Operation Chastise - The Dam Busters Air Raid 16th May 1943.

The race to smash the Ruhr dams.

On the night of 16/17 May 1943 the RAF’s recently formed 617 Squadron carried out what was probably the most famous air raid of all time. A combination of the genius of Barnes Wallis and the astonishing courage and skill of the crews saw two major German dams breached and a third damaged, leading to loss and disruption to the Nazi war economy. Normally kept top secret, the aerial reconnaissance photos of the ruptured dams and consequent flooding were transmitted around the world, giving the Allies a major propaganda coup.

How was the technology for the raid developed? Was the raid worth the lives of the 53 aircrew who perished on the night? How accurate was the epic 1955 Dambusters movie?

Watch Harry Sherrard superb presentation about one of the greatest feats of arms of World War 2.

[mikeainsworth]

Nice presentation. For the 80th Anniversary for the raid I fulfilled a promise I made to Johnny Johnson (on the 78th Anniversary) and rode to the Dams. Starting at Gibson’s grave we rode over 1, 126km stopping at the memorials of all 8 aircraft the crashed and the graves of the aircrew that lost their lives. We visited all 4 dams attacked on the raid. Very moving emotionally and very impressive to see the approaches to the Dams (the approach to the Ennepe looks just as challenging as that for the Eder). There’s a summary video on my YouTube channel.

[ewancarmichael]

I think it was very thoughtful of the Germans to put towers at each side of the dams for the RAF to use for the bomb sights. 😁

Seriously though, thank you for a wonderful presentation. 👍

[fkoschnick]

A thorough and captivating presentation about one of Britain's great WWII exploits. Ranks right up there with "Sink The Bismarck", the evacuation of Dunkirk, the months' long defense London, and the many others. I now have an addition for an even greater appreciation for the British war effort, not that it was previously lacking in any sense of realization.

[ianrobertwhinnett]

Thanks for a very interesting lecture my father was a navigator and also instrukter he flew in Wellingtons and Lancasters!

[JemmaLara]

Went to the Mohne dam in the early 1970's... the repair was very evident. Was the high point of a young teenager's visit to Germany... along with a visit to the war cemeteries in Arnhem.

[johnheigis]

Yes... Wow...!
Outstanding!
Semper Fidelis...

[markschofield]

Congrats, a well researched talk on this amazing story of a brilliant scientist and brave airmen. Great presentation.

[lauriepocock]

in 1968 I was asked to make an an Airfix Lancaster fitted with the bouncing bomb for our local model shop. I worked with a draughtsman who had worked for Barnes Wallis and I asked him for details, but even then he would not tell me because it was still classified. What he did say was he made six copies of the drawings, two sent to the US and two sets sent to the USSR but the plane carrying them was shot down and he was sure the Germans recovered them and would have passed a copy to the Japanese, so everybody knew what it looked like but still, he would not tell me. |I had a ping pong ball but thought it was too big and a small cotton reel and decided to use that, but still, he said nothing.

[scaone]

There are two books well worth a read as they were written much closer to the actual raid. They are though restricted by censorship in existence at that time, one was actually written by the leader of the raid, Enemy Coast Ahead by Guy Gibson. The other, Paul Brickhill's The Dam Busters, part of which formed the basis of the famous movie. Paul was actually asked to write the book by the RAF as part of the history of 617 Squadron. A German author of the dams raid is the late Helmuth Euler who wrote Als Deutschlands Dämme brachen (When Germany's Dams Broke) and an English version The Dambuster Raid, A German View. This is well worth a read as it views the raid from the Germans viewpoint. I have a feeling that his book mentioned a few paragraphs about the capture of the three pow of the raid but it is many years since I read that book so forgive me if I am confusing it with another author.

[ajax]

Good talk. Particularly useful for detailing the effects of the raids, helping to counter the moronic parroting back and forth of the daft idea that the raids achieved nothing. Thanks.

[aussie]

I teach this to my students at every year level, it stands as the most remarkable mission in the history of warfare, technologically, human endeavour and resilience and pure bravery

[bangboats]

Excellent presentation, great use of factual information. The main thing that always baffled me was the lack of follow up. Attacks on german electricity in the Ruhr would have had a more profound effect on war production than bombing factories and ball bearing plants. Those were hard to destroy - the factories were just framework and sheetmetal - easily replaced. The machine tools and were hardened tool steel, resistant to all but a direct hit. But if they had thought to destroy the power to run those machines... a totally different war. Thank you SO much for this presentation.

[andyd]

Thank you, very much, this was a very informative presentation and answered a few question that I was not aware there were answers to.

[colinthomas]

Excellent presentation about an iconic raid carried out by such a brave group of men from the gratest of our generation.

[naguerea]

As a soldier in the 60's we spend some of the summer rowing across the Mohne Dam, marching through the night with no sleep and in general having a pretty good time, we came across the Van Doos, a Canadian bunch, who were very serious! Cirta Cito.

[kenstevens]

My late father was on Home AA defence during WW2 and was stationed to the Elan Valley after the dams raid to protect the area as it was the main water supply for Birmingham. I suspect this was because it was realised that an upkeep had been acquired by the Germans during the raid increasing the chances of a copy being used against us. It wouldn't have worked though if it was developed and used by them with forward spin! I don't know what air defences we had at Elan or the Derwent Valley dams before the dambusters raid.

[tripackdroned]

Great video, well done. Can I offer a few words of advice? With graphics containing text, the rule for time on screen is this. In the edit, read through the text at a slow pace 1 and a half times. This gives older viewers or slow readers the chance to read it through at leisure rather than missing the end of tex. I watched this at a reasonable pace and the fade-out began at least 2 lines too early. Best of luck.

[stoobydootoo]

Just a comment on the nightfighter issue - How could they use radar to track bombers, or even safely try to attack them while flying at very low levels at night?

[doc]

618 Sqn were based at Beccles in Suffolk, RAF Ellough, half a mile from me, where they practiced dropping Highball aiming at a large cross painted on the runway. I once spoke with a Mosquito navigator, a Glaswegian who I remember vividly said to me "Barnes Wallace, dunnie tak to me aboot Barnes Wallace." "To drop the damn thing we had to dive from high altitude, nose down, took all of us pulling on the controls to pull her out of the dive just to get enough speed to drop the thing" He said that politics came into the use of Highball against Turpitz, namely the Royal Navy, Turpitz was a navy target and the navy would deal with it. Don't know if there is any truth in that but he certainly thought so. 618 Sqn deployed to the far east and they never got to use Highball in anger

[stefansikora]

There is a controversy if that one bomber of the third wave bombed the Ennepe Dam or was lost in the fog and accidently bombed the Bever Dam which is about 15km away. The Ennepe was a secondary target for the third wave as well as the Lister Dam.