71 Years of the Dam Busters

Hollywood has a tendency towards diluting those elements of true stories that might not make for the happiest endings. Perhaps that’s why, almost sixty years after its release, ‘The Dam Busters’ remains one of cinema’s most popular tales of war. Once the action wound down, the audience found themselves exposed to a bittersweet range of emotions. A victory had been gained, yes, but a great many had lost their lives in the process.

Indeed, 71 years after Operation Chastise sent Barnes Wallis’ famed bouncing bombs skipping along the surfaces of German reservoirs, many have come to acknowledge that the mission was not quite the success it was initially believed to be.

Of the three dams attacked during the raids, two saw significant damage. Floods ripped through the Ruhr and Eder valleys, and many mines and factories were rendered useless. But much of this damage was undone by Germany’s rapid response in repairing the damage done. Many hundreds of people died in the floods that spilled through the dams, but over half of these deaths were those of prisoners of war, or Soviet women being used as forced labourers. Furthermore, 53 members of the participating aircrew died during the raid, and three more were captured.

Nevertheless, Operation Chastise represented something much more to those back home in England. This was a victory for Allied forces, and a morale boost coming at just the right time. The raid became one of the most memorable of the entire war, and gave icon status to both the Upkeep bouncing bomb and the modified Lancaster bombers that had delivered them to the bases of the German dams.

The Dambusters 617 Squadron went on to take part in some of the most decisive air raids of World War Two, including the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944. This October, André Deutsch will mark the 70^th anniversary of this particular attack with the publication of ‘The Lancaster and the Tirpitz’, authored by Brian Milton and the late Tony Iveson, who was squadron leader during the raid itself.

You can pre-order 'The Lancaster and the Tirpitz' here.