Dambusters

Dig even a little bit into Lancaster history, and it's unavoidable that the 'Dambusters' raid pops up very quickly. Officially designated Operation Chastise, the raid took place during the night of May 16/17, 1943, with the aim of destroying several dams in the heartland of the industrial Ruhr Valley, and so inflict damage to Germany's war effort. Specially adapted Lancasters carried 'bouncing bombs', designed by Barnes Wallis specifically to destroy the dams. These Lancasters had their dorsal gun turret removed, to compensate for the additional weight of the bomb.

Nineteen Lancasters in the especially created 617 squadron participated in the raid, carrying a total of 133 crew between them. Of these 19 Lancasters, eight did not return, and 53 of the 133 men were killed; a nearly 40% casualty rate.

Many books have been written about the Dambusters Raid; these are the four that I have:

The Foster book is especially poignant, being the only book to give biographies of each of the 133 men. For 53 if them, their biography didn't extend beyond May 1943 ....

Of course, there is also the movie from 1955. Keep in mind that the movie is not always historically accurate (it's a movie, after all).

Tangmere Military Aviation Museum has a display dedicated to 617 Dambusters squadron, which includes a nice diorama depicting three Lancasters near one of the dams.

And while we're talking Dambusters dioramas, have a look at this marvelous 1/32 diorama, created by Carl Robertshaw. Pleased to say, I know the artist personally ...

When it comes to my new collection of 1/144 models of Lancasters, it's only right that the first one should be a 'Dambuster Lancaster', and there are plenty of these available via eBay and other web-sites. Nearly all of these have the squadron code AJ-G on the fuselage, signifying it's a model of the aircraft (ED932) flown by Guy Gibson, the Commander of the raid.

Here is my 1:144 model of Guy's aircraft:

And of course, the model carries a 'bouncing bomb':

I said 'nearly all', didn't I? One 'Dambuster Lancaster' model I came across shows the squadron code AJ-C:

No specific information was given in the eBay listing or on the box that the model came in, but AJ-C is the aircraft piloted by Warner ("Bill") Ottley. This Lancaster was shot down, and six of the seven crew (including the pilot) were killed. A memorial plaque exists close to where the aircraft crashed, near Hamm in Germany.

Last, but certainly not least: let's not forget the roughly one and a half thousand people in the Ruhr Valley that were killed by the surging flood waters after the dams were breached, the majority of them prisoners of war and forced labourers ...