"The Dambusters" - 617 Squadron ( history )

For those of you that do not know about the Dambusters, they were a World War Two Lancaster squadron. Thanks to a British inventor ( Wallis) a special bomb was developed to destroy German dams. He had come up with the concept himself, and not as part of any military plan. In fact, he had to fight against the British military's indifference to this strange new idea. It took a while, and a lot of effort on his part to get the financing and attention he needed to test his idea out.

Ironically, in regards to my previous post - he had worked on the production of the R-100.

It worked brilliantly, and at a time where Britain was under great danger and needed every possible advantage it could get. The ability to destroy a German dam with a single bomb was unheard of, and yet Wallis had invented and proved that it could be done to the skeptics in the British military.

Here's how it worked, in an animation :



617 Squadron was given the job to use it. They trained to fly very low and fast over the night time countryside of England in heavy bombers, and the men actually contributed to the tactics and technique needed to deliver their bombs on target. Time was running out, as the bombs needed to be delivered when the waters in those German dams were at the maximum level in springtime for the best effect.

The nineteen planes took off on May 17th, 1943 - carrying one hundred and thirty three men aboard. They flew off into that pitch black night, across the sea and over the Netherlands towards their targets deep inside Germany at a height of about one hundred feet - and at roughly two hundred and forty miles an hour, to avoid detection by German radar.

The attacks were made at about sixty feet, at night and over the water, sometimes under intense enemy anti-aircraft fire.

Here's a short documentary on what that mission entailed :



They were a complete surprise to the Germans.

The Moehne and Eder lakes poured around 330 million tons of water into the western Ruhr region. Mines were flooded and houses, factories, roads, railways and bridges destroyed as the flood waters spread for around 50 miles (80 km) from the source. Estimates show that before 15 May 1943 water production on the Ruhr was 1 million tonnes, which dropped to a quarter of that level after the raid.

The attack had a limited tactical success, but was a great blow to German moral. The raid had proved costly for the Allies as well. Eleven planes of the initial nineteen made it back to their bases in Britain.

In all, 53 of the 133 aircrew were killed and three bailed out to be made POWs.

617 Squadron didn't stop there though. They became one of the best trained air units in the world, and their members came from many nations.

The pinpoint accuracy, and the methods they developed in bombing were the basis for a new concept in the art of air warfare . On many occasions , they were able to bomb important targets, and seldom caused civilian deaths. Once, they bombed a French factory ( again at night), and destroyed it. The factory cafeteria, filled with workers was untouched.

Another invention was developed by Willis, a ten ton bomb so large that the bomb bay doors of the Lancaster's had to be removed to even carry it. They could not be left loaded on the planes when they were on the ground for very long, because their enormous weight would damage the tires and landing gear if they were.

One German secret weapons program, was eliminated by just such a weapon. On the Pas De Calais, the V3 ( a super gun targeted at London) was almost ready to begin operations. It was a cannon that could rain down a continual barrage on the British capital from an impregnable fortress dug deep into the soil of the French coastline.

Secret plans were being drawn up for the evacuation of the entire population of London, unless it could be destroyed. The only thing between that evacuation and destruction of London was 617 Squadron and it's " Tall Boy " bombs.

Five hundred feet down, in a heavily concrete protected structure, the German scientists and military men running the site thought they were safe. Against any normal attack, they would have been.

But 617 Squadron and their "earthquake bombs" were something they could not have even imagined. Ten ton bombs, dropped from incredible heights, they were traveling at near supersonic speed when they drilled themselves over one hundred feet into the French soil above their heads.

The effect was like a small localized earthquake, devastating to anything nearby.

The men inside that fortress are still buried there today. It took only a few bombs to finish off the site forever.

They also dropped radar chaff on the night of D-Day, which took incredible planning and accuracy. The Germans thought that two large fleets were at sea.

They also sunk the Tirpitz, a German ship that was taking a lot of naval power to box in, in a fjord in Norway.

I believe that no other single unit in WW2 did as much to shorten the war as did 617 Squadron. In doing so, they lost many men. It was an all volunteer group, and the men knew they had little chance to survive in the long run, and yet they trained, fought, and played hard.

617 Squadron still flies today, and it took part in Desert Storm. The legacy of the brave men that formed that first squadron continues to this day.

When I get to the Netherlands, one place I plan to visit is the grave of Guy Gibson, in Steenbergen-en-Kruisland R.C. Churchyard, Holland. He was the squadron leader, and the holder of a Victoria Cross when he was killed in action late in the war.