It’s three-quarters of a century since 617 Squadron flew off to break open major German dams in a mission to hit Nazi Germany’s war production.
The raid in May 1943 called for pinpoint accuracy in dropping bouncing bombs from the speeding Lancaster bombers, so the devices could skip over the dams’ defences in the water and strike the dam walls.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who led the squadron, was killed on another mission later in the war, in September 1944. He was just 26.
A total of 133 aircrew set out on the raid in 19 Lancaster bombers from RAF Scampton, led by Wing Commander Gibson, but 53 men were killed on the mission and three were captured.
The four-engine propeller Lancaster, which carried Barnes Wallis’s revolutionary bouncing bombs, was advanced for its time.
Barnes Wallis was the inventor of the bouncing bombs which breached the Mohne and Eder dams in Hitler’s Germany.
The name given to the Dambusters mission, in which today’s sole survivor Johnny Johnson was a bomb aimer, was Operation Chastise.
The Lancaster bomber has often been seen flying in formation with two other RAF Second World War aircraft – the Hurricane and Spitfire fighter planes.
The anniversary is a time for remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here