617 squadron dambusters

[sgt mason]

damb busters 617
617 Squadron, RAF, "The Dambusters" was a single squadron formed during the Second World War to carry out a single special and dangerous task. That operation "Chastise" has since become a legend in the annals of military history and it possess all the traditionally admired military attributes of originality, surprise and heroism coupled with a very dramatic outcome. Operation Chastise has in many ways overshadowed the later exploits of the men who formed the squadron.
Over the last few years some people have questioned the actions of Bomber Command and the actions taken to destroy the industrial and domestic centres of Germany during the Second World War. I myself, have taken a sideline to this question. I do not condone or sanction what Bomber Command did in its attempt to destroy the industry of Germany. I believe that the most dangerous thing on this planet is man, as soon as people start to attack each other, the animal instinct takes over. Each will try to outwit or kill one another singly or in bulk should the chance arise. To this end any aspect of war is bad.
People can pass comment on certain aspects of all wars but I do not believe it is right to criticise someone or something that they were not involved in or with. Modern information technology has made vast amounts of statistical and anecdotal evidence available to the historian but what sometimes gets lost in this mass of information is the immediacy and emotion caused by the raw fear of warfare. Normal reactions to events judged sitting in the arm chair by the fire side are not the same as those as when ones life and existance is tangibly at risk.
This website is a tribute to the personnel of and people associated 617 Squadron, "The Dambusters" primarily during the war years. It also serves as a tribute to all those of Bomber Command from whom the members of 617 Squadron were drawn, who served, fought, suffered or died during the Second World War.
Final briefing for the crews began at 6pm. Gibson introduced Barnes Wallis and gave the crews details of the targets and full details of the plans. The first wave of nine aircraft were destined for the Möhne, Sorpe and Eder dams and they would leave the grounds in three groups of three at 10 minute intervals. The second wave comprising five Lancasters would fly straight to the Sorpe whilst the third wave of five aircraft would take off 2½ hours later to act as a backup. In the event of aborts the Upkeeps were to be detonated and on no account bought back to base. The briefing took two hours and all crew came away with full details of their tasks for the night.
View the operational order in PDF format by following this link:
Details of the crews take off times and other information as it was recorded in the squadron operational record book after the raid are available in the . It should be remembered that the operational records book was compiled at the time and keeping accurate records was not the main concern. Consequently some of the names, ranks and other information is not always as accurate as it could be. In broad terms, it gives a good picture of the detail of the operation, with take off times, bombing times and landings. At 21:28 hours the first aircraft of the second wave (AJ-E) started its take off run. As the second wave was taking a northerly route to the targets they had a longer flight path and consequently left the ground before the first wave. Operation Chastise had begun.
All of the aircraft took a long time to leave the ground due to the extremely heavy loads. Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy in AJ-Q was not able however to take off. His pre-flight checks revealed a coolant leak in the number 4 engine and consequently the whole crew changed to one of the reserve aircraft AJ-T and suffered a 20 minute delay in doing so. At 21:39 Gibsons Lancaster took off. The first wave passed through the Balkan area they encountered heavy flak and intense searchlight activity. This caused Gibson to break radio silence and issue a flak warning which Five Group rebroadcast to all the aircraft shortly afterwards with a detailed position report. There was also heavy flak to the north of Hamme on the approach to the railway marshalling yards.
The second flight of three aircraft of the first wave also encountered flak near Dülmen. The last flight of the first wave encountered stronger headwinds and consequently they were slightly late as they crossed the Dutch boarder into Germany. AJ-B piloted by Flight Lieutenant W.Astell were flying as low as they could to avoid the flak and search lights, but hit high tension wires and pylons 4km from Marbech. The aircraft reared up in the air, burst into flames, but then crashed to the ground. Two minutes later the mine exploded and all seven crew were killed. Operation Chastise had claimed its first casualties.
Gibson arrived over the Möhne reservoir at 00:15 hours. The aircraft assembled in an anti-clockwise holding pattern 10 km?s south of Völlinghaussen whilst Gibson called AJ-B on the radio. Astell and his crew were already dead, but he did not know this. Gibson took a few moments to assess the target and its defences. It appeared to be as he had been briefed with three light flak batteries on the dam wall and three more in the valley. Gibson confirmed the attack would be carried out as planned by radio. Using the VHF radio Gibson assigned five of the remaining eight Lancasters to the attack. Gibson prepared for his run in, the weapon already having been spun up to speed. His Lancaster turned out of the holding pattern and directly towards the dam face over the landmark spit of land that guided the run in. His bomb was dropped and bounced three times before exploding against the dam face and throwing a vast column of water into the air. The bomb had struck approximately 150ft off the centre of the face of the dam.
Martin in AJ-P commenced his run with Gibson flying alongside in an attempt to draw away the heavy volumes of light flak coming from the dam. His bomb threw up a similar large plume of water, but again the dam held.
Squadron Leader Dingy Young took the fourth attack in AJ-A. Martin flew parallel with him and instructed his gunners to take on the flak towers to try and reduce the amount of light flak. The guns had been loaded with all daytime tracer ammunition which made the fire appear much heavier than it actually was. Gibson at the same time turned all of his lights on and flew over the dam from the south in a further attempt to draw the flak away. Again a tremendous plume of water but no break in the dam.
AJ-J piloted by Flight Lieutenant Maltby preceded his run for the fifth attack. Gibson and Martin flew alongside to take on the flak and Maltby?s bomb was perfectly placed. This time a plume of water shot to over 1,000ft into the air before collapsing back into the lake. The dam appeared intact and Gibson ordered Shannon to commence the sixth attack. Whilst this was happening the main wall of the dam collapsed revealing an enormous breach through which poured millions of gallons of water. All the anti aircraft fire, save that from one gun ceased and the code word for a successful breach of this dam ?Nigger? was transmitted to bomber command. The aircraft circled for a few minutes watching in awe as the torrent of water travelled down the valley, in some cases with the headlights of cars visibly being overwhelmed by the water and slowly turning green, then brown, before disappearing. The operation however had to continue.
Maltby and Martin then set course for home whilst the three aircraft still with their Upkeeps (AJ-L, AJ-Z and AJ-N) flew to the south east accompanied by Gibson towards the Eder reservoir. This was about 12 minutes flying time away. This journey was made without opposition although in the moonlight identification of the dam itself proved initially quite difficult. The approach to this target was difficult dropping down past Waldeck Castle into a valley flying towards the Hammerberg spit of land in the lake and then turning 90° left for a short run onto the dam face. The Lancasters started by circling into an anti-clockwise direction over Waldeck Castle and Shannon was given the task of the first attack.
AJ-L made three unsuccessful attempts to get the right position. Shannon was having problems achieving the required height and approach angle, so Gibson put him into a holding pattern and called Maudslay in AJ-Z. He also had tremendous problems getting into position and Gibson ordered him to hold off. He put Shannon back onto the task and he made two further attempts before on the third he was able to drop the Upkeep. It bounced twice and exploded south of the dam without producing any visible result whatsoever. Maudslay then came in again and he released his Upkeep during his second approach. He dropped his weapon slightly too late and it hit the crest of the dam and exploded with a brilliant flash lighting up the countryside for miles around. The explosion occurred right behind Maudslays Lancaster which had just crossed the crest of the dam, and Gibson tried to raise him on the VHF. Other crew members reported hearing a weak unnatural, almost dismembered voice in reply and at the time it was believed that Maudslay had crashed, his aircraft having been damaged by the blast. In practice, however he had struggled away with a damaged aircraft and started on the return journey, but he was shot down by light flak at 02:36 at Emmerich-Klein-Netterdn. Maudslay and all of his crew died.
AJ-N, piloted by Les Knight was then ordered to make its approach. The bomb bounced three times and struck the dam to the south of the centre and exploded with Gibson flying alongside to suppress the flak. The blast visibly shook the whole dam and then the central wall collapsed, allowing thousands of cubic yards of water to roar through the breach.
The Raid: Second Wave

The second wave of Lancasters (the first to take off) had much less luck than the first. They crossed the Dutch coast at almost the same time as the first way, but over the island of Texel AJ-W piloted by flight Leutentant John Munro came under light flak and lost all communication. Munro opted to abort and return to Scampton landing with his live mine on board (against orders). AJ-K was bought down on the cost of Texel at approximately 23:00 by what is believed to have been a lucky direct hit from a 10.5cm flak gun, depressed to its lowest level, the aircraft fell in the sea killing all of the crew. Remarkably the Upkeep from this aircraft exploded four weeks after the crash, causing much surprise to the local inhabitants.
Flying Officer Geoff Rice flying AJ-H misjudged his height and touched the sea. The aircraft was engulfed in water and whilst it managed to remain in the air the impact ripped the Upkeep off the bottom of the aircraft. Somehow Rice managed to keep the aircraft in the air and climb but as he did so the vast amount of water that had run into the fuselage all poured to the rear and ran out of the back almost drowning Sgt Burns, the rear gunner. The aircraft returned safely to Scampton following this adventure.
AJ-E, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Barlow also spent the first part of the flight hugging the ground. Unfortunately he hit an electricity pylon causing the aircraft to burst into flames and hit the ground a few hundred yards further on. The mine bounced free of the aircraft and in the morning was examined by German bomb disposal experts. Barlow and all of his crew died in the crash. Although the exact details of the Upkeep bomb were kept secret until well after the war, it is ironic that this bomb was thoroughly examined by German experts the following morning and by June 17th a report had been prepared by Albert Speer in his capacity as Generalinspekteur für Wasser und Energie which was sent to Herman Görring giving the following preliminary description:
"The cylindrical bomb has no stabilising fins. The diameter is 1270mm and the length is 1530mm. Each rim is secured with 30 bolts and strips of angle steel. The material used for the sides of the cylinder is 12.5mm thick whereas that used for the rims is 10mm thick. A high-explosive charge of some 2600kg is made up of 41.7% trinitroluol, 40.5% hexogen and 17.5% aluminium. The tubes for the three hydrostatic pistols, of the type used in anti-submarine depth-charges, each contain primer charges of 1820kg of Tetryl. The self-destruction charge (intended to prevent an unexploded bomb being recovered if falling on land) consists of 1255kg of Tetryl. "
Consequently four of the five aircraft that made up the second wave never made it to the Sorpe. American Flight Leiutenant Joe McCarthy flying AJ-T did make it however, despite the delay caused by the swap to the reserve aircraft. Visibility of the dam itself was good, but there was fog in the valleys surrounding the reservoir. Despite the good visibility McCarthy had problems with the run up as he found the spire of the village church was in the way of his turn for the bomb run. In the end he dropped the bomb without it rotating and by estimating the height as the reserve aircraft had not been fitted with the spotlight alter meter. McCarthy returned to Scampton with one tyre punctured by light flak. Things at the Sorpe dam then quietened down. It was not until almost two hours later that AJ-F with Flight Sergeant Ken Brown at the controls arrived at 03:00.
The fog that McCarthy had seen earlier had developed and despite flying across the dam (which was called for by the plan) his successful run was the same as at the Möhne, directly towards the waterside of the dam. The mine was released without spin and hit the target at almost the same spot as McCarthy's. The dam however appeared to hold and Brown turned for home flying over the Möhne dam and exchanging gun fire with one its gunners. Near Hamm the aircraft came under heavy flak fire but the aircraft returned home riddled with holes.
The Raid: Third Wave

The third wave followed a very similar course to the first wave. Approaching Hamm AJ-C was engaged by local 20mm gun fire. The starboard inner engine was quickly hit and burst into flame and the hydraulic system was knocked out. Sergeant Fred Tees who should have been the front gunner had changed places with Sergeant Harry Strange in the rear turret and he recalls that as the aircraft started its plunge to the ground Pilot Officer Warner Ottley, the pilot said over the intercom "I'm sorry boys, they got us". The aircraft then hit the ground. Remarkably the tail section broke away from the main part of the aircraft and was flung away from the immediate crash area. Tees managed to remove himself from the broken rear turret and was quickly taken prisoner.
Lancaster AJ-S flown by pilot officer Louis Burpee took off at the same time as Ottley. He drifted slightly off course over Holland and flew too close to the night fighter base Gilze-Rejen and although the flak defences did not have time to open up a single search light did dazzling the pilot who in an attempt to escape flew through some trees and then into the ground. The aircraft exploded, followed a few seconds later by the bomb. The aircraft struck the airfields MT section and also blew over the operations control building in the resulting explosion.
The Reasons

During the 1930s Adolf Hitler came to power in a politically fragmented and bankrupt Germany. During the following years it became apparent that Hitler was rebuilding Germany following the First World War and had military ambitions which made the country a threat to those about them and their allies. Most of the central European countries were catalysed (to varying degrees) by these developments and Great Britain commenced a late, but timely re-armament program.
It is fair to say that the operation to destroy the German dams in the Ruhr began on Tuesday July 26th 1938 at a meeting chaired by Air Vice Marshall W Sholto Douglas, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. This was a meeting of the RAF Bombing Committee and one of the main items on the agenda was to bring to the meetings attention, a potential weak point in the German industrial economy. This potential weakness was a number of reservoirs that supplied power and water to manufacturing industries which in the time of war would be turned over to war manufacture. The object of the meeting was to enquire into the extent to which effective air action against the Dams of the reservoirs until similar targets would be possible. Bombing Committee paper number 16 was circulated and this document described the types of construction and siting of the Dams along with notes on the potential damage that was caused by a number of the air dropped weapons then available. Squadron leader C G Burge representing the Air Targets Sub-Committee of Aerial Intelligence reported that the amount of water consumed in the whole of Germany was only three times that of the Ruhr and that the bulk of it was obtained from one large reservoir contained by a single large dam known as the Möhne Dam. He added that there were also four or five other reservoirs in Germany which fed the inland waterways. The destruction of which was likely to leave the waterways high and dry which would severely effect the German transportation system. It also seemed reasonable to believe that the damage caused would be extremely difficult to put right.
At this stage all discussion was about bombing the dams with existing weapons. The largest of these was then the 500lb semi-armour piercing bomb designed to be used against ships. When dropped from a sufficient height, it had penetrated in tests 5ft into concrete and the thickness of a dam at a depth of 40ft was estimated to be approximately 12ft. It was felt that if a bomb could be driven into the wall to a depth of 5ft, the remaining 7ft should be severely damaged or breached but no discussion was given to special weapons. It was recognised during the meeting that any bomb would be far more effective when placed on the wet side of the dam, rather than the dry side. The possible use of torpedos was also discussed. The final outcome of the meeting was that at the present time it is considered that the attack should be directed primarily against the high water side of the dam. Attack against the lower side is considered less likely to be effective unless a bomb can be devised that which will develop sufficient striking velocity to achieve the necessary amount of damage at low altitude.
The Dams Raid

Dams of the Ruhr Valley

Map from the front page of The daily Telegraph 18th May 1943
People today think that Barnes Wallis came up with the idea to destroy the dams of the Ruhr valley. This is not true; the Air Ministry had dicussed the matter back in 1938, just in case Germany went back on the war path. The committee laid down clear objectives should the matter arise.

1. Cut water supplies for industrial and domestic use.
2. Cause flooding and damage to industrial plants, railtracks and water ways in the valley.
3. Prevent sufficient supplies of water for use in the inland waterway systems.

The dams that were under discussion were the Mohne, Eder,Sorpe and the alternative sites of the Ennepe, Lister, and Diemel dams. The Mohne being the most important of them, the reason being this dam near Dortmund was a catchment type dam its role was to collect rainwater and to prevent flooding of the valley. It also provided water for industrial and domestic use and inturn generated hydro-eletricity for the Ruhr valley. The Eder was used to feed the important Mittelland Canal, prevent flooding and generating hydro-electricity, the others worked like the Mohne only smaller.
The idea was on the table but no one had any idea how to carry out such a task and so the idea was shelved.
The Mohne dam

Situated at Gunne and 25 miles east of Dortmund, construction started in 1909 and finished in 1913. The wall was made of limestone rubble masonry and was protected against seepage. This construction stood 112 feet high and had a base thickness of 130 feet tapering to 25 feet at the top and is 2100 feet long. The dam holds back 135 million cubic metres of water, covering an area of 3229 acres. It was protected by 2 anti torpedo nets in the water and anti aircraft guns.
After the raid over 2,000 workers took just 4 months to rebuild the wall ready for refilling, the power station was never re-built at the base of the dam.

The Eder

This was yet another very impressive dam being the largest masonry dam in Germany, it reached 138 feet into the air and was 119 feet thick at the base tapering to 20 feet at the top and a lenght of 1310 feet. The Eder is some 25 miles east of the Mohne dam. The Reservoir was much larger than the Mohne it could hold up to 7100 million cubic metres of water

The Sorpe

This dam was built between 1927 - 1933, and was a completely different type of construction. This one consisted of an earth work embankment and a concrete core. The wall height was only 58 feet but had the capacity to hold 72 million cubic metres of water. It is situated six miles south of the Mohne and even Barnes Wallis indicated his bomb would not work on this type of construction.
The Ennepe

This masonry type dam was built between 1902 - 1905 it has a wall height of 45 feet and holds back 15 million cubic metres of water.

The Lister

The Lister built between 1909 - 1911 with a wall height of 35 feet it was also of the masonry type "ideal for the bouncing bomb", this dam had a capacity of 22 million cubic metres of water.
The Bomb

The weapon was manufactured by Vickers Armstrong, the company for whom Barnes Wallis worked. An order was placed with them for 120 Upkeeps, 60 inert casings filled with concrete for practice and the remaining 60 filled with the new, and scarce explosive RDX. RDX was the most powerful of the military explosives then available and was a Hexamine based explosive with high percentage of added aluminium powder, which was poured warm into the mine casings before setting, not unlike a heavy wax.
By February 28th 1943 Wallis had completed plans for the upkeep and initially he specified a spherical bomb of 7ft 6? in diameter but to prevent the weapon breaking up on hitting the surface of the water, a particularly high grade of steel was necessary and there was not enough of this available to manufacture the required number of weapons. Consequently he re-designed the bomb to be cylindrical in shape mainly for manufacturing ease. The casing was rolled and welded together and the circular ends were then held in place with angled steel sections. The weapon was then wrapped in mahogany cladding which was held in place by steel bands. This was designed to minimise the shock on the casing when the weapon hit the water. On one end of the mine in the centre of the inner disc was fitted an adaptor which mated onto a driven wheel on the bomb cradle and allowed the weapon to be spun. On the other end was fitted a similar adaptor to hold the bomb in place and allow it to be spun. Underneath this central disc were three fuse pockets each of which were fitted with a standard naval hydrostatic pistol. These were operated by water pressure and once the mine reached a certain depth it would trigger an initiating explosion which detonated the main explosive charge. The test bombs were painted in gloss grey and the live bombs painted in standard aerial munition dark green. The weapon was also fitted with a self destruct charge which is believe to have been based upon celluloid disc/acid time long delay fuse of the same type used in aerial bombs of the period. The idea was that in the event the mine did not explode as planned after a preset delay of several hours it would explode and self destruct.
Due to the size of the bomb two other problems were encountered. The first was how to get the bomb underneath the aircraft so that it could be lifted into the bomb bay. A specially strengthened type B bomb trolley was used to carry the weapon but it could not be moved in sideways under the bomb bay. Consequently a novel solution was found in the form of lifting the tail of the Lancaster into the air by 10 ton Coles crane and then wheeling the bomb on its trolley in from the rear. Despite the modifications to the Lancaster?s bomb bay there was still only a three inch clearance for the weapon to get in. Once situated under the bomb bay the weapon was winched up into position by a pair of ten ton bomb winches situated above the floor of the bomb bay with two sets of wires passing around the mine to give the lift.
Another problem encountered was that the sheer mass of metal mounted on the aircraft affected the compass that the pilot and navigator used to navigate the aircraft. As a consequence of this the compass was ?swung? to check its accuracy before the weapon was loaded and a deviation card prepared. The same was done with the mine in place. Once the mine had been dropped the crew would change over from the loaded deviation card to the unloaded deviation card to ensure that the compass remained accurate. Lastly there is generally a problem of balance when spinning any object up to 500rpm. Each mine had a slightly different density of filling and thickness of casing and consequently to stop it vibrating very badly when it was being spun and possibly falling away from the aircraft, each mine was spun on a test rig and balanced in almost the same way a car wheel is when a new tyre has been fitted. Small weights were fitted at the appropriate places on the ends of the casing until the mine could spin without any vibration at all.
Once loaded and fitted in place the mine was spun by a 90 horse power Ford V8 engine. This was a fairly common vehicle engine at the time and one was fitted into the bomb bay of the aircraft in front of the mine (under an aluminium aerodynamic cowl) and drove via a gearbox a pulley which drove a rubber belt and spun the bomb. When the bomb was to be released two spring loaded arms which held it in place were allowed to flip outwards under spring pressure allowing the mine to drop.
The mine was spun up to speed by the engine some ten minutes before planned release. The mine was spun at 500rpm in an anti-clockwise direction.

pleas not i actualy wrote this i didnt copy and paste is so please dont say i did thank you

[Cpl Rootes]

*whistle* great work mason. keep it up.

[sgt mason]

thankyou

A nice overall look at Chastise Sarge. Very impressed. Are you into 617's history or just this one raid?

[52nd Airborne]

You're missing a photo of the Sorpe Dam, So here is one I took on the 17th May 2003.
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[von Poop]

Excellent website on 617 & the dams raid:
http://www.dambusters.org.uk/index.htm
(but who'd have thought even that music could become annoying....)
Cheers,
Adam

[Peter Clare]

Operation Chastise Aircraft Losses (617 Squadron) 16-17 May 1943.

Lancaster III ED864. AJ-B

Took off 2159 hrs Scampton and headed for the Mohne Dam. Crashed 0015 hrs after flying into hight tension cables near Marbeck, 5 Km SSE of Borken.

Lancaster III ED865. AJ-S

Took off 0011 hrs Scampton and set course for the Sorpe Dam. Strayed off course and still at very low levelwas hit by flak crashing 0200 hrs near Gilze Rijen airfield, Holland.

Lancaster III ED887. AJ-A

Took off 2147 hrs Scampton and headed for the Mohne Damand dropped its weapon as briefed. Set course as deputy leader for the Eder Dam before heading for base. Shot down by flak while clearing the Dutch coast and crashed 0258 hrs off Castricum aan Zee.

Lancaster III ED910. AJ-C

Took off 0009 hrs Scampton, tasked to bomb the Lister Dam. Hit by light flak, Crashing 0235 hrs on the Boselargerschen Wald near Heessen, 3 km NNE of Ham.

Lancaster III ED925. AJ-M

Took off 2139 hrs Scampton, tasked to bomb the Mohne Dam. Hit by flak approaching the target defore being crippled by the blast from its own weapon which overshot and exploded beyond the parapet. Crashed 0034 hrs at Ostonnen, 6 km ESE of Werl.

Lancaster III ED927. AJ-E

Took off 2128 hrs Scampton and headed for the Sorpe Dam. Crashed 2350 hrs after colliding with hight tension cables at Haldern, 4 km ENE of Rees.
(The Upkeep weapon from this aircraft was captured intact)

Lancaster III ED934. AJ-K

Took off 2130 hrs Scampton and headed for the Sorpe Dam. Hit by flak from batteries on Texel, while flying at 300 ft outbound, and crashed into the Waddenzee W of Harlingen.

Lancaster III ED937. AJ-Z

Took off 2159 hrs Scampton and set course for the Eder Dam. Crippled by the detonation of its own weapon and while trying to make base was hit by light flak, crashing 0236 hrs at Netterden, 3 km E of Emmerich.


(Part extract BCL Vol 4)

Just for the hell of it I found this photo taken at the 50th anniversary of the raid on 16th May 1993. This is the Derwent Dam.

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