…and below the Eder disruption had also occurred”. It then goes on to say that “the attacks were carried out at very low level with extreme courage and coolness in spite of vigorous resistance.” Details of the breaches are explained, the observations of participants quoted and a map provided to pinpoint the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams.…

Apart from the intrepid bravery of the airmen of 617 Squadron, Operation Chastise is also famous for the weapon used to breach the Ruhr dams: the bouncing bomb. Code named ‘Upkeep’, the explosives were the brainchild of Dr Barnes Wallis who worked for the engineering company Vickers Armstrong. In 1942, he began working on plans for a bomb that could skip across water, initially developing ideas by bouncing marbles across a water tub in his back garden. Wallis was given access to research bodies and carried out large scale experiments involving exploding charges against model dams and destroying a real 180 foot high disused dam in Wales. He concluded that breaching the dams would not be easy and aimed to create a bomb that would explode on contact with the…

This letter relates to Barnes Wallis’s plan for a 10-ton bomb dropped from high level as described in ‘A Note on a Method of Attacking the Axis Powers’, a copy of which was enclosed. Editor of Aeronautics magazine and a decorated First World War pilot, Stewart also wrote for The Observer and Evening Standard newspapers. Aware of Service and scientific reservations, Wallis was effectively seeking Stewart’s influential support. The alleged “third degree” treatment referred either to the first meeting of the Air Attack on Dams committee on 10 March 1941 or what Wallis termed “the Tizard Committee” on 11 April.…

Henry Thomas Tizard, an Oxford-educated chemist, served in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. During the inter-war years, he became permanent secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and chaired the Aeronautical Research Committee, which sponsored development of Radio-Direction Finding (RDF, later known as Radar). During the Second World War, Tizard advised government departments on aeronautical matters. Following the publication of Barnes Wallis’s “Note”, in April 1941 Tizard convened “a special meeting” of experts “to consider the soundness of the suggestions made by Mr Wallis”, and its favourable conclusions paved the way for formation of the formal Air Attack on Dams. Despite the Air Staff’s rejection of a big bomber for one bomb, Tizard still supported “the ten-ton penetrating bomb”. After Wallis wrote his paper…

In June 1942, Barnes Wallis and his team began tests at large indoor water tanks in the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington. With the exception of one day (when the Alfred Yarrow tank was used), their work was carried out on No 2 tank. Vickers staff timed the bounces in Wallis’s quest for “the elusive” Law of Ricochet. Sir Henry Tizard was among a number of scientists and senior officers to visit Teddington and express their approval. This series of tests ceased on 22 September 1942, but on 30 January 1943 Wallis returned briefly for more testing connected with the effect on the proposed weapon of its impact with a target.…

Towards the end of 1942, Barnes Wallis envisaged the final version of his “bouncing bomb” destined for the dams being 7 feet 6 inches (2.3 metres) in diameter. Tests had so far involved 2-inch (5-centimetre) balls fired over the water, so trials with a 4 feet 6 inch (1.4 metre) version released from a Wellington to obtain intermediate data took place at Chesil Beach during the winter 1942–23. Welded metal spheres with flattened ends or similar wooden ones, either smooth or dimpled, were used. These are diagrams of a wooden sphere. On 24 January, one bounced “20–22” times; on 5 February another travelled 1,315 yards (1.2 kilometres).…

Frederick Alexander Lindemann (Lord Cherwell) was a distinguished physicist and Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford with a formidable personality. During the First World War, he did invaluable work at the Royal Aircraft Factory in Farnborough to counteract spin in aircraft. In the inter-war years, he retained a special interest in the air, being involved with Sir Henry Tizard’s investigation into the potential of Radio-Direction Finding (radar). In 1940, Winston Churchill appointed “The Prof” as his scientific adviser, and two years later made him Paymaster-General in the government. Created Baron Cherwell in 1941, in the same year Lindemann dismissed Wallis’ 10-ton bomb proposal as impossible to achieve before the end of the war. Even after the second test on the Nant-y-Gro dam had proved that a contact charge would breach…

Arthur Travers Harris spent his youth in Africa and served in the 1st Rhodesian Regiment during the First World War before joining the Royal Flying Corps in England in 1915. He saw active service on the Western Front, secured a permanent commission in the RAF and during the inter-war years was involved in imperial policing on the North-West Frontier of India and in Mesopotamia. By the time that he became a member of the Chiefs of Staff Joint Planning Committee (1934–37) he was committed to bombing and backed development of four-engine bombers. In 1938, as an air commodore, he led an aircraft-purchasing commission to the USA. On the eve of the Second World War, as an air vice-marshal he was Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Palestine and Transjordan. Back in England,…

Guy Penrose Gibson joined the RAF in 1936 and in the opening phase of the war completed a bombing tour on Hampdens with 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton. Then, following 99 operations on night fighters with 29 Squadron, in April 1942 he took command of 106 Squadron, and flew a second bombing tour. At its conclusion, still only 24 years old and with a DFC & Bar and DSO & Bar, he was chosen by Air Chief Marshal Harris to lead 617 Squadron. He had to train it for its unique operation in under three months. Conscious of the pressure of time, and the need for efficiency and security, he insisted on high standards. Gibson replaced one crew and another opted to leave, rather than let him change its navigator.…

The original target folders for each dam contained all the available information – dimensions, construction, location, defences and other relevant details. This is an extract for that on the Möhne Dam, near Soest (target no. GO 939). The Air Intelligence summary, 12 February 1943, explains how the adjacent reservoir is fed from two rivers, how the water is drawn off, and the function of the two power stations on the air side of the dam. The cross-section diagrams illustrate the working of the machinery. The road passing over the crest of the dam beyond the trees can be seen in the undated pre-war photograph. The protective double torpedo boom and Guenne village beyond the equalising basin can be seen in the 19 February 1943 reconnaissance photo.…

Situated close to Uppingham in Rutland, and sometimes named “Uppingham Reservoir” or “Corby Lake” in Operation Chastise documents, the Eyebrook reservoir supplied water for the nearby Corby steel works. With a straight wall at its southern end and usually full in May, it provided an ideal practice target. The responsible authority, the Corby (Northants) & District Water Company, gave permission for 617 Squadron aircraft to practise over it, provided “they will drop nothing, and fire nothing, and damage nothing.” On 4 May, “four special canvas targets, approximately 20ft x 12 ft … were fixed in barrels of concrete on top of the dam.” Grouped in twos and linked together with camouflage netting, they simulated the towers on the Möhne. That afternoon, the Lancasters began to fly low over the structure,…

The authorisation sent to Bomber Command from the Air Ministry on the morning of Saturday 15 May 1943 for an attack on the dams “at first suitable opportunity”. This was duly forwarded to No. 5 Group Headquarters at Grantham. That afternoon, A.V.M. Cochrane travelled to Scampton to inform the Station Commander and Wing Commander Gibson that the raid would take place the following night, provided conditions were favourable. Barnes Wallis reached Scampton that afternoon as well, just as the loading of his “bouncing bomb” onto the modified Lancasters commenced. Shortly afterwards, Gibson went to Grantham for a discussion of the final Operation Order.…

Ralph Alexander Cochrane, son of a Scottish baron, graduated from the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and joined the airship branch of the Royal Naval Air Service. As a sub-lieutenant, he met Barnes Wallis at Vickers, Barrow, in 1916, and subsequently qualified as an airship pilot before gaining a permanent commission in the RAF. In 1920, in Cairo, he encountered Sir Hugh Trenchard, Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), who advised him “the future is in aeroplanes, young man”. Cochrane served as Squadron Leader A.T. Harris’s flight commander in Mesopotamia during Imperial Policing and subsequently commanded 8 Squadron. In April 1937, as a group captain he was appointed first Chief of Staff to the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Returning to Britain, after spells at the Air Ministry, as an air…

A former RAF Halton apprentice, later commissioned as a pilot, Harold Vivian Satterly gained a DFC with 83 Squadron in the Second World War before becoming Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at Headquarters No. 5 Group. On 27 March 1943, he issued Gibson with “most secret” written orders, which forecast that the operation would require “low-level navigation over enemy territory in moonlight with a final approach to the target at 100 feet (30 metres) at a precise speed, which will be about 240mph (262kph)”. In training, “it will be convenient to practise over water,” and be able to drop a “mine” within 40 yards (37 metres) of a specified point. Six weeks later, Group Captain Satterly drew up the Operation Order for the attack itself in “my own fair hand”.…

Born in London, son of a British father and an American mother, Henry Melvin “Dinghy” Young spent his early years in the USA and would marry a Californian, but he was educated at Westminster School and rowed for Oxford in the 1938 boat race. After joining the RAF, he flew two bomber tours and was twice shot down over the sea, but survived in a dinghy, hence his nickname. In March 1943, already holding the DFC & Bar, he commanded C Flight No. 57 Squadron at RAF Scampton, which was posted across the station to 617 Squadron. Young became Gibson’s senior flight commander and stood in when the OC was absent; he was “a fantastic administrator” according to Pilot Officer G. Rice. Young was the fourth pilot to attack the…

The son of a Royal Navy writer and born in Portsmouth, Geoff Rice grew up in Hinckley, Leicestershire, before enlisting in the RAF in 1941. He qualified as a pilot, was commissioned in February 1942 and flew a tour with Coastal Command on Whitleys. Converting to Lancasters, in February 1943, he joined 57 Squadron at Scampton and had undertaken only eight operations, when posted to 617 Squadron on 26 March 1943. Between 1 April and 14 May, Rice flew 26 training flights. Detailed to attack the Sorpe Dam, he took off at 21:31 on 16 May only to lose Upkeep when his Lancaster clipped the water at low level after crossing the Frisian Islands. Landing at Scampton again at 00:46 on 17 May, Rice felt “very depressed” at having made…

Ken William Brown was a Canadian, who enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1940. After pilot training Brown flew Whitley bombers on Coastal Command maritime operations, then went to a Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU). After that, he flew 13 Bomber Command operations in Lancasters with 44 Squadron before being posted in March 1943 to 617 Squadron. Brown insisted that he did not volunteer and had never met Gibson, but believed that his instructor at the HCU, Flight Lieutenant “Mick” Martin, recommended him. On arrival at Scampton, and having surveyed the array of experienced crews, his wireless operator suggested that they must be at the rear end of the spine of the squadron. During Operation Chastise, Brown’s was the only aircraft of the Third Wave to attack the…

On the morning after the raid the BBC made the following announcement: “This is London. The Air Ministry has just issued the following communique. In the early hours of this morning, a force of Lancasters of Bomber Command led by Wing Commander GP Gibson DSO DFC attacked with mines the dams of the Möhne and Sorpe reservoirs … (which) control two-thirds of the storage capacity of the Ruhr Basin.” The announcer added that the Eder Dam further east, “which controls the head waters of the Weser and Fulda valleys” had also been attacked. Already, Air Vice-Marshal Cochrane had signalled Gibson from Grantham: “All ranks in 5 Group join me in congratulating you and all in 617 Squadron on a brilliantly conducted operation.” From Coastal Command, its commander, who as an…

617 Squadron’s summary of the Dams Raid identified the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams as “primary targets”, and Lister, Ennepe (mistyped as Ennerpe) and Diemel as “alternative targets”. Third Wave aircraft were briefed to attack the latter three, but would only do so after receiving “direct orders in the air”. Otherwise, they were to proceed to the Möhne and Eder dams. The positions and numbers of flak guns at the Möhne are slightly inaccurate, but two “successful attacks” there – by Young and Maltby – and on the Eder by Shannon and Knight – are confirmed. Ottley’s loss near Hamm is wrongly attributed to Young and Rice’s Upkeep did not explode as believed.…

On 18 May, newspapers made full use of the before and after reconnaissance photos, as the Daily Mirror (below) demonstrates. The paper correctly reported that Gibson “flew up and down alongside the dam to draw the fire of the light anti-aircraft guns on it,” but fancifully added that “guns were poking out of slots in the wall”. The Daily Mail printed two diagrams of areas supposedly affected below the Möhne and Eder dams under the caption, “Devastated – by Water”. The Times quoted anonymously “a flight lieutenant”, “a pilot” and “a sergeant” concerning their experiences during the raid. Provincial newspapers like the Lincolnshire Echo, Portsmouth Evening News and Exeter Express and Echo elaborated the news. The New York Times covered the operation extensively and, from Moscow, Reuter’s special correspondent cabled…

Gibson’s First Wave and later Third Wave aircraft would fly via Southwold across the North Sea to the Scheldt estuary, then on to the Rhine before skirting the Ruhr towards the Möhne Dam. Second Wave Lancasters bound for the Sorpe (red line) would negotiate the North Sea to the Frisian Islands, fly over the Ijsselmeer (Zuider Zee) to join the First Wave route at the Rhine. Targets X (Möhne), Y (Eder) and Z (Sorpe) are all identified. The route Gibson’s aircraft would take from the Eder to the Sorpe, if any unused Upkeeps were available, is also marked. The exit routes are depicted in green, red and black with return arrows.…

A regular army officer, Hugh Montague Trenchard served in India, the Boer War (where he was severely wounded in one lung) and Nigeria. Aged 39, he learnt to fly and was posted to the Royal Flying Corps Central Flying School, where as a lieutenant-colonel he became assistant commandant and acquired the nickname “Boom” for his loud mode of address. In November 1914, he led the RFC’s First Wing in France, and the following year took command of the whole RFC on the Western Front, practising the aggressive use of air power. Advancing to major-general, he was appointed KCB in January 1918. Briefly the first Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) to the newly-created RAF, in June 1918 Trenchard took command of the Independent Bombing Force in eastern France, with the…

By the Armistice, single-engine bombers like the DH4 and twin-engine machines such as the Handley Page 0/100 and Handley Page 0/400, which had been the mainstay of the Independent Bombing Force, were ready to give way to heavier machines. Specifications for a long-range bomber, powered by four 375hp engines with a top speed of 90mph (145kph), A crew of five to seven, a bomb-load of 7,500lbs (3,400kg) and up to five machine-guns, had already been drawn up. The Handley Page V/1500 (pictured above, near Dunkirk in April 1918, note the exposed gunner forward of the engines), was designed to meet these requirements, flew in May 1918. With a service ceiling of 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) and six hours endurance, it had the ability to bomb Berlin from England, and three…

William Sholto Douglas abandoned his studies at Lincoln College Oxford in 1914 to join the Royal Field Artillery, then the Royal Flying Corps and ultimately commanded a squadron on the Western Front. He obtained a commission in the Royal Air Force and in 1938, as an air vice-marshal, was Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. On 26 July, he chaired a critical meeting of the Air Ministry’s Bombing Committee, which discussed Bomber Command’s conclusion that “as targets, reservoirs and dams are worth the expenditure of a considerable effort”. In opening the proceedings, Douglas referred to these targets as the enemy’s “Achilles’ Heel”. After listening to a succession of experts underlining the importance of the targets and suggesting ways of breaching the dams, Douglas observed that to achieve the necessary accuracy,…

The Möhne Dam (Target X), the largest and most important dam associated with the Ruhr, held back 175 million cubic yards (134 million cubic metres) of water and was situated seven miles (11 kilometres) south of Soest, 26 miles (42 kilometres) east of Dortmund. It lay where the Möhne and Heve rivers converged into the reservoir and water beyond the equalising basin behind the dam flowed down a narrow valley to meet the Ruhr river at Neheim-Huesten eight miles (13 kilometres) away. A triangular-shaped gravity dam, the Möhne was 132 feet (40.3m) high, 2,133 feet (650m) long, 112 feet (34m) wide at the base and 21 feet (6.25m) at the crest, along which a road ran. Two towers, covering access to the inspection galleries and machinery, were 639 feet (196m)…

Barnes Neville Wallis, the son of a doctor, was educated at Christ’s Hospital and trained as a marine engineer. In 1913, he joined the Vickers Airship Department and thereafter immersed himself in aeronautics. During the First World War, he was involved in designing naval airships, becoming chief designer of the commercial R100 airship after the war. In 1930, Wallis forsook airships to join Vickers Aviation at Weybridge as Assistant Chief Designer (Structures). He made use of his experience with geodetic construction in the R100 to help the Chief Designer, Rex Pierson, design the Wellesley and Wellington bombers, and during the Second World War he became responsible for the design of the Warwick and Windsor aircraft, neither of which were hugely successful. He achieved international fame, though, through his creation of…

William Henry Glanville achieved first class honours in civil engineering at East London College (now Queen Mary’s) in 1922, and subsequently obtained a PhD and DSc. After graduating, he joined the Building Research Station at East Acton, going with it to Garston in 1925. Eleven years later, Glanville transferred to the Road Research Laboratory at Harmondsworth as deputy director, becoming its director in 1939. Glanville was directly associated with Barnes Wallis’s big bomb concept from Autumn 1940, first agreeing to model tests at Harmondsworth, and then supporting those at Garston. He was also a member of the Air Attack on Dams Committee set up to monitor the progress of Wallis’s work. At an Air Ministry meeting on 5 May, Glanville pressed successfully for additional aerial reconnaissance to establish water levels…

Towards the end of the 1930s, twin engine monoplane bombers with enclosed cockpits, multiple machine-guns and internal bomb-bays came into service, encouraging a belief that the bomber could strike decisively at German industry. The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley was one of a new quartet, which included the Bristol Blenheim, Handley Page Hampden and Vickers Wellington. Powered by two 1,145hp Merlin X engines, with a crew of five, the Whitley was armed with six machine-guns, had an operational range of 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres),a ceiling of 26,000 feet (7,900 metres) and a top speed of 230 mph (370 kph) at 17,000 feet (5,200 metres). 70 feet 6 inches (21.5 metres) long, with a wing-span of 84 feet (25.5 metres) it carried a bomb load of 7,373lbs (3,344kg). Once war was declared and…

Extracts from Wallis’s first scheme contained in A Note on a Method of Attacking the Axis Powers, completed in March 1941. This 117-page document included extensive illustrations (some of which can be seen here), and explained Barnes Wallis’s idea for a 10-ton bomb released at 40,000 feet (12,000 metres) from a six-engine Victory bomber against ground or water-related targets. He argued that striking “surface targets” like factories with “relatively small bombs” was hopeless. A large, deep-penetration bomb burrowing beneath the sources of power, like coal-mines, oil storage tanks and reservoirs, would have a much more decisive impact. The Möhne Dam provided an example of its performance against a large dam.…

Towards the close of 1940, while tests were taking place on 1/50th scale models of the Möhne Dam at Harmondsworth and Garston, the search began for a suitable dam on which to experiment with scaled charges intermediate between the models and the target dam. Close to Rhayader in Wales, the disused Nant-y-Gro dam (35 feet (10.7 metres) high, 180 feet (54.8 metres) long was located, and negotiations conducted with the Birmingham Water Company, involving financial compensation for damage inflicted upon it. No tests on the dam, roughly one fifth the size of the Möhne, took place in 1941, but 1/10th models of it in layered concrete (so that results could be compared with those from the 1/50th scale models of the Möhne) were built at Harmondsworth. Collins exploded small charges…

On the rear patio of his home, White Hill House in Effingham, Barnes Wallis began experiments, which would culminate in Upkeep, the “bouncing bomb”. Following demonstration by the Road Research Laboratory scientist A.R. Collins that a charge exploded against a dam wall would breach it, Wallis explained: “I had the idea of a missile, which … would reach the dam in a series of ricochets”. He envisaged a spherical weapon and needed to establish consistency of performance (“The Law of Ricochet”) and whether a sphere would bounce or sink. In April 1942, with the help of his four children, he fired marbles from a catapult on to the surface of a water-filled tub, and satisfied himself that the principle was sound. Had these initial tests failed, the Dambusters Raid might…

To gain support for use of his bouncing bomb, Barnes Wallis approached individual RAF staff officers. These are explanatory sketches for Captain C.E.H. Verity. The image top left shows Upkeep in position before being released, the image top right shows it being back-spun. Below is the weapon in its planned shape and an illustration of how the flattened sphere would bounce towards the Möhne Dam, crawl down its face and explode 30 feet (9 metres) below the surface of the water. Note how the height of the bounce decreases as the bomb approaches the Dam.…

On 4 December 1942, Vickers’ test pilot Captain J. “Mutt” Summers flew Wellington BJ895/G, a modified machine with the bomb-bay doors removed and apparatus installed to hold, spin and release a half-scale 4ft 6ins (11-cm) diameter spherical bomb, to the Chesil Beach bombing range in Dorset for dropping trials. With a camera on the ground recording the east-towest flight, two welded spheres were dropped and burst on impact. Reinforced with granulated cork and cement, two more spheres (one dimpled, one smooth) were released on 15 December from 60 feet (18 metres) after Summers had dived at top speed. This time, and for all subsequent trials, a camera was carried on board to supplement the ground one. One sphere was found to be damaged, but not broken. On 9 January 1943,…

Commander Charles Worthington Craven (left) served in the Royal Navy during the First World War before being released to supervise the construction of submarines and naval airships at Vickers in Barrow in 1916. Aged 47, in 1931 he was appointed managing director of Vickers-Armstrong, the vast armaments firm formed four years earlier, and from January 1936 until his death in 1944 he served as company chairman. His energy and business sense steered the company though the recession, to be ready for the rearmament programme. A powerful presence, he “attracted a kind of loyalty in the yards and workshops, which no one else in the history of the company had ever achieved.” But he remained “a naval officer to his fingertips,” as Barnes Wallis discovered in February 1943 when Craven told…

Barnes Wallis originally envisaged a near-spherical steel weapon 7ft 6ins (229cm) in diameter with flattened poles, so that it could be clamped and spun beneath an aircraft. However, the Ministry of Supply estimated a two-year delay before the necessary steel could be guaranteed. That is why Wallis settled on a smaller, 3/8-inches (95-mm) thick steel cylinder to contain the charge, the full size being achieved by placing packing round it and “great staves of wood” secured by metal bands sunk in grooves to keep that in place. The steel cylinders and exterior wooden casings would be produced at Vickers-Armstrong’s factories, the cylinders being sent to Royal Ordnance works at Chorley for live filling, and Woolwich Arsenal for inert filling destined for practice weapons. Cylinders and wooden casings were to be…

Joseph Charles McCarthy, generally known as “Joe”, was an American citizen, who before Pearl Harbor crossed the Canadian border to enlist in the RCAF, and wore twin shoulder flashes “USA” and “Canada”. He was physically tall with a commanding personality. Intensely loyal to his crew, on arrival at Scampton he persuaded Gibson to grant its members four days’ leave so that the bomb-aimer, Sergeant G. Johnson, could get married. Johnson later expressed his deep gratitude to McCarthy for bringing him back from 40 operations “without a scratch”. McCarthy was justifiably meticulous about the maintenance of his aircraft, as one NCO later observed: “Joe McCarthy frightened me. If there was anything wrong he always held the electrical NCO responsible – and would seek him out for retribution the second he landed.”…

The last trials at Chesil Beach took place on 8–9 March, before the scene moved to the north Kent coast. Two of the modified Lancasters flew to RAF Manston. From there, trials would take place to determine “the range and the trajectory of the large store (Upkeep) with particular reference to the heights and speed considered suitable by the Air Staff”. The aircraft would fly east to west parallel to the shore across Reculver Bay, which was dominated by the twin towers of an old Norman abbey church on a promontory. Captains J. “Mutt” Summers and R.C. Handasyde (Vickers-Armstrongs’ test pilots), Squadron Leader M.V. Longbottom (on secondment to that firm) and Captain H.A. “Sam” Brown (Avro test pilot) would carry out the trials. Using the Wellington from Chesil Beach, on…

During the second week of May, with the 19 May time limit for Operation Chastise imminent, 617 crews began to practise at the Reculver Bay bombing range off the north Kent coast. Like the test pilots shortly before them, on 11 May three 617 crews (including Gibson’s), flying inland from the Thames estuary, attacked at right-angles flags attached to poles beneath the promenade simulating the Möhne towers. More crews did so the following day and, on 13 May, Gibson reported that the Squadron had executed “several successful drops” with inert-filled Upkeeps, and had experienced “no difficulty” in maintaining “the correct height of 60 feet”. On 14 May, 617 crews again dropped practice Upkeeps at Reculver, and Wallis praised their ability “to put stores (Upkeeps) on the beach with remarkable accuracy.”…

This final version was distributed on the morning of the raid. It outlined reasons for the operation, and emphasised that the Sorpe was next in importance to the Möhne Dam, as the Eder was not connected with the Ruhr. Twenty attacking aircraft were still envisaged with the Third Wave comprising six Lancasters. It noted that destruction of the Möhne “might require three effective attacks”, and provision was made for the remaining First Wave machines to then attack the Eder and Sorpe dams. Overall details of the attacks were supplemented by specialised appendices (not shown), though the inward route for the First and Second waves would be modified during a Squadron conference at Scampton late on 15 May. (See also Item 1 – Official map showing the planned routes to and…

John Nicholas Haworth Whitworth, known as “Charles”, lost his father in action during the First World War. After Oundle School, he attended RAF Cranwell and was subsequently attached to the Oxford University Air Squadron, where he taught Leonard Cheshire to fly. Early in the Second World War, he flew Whitleys and Halifaxes, before commanding successively 78 and 35 Squadrons, gaining a DFC & Bar and DSO. In March 1943, he was station commander of RAF Scampton, when Squadron X (617 Squadron) formed there. Whitworth was present when Air Vice-Marshal Cochrane asked Gibson to do one more “no ordinary sortie”, and it was to him that Gibson made regular reports on the progress of his squadron’s training. With Air Chief Marshal Harris and Air Vice-Marshal Cochrane, he greeted Flight Sergeant Townsend’s…

This extract shows that Gibson first flew with his crew on 1 April 1943. Entries were evidently not made immediately, leading to some confusion. For example, that for 9 April should read “base … base”, and the “Maggie” (Miles Magister) reference is garbled. Gibson probably did fly down to Manston for Upkeep trials on 11 April, but crashed on 13 April on the way back. Entries indicate that, owing to observing trials off Reculver and attending various other meetings, Gibson and his crew undertook only 11 cross-country or dummy attack flights before Operation Chastise, and dropped just one practice Upkeep at Reculver on 11 May.…

In their post-operational questionnaires, Gibson and Maltby confirmed two breaches in the Möhne Dam (by Young and Maltby), which left a gap larger than expected through which the torpedo nets were dragged and beached on the side of the compensating basin beyond the dam. Two power stations, one with 4,800kW capacity below the wall and the other with 300kW capacity on the edge of the basin, were demolished, and the 20-ton turbine from the former washed downstream. 152 million cubic yards (116 million cubic metres) from the 172.9 million cubic yards (132.2 million metres) contained by the dam flowed out of the reservoir in 12 hours. So swift was the initial outflow that water from feeder ponds above the dam could not escape quickly enough, which damaged retaining dykes. The…

In addition to the normal questions from an intelligence officer (seated, left), each pilot had to complete a special questionnaire. He had to describe visibility at the target, the number and height of Upkeep’s bounces, the number of revolutions per minute at which the weapon was spun, the explosion itself and damage to the target, the effectiveness of the control system at the target and value of 100 per cent tracer. Shannon, Flight Lieutenant Maltby and Flight Sergeant Townsend were among those to enthuse about the routes, which were “easy to map read”. Opinion on 100 per cent tracer was decidedly mixed, though. Gibson thought it “perfect for this job”, Maltby “no trouble and easier to aim”. But Pilot Officer Knight had reservations, claiming that it dazzled his gunners. Similarly…

The Todt Organisation assumed responsiblity for immediate repairs to the Möhne Dam, where approximately 23,000 cubic yards (17,600 cubic metres) of “cyclopean rubble masonry of the same type as the original construction” plugged the gap. On the air side, a deep hole scoured as water escaped from the reservoir was filled with a block of about 13,000 cubic yards (9,900 cubic yards) to give additional support to the base of the dam. This work had been completed by 23 September, and a celebratory party duly took place on 2 October. Besides the military defences already deployed, during the winter thoughts turned to further passive provisions to frustrate another low-level air attack. In addition to pylons set on each side of the reservoir with cables slung low between them and netting…

Analysis of the post-operational reconnaissance photos indicates that water was splashed over the top of the wall, that the crest was damaged over 200 feet (61 metres) and the concrete core of the dam was exposed. On closer inspection, “two distinct cavities” are apparent, proving accurate Upkeep releases were made by the two attacking aircraft. However, the report notes that the structure was “not sufficiently damaged to cause complete destruction”, and that there was evidence that repair work was already underway. The attached diagrams illustrate these conclusions.…

AVRO LANCASTER (1943-46) Considered to be the best British heavy bomber of World War II, the Lancaster could carry 14,000 pounds of conventional drop bombs and the massive 22,000-pound ‘Grand Slam’ bombs. With a crew of seven, eight Browning machine guns for self-defence and four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, the Lancaster was a fearsome aircraft. AVRO LINCOLN (1946-52) The Lincoln was Avro’s post-war answer to the Lancaster, and outwardly appeared to be an enlarged version of its predecessor, with striking similarities including the same number of crew, engines and bomb capacity. However, it had a reduced number of machine guns and increased speed, range and ceiling. ENGLISH ELECTRIC CANBERRA (1952-55) The Canberra was 617’s first jet-powered aircraft and was a strike-minded medium bomber. Initially designed to replace the De Havilland Mosquito, it…

Born in 1920, Lawrence ‘Benny’ Goodman joined the RAF in 1940 and joined 617 Squadron in 1944 as a pilot with the rank of flight lieutenant. He took part in 30 operations with the squadron, attacking everything from U-boat and E-boat pens to viaducts, railway bridges, dams, battleships and even Hitler’s infamous ‘Eagle’s Nest’. He left the RAF in 1964 as a squadron leader. Now in his mid-90s, he recalls his extraordinary flying experiences. WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE IN ATTACKS ON THE TIRPITZ IN OCTOBER 1944? It was rather small, from about 20,000 feet. As far as the pilot was concerned, the bomb aimer dictated your course. Once we had started the run in, he controlled you as he was focused on the target. He adjusted my course from his…