Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943. Max Hastings

in 1944. (Imperial War Museum/CH 13618)

      Gibson with Nigger. (Associated Newspapers/Rota/Shutterstock)

      Gibson, Spafford, Hutchison, Deering and Taetum at Scampton. (CNP Collection/Alamy)

      Bill Astell and his family on a pre-war outing in Derbyshire. (Ray Hepner)

      Gibson with Dave Maltby. (CNP Collection/Alamy)

      Australian crew members on leave in London after the raid. (Imperial War Museum/CH 9942)

      F/Lt. Bill Astell. (Lincolnshire County Council Archives)

      F/Lt. Joe McCarthy and his crew. (CNP Collection/Alamy)

      P/O John Fraser at his wedding, a week before Chastise. (Cavendish Press)

      F/Lt. David Shannon. (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty)

      F/Lt. Les Munro.

      The aircrew who took part in Operation Chastise. (Imperial War Museum/CH 11049)

      Lancaster taking off from Scampton for Chastise. (Imperial War Museum/CH 18006)

      Wreck of a 617 Squadron Lancaster on a Dutch beach. (The National Archives/AIR 20/4367)

      Harris and Cochrane at the debriefing of Gibson’s crew. (CNP Collection/Alamy)

      WAAF intelligence officer Fay Gillon with survivors of the raid, including Maltby, Munro, Trevor-Roper and Shannon. (Fay Gillon)

      King George VI at Scampton, with Gibson and Whitworth. (CNP Collection/Alamy)

Some of the survivors of the raid: Sutherland, Kellow, O’Brien, Hobday, Johnson, Knight, Grayston.

      Fred Tees, sole survivor of C-Charlie’s crash. (Tees family)

      Letter from Gibson to Tees’s mother, informing her that her son is missing in action. (Tees family)

      Flooding in Neheim after the raid. (Werner Buehner)

      Victims of the flood in Fröndenberg.

      Women attempting to salvage household goods after the Möhnekatastrophe.

      Albert Speer assessing the damage at the Möhne. (akg-images/Alamy)

      Reconstruction work on the Möhne. (Werner Buehner)

      Harris with his wife and daughter after the war. (Imperial War Museum)

      Barnes Wallis at Teddington during the filming of The Dam Busters. (SWNS)

      Wallis with Michael Redgrave, who played him in The Dam Busters. (Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy)

Epigraph

      Boffin/bofin/n.chiefly Br. informal, a scientific expert; esp. one involved in technological research [origin unknown]

       Longman’s Dictionary of the English Language

      ‘It is proposed to use this weapon … against a large dam in Germany which, if breached, will have serious consequences in the neighbouring industrial area … The operation … will not, it is thought, prove particularly dangerous, but it will undoubtedly require skilled crews … Some training will no doubt be necessary.’

      Air Vice-Marshal Robert Oxland, Bomber Command HQ, to Air Vice-Marshal Ralph Cochrane, AOC 5 Group, on 17 March 1943

      ‘One thing,’ said Dim, ‘if we do go and attack … one of us might possibly get a posthumous VC.’

      ‘Who wants that?’ said Taffy.

      ‘Not me,’ said one of the boys. ‘All I want is a Peace and Victory Medal.’

      Most of us agreed.

      Guy Gibson, Enemy Coast Ahead

      After Hollywood mogul Daryl Zanuck was shown the movie The Dam Busters in 1955, he demanded disbelievingly, ‘Is that a true story?’ Yes, he was told. ‘Then why doesn’t it say so?’

RAF Ranks and Army Equivalents

      Marshal of the RAF – Field-Marshal

      Air Chief Marshal (ACM) – General

      Air Marshal (AM) – Lieutenant-General

      Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) – Major-General

      Air Commodore (A/C) – Brigadier

      Group-Captain (Gp. Capt.) – Colonel

      Wing-Commander (W/Cdr.) – Lieutenant-Colonel

      Squadron-Leader (S/Ldr.) – Major

      Flight-Lieutenant (F/Lt.) – Captain

      Flying Officer (F/O) – Lieutenant

      Pilot Officer (P/O) – Subaltern

      Flight-Sergeant (F/Sgt.) – Warrant Officer

      Sergeant (Sgt.) – Sergeant

      Corporal (Cpl.) – Corporal

      Leading Aircraftman (LAC) – Lance-Corporal

      Aircraftman (AC) – Private

      Air Officer Commanding (AOC)

      Ranks attributed to personnel mentioned in the text are those held at the time of incidents or conversations described.

Abbreviations Used in the Text

      AOC – Air Officer Commanding

      ATS – Auxiliary Territorial Service; women’s branch of the army

      CAS – Chief of the Air Staff; head of the RAF

      C-in-C – Commander-in-Chief

      CO – Squadron commanding officer

      Gee – Electronic navigation aid, detecting a grid of radio signals transmitted from the UK, fitted to all Bomber Command aircraft but jammed by the Germans over continental Europe

      HCU – Heavy Conversion Unit

      IFF – Identification Friend or Foe: electronic radar-pulse identification device fitted to all British aircraft

      MAP – Ministry of Aircraft Production

      MEW – Ministry of Economic Warfare

      OTU – Operational Training Unit

      RAAF – Royal Australian Air Force

      RAFVR – Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

      RCAF – Royal Canadian Air Force

      RNZAF – Royal New Zealand Air Force

      SASO – Senior Air Staff Officer; comparable to an army or divisional commander’s chief of staff

USAAF – United States Army Air Force

      WAAF – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force; thus a woman serving at an RAF station would be described as a ‘Waaf’

      w/op – Wireless-operator

      Narrative of operations uses a twenty-four-hour clock, while the twelve-hour civilian clock is used for other timings.

      Bomber Command in February 1943 comprised around two thousand aircraft including trainers – the number varied daily, and significantly fewer were immediately serviceable – of which six hundred were ‘heavies’. Each of seven operational Groups was commanded by an air vice-marshal, and contained variously five to ten squadrons. A squadron was composed of eighteen to twenty-four aircraft, confusingly led by a wing-commander, and subdivided into two or three flights, each commanded