Dambuster

Operation Chastise: The Dambusters raid

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Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more damaged. Factories and mines were also damaged and destroyed.

An estimated 1, civilians — about Germans and 1, mainly Soviet forced labourers — died. Despite rapid repairs by the Germans, production did not return to normal until September. Before the Second World War , the British Air Ministry had identified the industrialized Ruhr Valley , and especially its dams, as important strategic targets.

Calculations indicated that attacks with large bombs could be effective but required a degree of accuracy which RAF Bomber Command had been unable to attain when attacking a well defended target. A one-off surprise attack might succeed but the RAF lacked a weapon suitable to the task. The mission grew out of a concept for a bomb designed by Barnes Wallis, assistant chief designer at Vickers. At first, Wallis wanted to drop a 10 long ton 22, lb , No bomber aircraft was capable of flying at such an altitude or of carrying such a heavy bomb.

A much smaller explosive charge would suffice, if it exploded against the dam wall under the water but German reservoir dams were protected by heavy torpedo nets to prevent a horizontal approach. Wallis devised a drum-shaped bomb, equivalent to a heavy depth charge armed with a hydrostatic fuse, that would be spun backwards at over rpm.

If dropped at the right low altitude at the correct speed and from the release point, the bomb would skip across the surface of the water before hitting the dam wall.

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The residual spin would submerge the bomb, running it down the side of the dam toward its base. Testing of the concept included blowing up a plaster model dam at the Building Research Establishment , Watford, in May and then the breaching of the disused Nant-y-Gro dam in Wales in July. The first trials were at Chesil Beach in January , which demonstrated that a bomb of sufficient size could be carried by an Avro Lancaster , rather than waiting for a larger bomber such as the Windsor to come into service.

Sir Arthur Harris , head of Bomber Command, after a briefing by Linnell also opposed the allocation of his bombers. Portal saw the film of the Chesil Beach trials and was convinced.

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With eight weeks to go, the larger Upkeep bomb that was needed for the mission and the modifications to the Lancasters had yet to be designed. The operation was given to No. It was initially called Squadron X, as the speed of its formation outstripped the RAF process for naming squadrons. Led by year-old Wing Commander Guy Gibson , a veteran of more than bombing and night-fighter missions, twenty-one bomber crews were selected from 5 Group squadrons.

The loss of hydroelectric power was important but the loss of water to industry, cities and canals would have greater effect and there was potential for devastating flooding if the dams broke. The dimensions of the bomb and its unusual shape meant that the bomb-bay doors had to be removed and the bomb hung partly below the fuselage.

It was mounted on two crutches and before dropping it was spun up to speed by an auxiliary motor. Intensive night-time and low-altitude flight training began. There were also technical problems to solve, the first one being to determine when the aircraft was at optimum distance from its target. A special targeting device with two prongs, making the same angle as the two towers at the correct distance from the dam, showed when to release the bomb. The BBC documentary Dambusters Declassified stated that the pronged device was not used, owing to problems related to vibration, and that other methods were employed, including a length of string tied in a loop and pulled back centrally to a fixed point in the manner of a catapult.

The second problem was determining the aircraft's altitude, as the barometric altimeters then in use lacked sufficient accuracy. Two spotlights were mounted, one under the aircraft's nose and the other under the fuselage , so that at the correct height their light beams would converge on the surface of the water.

Wallis's bomb itself was first tested at the Elan Valley Reservoirs. The squadron took delivery of the bombs on 13 May, after the final tests on 29 April.

At on 15 May, at a meeting in Whitworth's house, Gibson and Wallis briefed four key officers: Hopgood; and the squadron bombing leader, Flight Lieutenant Bob Hay. The rest of the crews were told at a series of briefings the following day, which began with a briefing of pilots, navigators and bomb-aimers at about midday.

Gibson, Hopgood and Flt Lt H. The mission codes transmitted in morse were: The aircraft used two routes, carefully avoiding known concentrations of flak , and were timed to cross the enemy coast simultaneously. The first aircraft, those of Formation No. Flight Sergeant George Chalmers, radio operator on "O for Orange" , looked out through the astrodome and was astonished to see that his pilot was flying towards the target along a forest's firebreak , below treetop level.

The first casualties were suffered soon after reaching the Dutch coast. Munro's aircraft lost its radio to flak and turned back over the IJsselmeer , while Rice [13] flew too low and struck the sea, losing his bomb in the water; he recovered and returned to base.

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Barlow and Byers crossed the coast around the island of Texel. Byers was shot down by flak shortly afterwards, crashing into the Waddenzee. The bomb was thrown clear of the crash and was examined intact by Heinz Schweizer. Hopgood's aircraft was hit by flak as it made its low-level run and was caught in the blast of its own bomb, crashing shortly afterwards when a wing disintegrated. Three crew members successfully abandoned the aircraft, but only two survived.

Subsequently, Gibson flew his aircraft across the dam to draw the flak away from Martin's run. Martin "P for Popsie" bombed third; his aircraft was damaged, but made a successful attack. Next, Young "A for Apple" made a successful run, and after him Maltby "J for Johnny" , when finally the dam was breached.

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The Eder Valley was covered by heavy fog but not defended. The tricky topography of the surrounding hills made the approach difficult and the first aircraft, Shannon's, made six runs before taking a break. Maudslay "Z for Zebra" then attempted a run but the bomb struck the top of the dam and the aircraft was severely damaged in the blast. Shannon made another run and successfully dropped his bomb. The final bomb of the formation, from Knight's aircraft "N for Nut" , breached the dam. The Sorpe dam was the one least likely to be breached. It was a huge earthen dam, unlike the two concrete-and-steel gravity dams that were attacked successfully.

The remaining aircraft still carrying bombs then continued on to the Eder dam, destroying it at 1. The other two waves of bombers targeted the Sorpe dam but failed to breach it. Of the 19 planes and men involved in the mission, eight aircraft were lost, 53 men were killed and a further three were taken prisoner. The attack badly damaged vital Nazi infrastructure, flooding the region and killing around 1, civilians in the process, the BBC says. Such was the importance of the dams that the Nazis set about rebuilding them immediately, sapping a large amount of resources.

Repair work concluded just four months later, leading some to question the effectiveness of the raid in the long term. The raid was portrayed in the film The Dam Busters , a classic of British cinema. Who were the Dambusters? He recalled hearing the loud bangs of the exploding, bouncing bombs in the distance, and then the roar of the wall of water.

The electricity failed and they were plunged into pitch darkness.

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His brother Paul leapt into action and carried Johannes outside, leaving him on the grass. Paul ran off, shouting: They put Johannes in a handcart and pulled him along with them to the safety of the high ground. In the moonlit valley below, Johannes could just make out the floating bodies, animals and debris, before the catastrophic scene was covered by fog. For years after, he would vividly recall the sound of trains crashing together at the station, of roofs collapsing, of pigs and children screaming.

One mother placed her 4 children on a barn door as a makeshift raft. It could not hold her weight too, so she swam in the floodwater alongside it. When her strength finally faded, she slipped under the water and drowned. When dawn broke, the waters retreated to reveal a scene of devastation: Every year on 17 May, villagers walk silently with torches to the ruins of Himmelpforten for an open-air memorial service.

The Niederense village museum displays some of the artefacts salvaged from the ruined monastery after the raid.

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