TURNING THE TIDE

The bouncing bombs of the Dambusters were a triumph of science and propaganda in Britain’s war effort. Eighty years on, Mick O’Hare goes deep on WWII’s Operation Chastise

- Mick O’Hare

His Lancaster was flying low over the water, at an almost impossible angle to its intended target. On the 10th and final attempt bomb-aimer George “Johnny” Johnson released the weapon. It struck the Sorpe Dam dead centre, exploding behind the earthen dam wall exactly as intended. But the structure remained intact as the aircraft soared upwards, narrowly avoiding a nearby church steeple.

Johnny Johnson MBE was the last of the Dambusters. He died on 7 December 2022, aged 101, the final survivor of the most daring of Second World War operations. Although his strike was unsuccessful, two other dams deep in Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland were breached that night in 1943. It was the first time the RAF’s most secret weapon had been deployed. The “bouncing bomb” had lived up to its name and had worked perfectly.

Johnson and his RAF comrades were immortalised in the eponymous movie released in 1955, starring Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the mission’s commanding officer. If, inexplicably, you’ve never seen the film, you’ll almost certainly know its title theme.

It tells the story of Operation Chastise. Nineteen RAF Lancaster bombers and 133 aircrew of 617 Squadron were dispatched to destroy the hydroelectric dams of the Ruhr valley in North Rhine-Westphalia, which were powering factories and mines supporting the Nazi war effort. Many of the airmen died and some historians have argued they achieved only limited success, yet the story has become one of legend – British ingenuity and derring-do, taking on the Third Reich in its own backyard.