"No 106 started replacing them with Lancasters (but it did not become converted completely to Lancasters before some of the squadron's Manchesters had participated in the 1,000-bomber raids on Cologne, Essen and Bremen). In October it contributed 10 Lancasters to No. 5 Group's low-level epic dusk raid (""Operation Robinson"") on Le Creusot and two more (one of them piloted by Wing Commander Guy Gibson who was then No 106's CO) to the subsidiary raid on Montchanin. In 1943 it took part in the first ""shuttle-bombing"" raids (when the targets were Friedrichshafen and Spezia) and the famous attack on Peenemünde. Among"
"Dave Shannon David John Shannon, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar (27 May 1922 – 8 April 1993) was an Australian bomber pilot of World War II, known for his part in the ""Dambusters"" raid on the night of 16/17 May 1943. Born in South Australia, Shannon joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1941 and learned to fly under the Empire Air Training Scheme. After further training in the United Kingdom he was posted to No. 106 Squadron RAF, operating Avro Lancaster heavy bombers, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in January 1943. In March he"
"Martin died at his home in London on 3 November 1988, and is buried at Gunnersbury Cemetery. Harold Brownlow Martin Air Marshal Sir Harold Brownlow Morgan ""Micky"" Martin, (27 February 1918 – 3 November 1988) was an Australian bomber pilot and senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He took part in Operation Chastise, the RAF's ""Dambusters"" raid in 1943, and was described by journalist Sir Max Hastings as ""one of the three great bomber pilots of the war"". He rose to become a senior officer in the RAF, commanding RAF Germany and later serving as Air Member for"
"Joe McCarthy (RCAF officer) Joseph Charles ""Big Joe"" McCarthy, (31 August 1919 – 6 September 1998) was an American aviator who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Bomber Command during World War II. He is best known as the commander and pilot of Lancaster AJ-T (""T-Tommy"") in Operation Chastise, the ""Dambuster"" raid of 1943. McCarthy was born in St. James, New York, a town on Long Island east of New York City, and grew up in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he worked as a lifeguard at Coney Island and learned to fly. In May 1941, months before the"
"invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. In the 1950 King's Birthday Honours, he was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire. Ralph Cochrane Air Chief Marshal The Honourable Sir Ralph Alexander Cochrane, (24 February 1895 – 17 December 1977) was a British aviator and Royal Air Force officer, perhaps best known for his role in Operation Chastise, the famous ""Dambusters"" raid. Ralph Cochrane was born on 24 February 1895, the youngest son of Thomas Cochrane, 1st Baron Cochrane of Cults, in the Scottish village of Springfield, Fife. To qualify"
"Harold Brownlow Martin Air Marshal Sir Harold Brownlow Morgan ""Micky"" Martin, (27 February 1918 – 3 November 1988) was an Australian bomber pilot and senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He took part in Operation Chastise, the RAF's ""Dambusters"" raid in 1943, and was described by journalist Sir Max Hastings as ""one of the three great bomber pilots of the war"". He rose to become a senior officer in the RAF, commanding RAF Germany and later serving as Air Member for Personnel, a member of the Air Council, the RAF's controlling body. Born on 27 February 1918 in"
"Guy Gibson Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, (12 August 1918 – 19 September 1944), was the first Commanding Officer of the Royal Air Force's No. 617 Squadron, which he led in the ""Dam Busters"" raid (Operation Chastise) in 1943, resulting in the destruction of two large dams in the Ruhr area of Germany. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, and in June 1943 became the most highly decorated serviceman in the country. He completed over 170 war operations before dying in action at the age of 26. Gibson was born in Simla, India, the son of Alexander James Gibson and"
"Ralph Cochrane Air Chief Marshal The Honourable Sir Ralph Alexander Cochrane, (24 February 1895 – 17 December 1977) was a British aviator and Royal Air Force officer, perhaps best known for his role in Operation Chastise, the famous ""Dambusters"" raid. Ralph Cochrane was born on 24 February 1895, the youngest son of Thomas Cochrane, 1st Baron Cochrane of Cults, in the Scottish village of Springfield, Fife. To qualify as a naval officer, he must have joined the Royal Naval College, Osborne, in 1908, and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, two years later. On 15 September 1912, he was commissioned into"
"commander on 1 March 1944. He returned to operational duties in May 1944, becoming Master Bomber of 5 Group. His service in this role resulted in his being awarded a second bar to his DSO. He succeeded Leonard Cheshire as commander of No. 617 Squadron RAF in July 1944. 617 Squadron, the famous ""Dambusters"" squadron, specialised in low-level target marking and precision attacks. Under his command, the squadron bombed a series of V-1 storage sites and V-2 launching sites using Barnes Wallis's ""Tallboy"" 12,000 lb earthquake bomb. Tait was awarded a bar to his DFC for pressing home a low-level"
"Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979), was an English scientist, engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the ""Dambusters"" raid) to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. The raid was the subject of the 1955 film ""The Dam Busters"", in which Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave. Among his other inventions were his version of the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb. Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley, Derbyshire to Charles William George Robinson"
"effective squadrons of Bomber Command, personified by No 617 Squadron the ""Dambusters"", formed from 5 Group aircrew in March 1943. Most of the group's main airfields were around Lincoln, including RAF Scampton. By the end of the war the group had grown to 15 squadrons. The group was noted for its high accuracy bombing, being involved the sinking of the ""Tirpitz"" in November 1944 and the shattering of the strategic Bielefeld railway viaduct in March 1945. The Group introduced new weapons operationally, including Barnes Wallis's ""bouncing"" and his Tallboy and Grand Slam ""earthquake"" bombs. The group was disbanded on 15"
"Johnny Johnson (RAF officer) Squadron Leader George Leonard ""Johnny"" Johnson, (born 25 November 1921) is a retired Royal Air Force officer and Britain's last survivor of the original members of No. 617 Squadron RAF and of Operation Chastise, the ""Dambusters"" raid of 1943. George Johnson (known within the family as Leonard) was the sixth and last child born to Mary Ellen (née Henfrey) and Charles Johnson. He was born in the village of Hameringham in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. His mother died when he was three, leaving his father, a farm foreman, to bring up the family"
"effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. While RAF bombing of Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war, under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Harris, these attacks became increasingly devastating from 1942 onward as new technology and greater numbers of superior aircraft became available. The RAF adopted night-time area bombing on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden, and developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations, such as the ""Dambusters"" raid by No. 617 Squadron, or the Amiens prison raid known as Operation Jericho. Following victory in the Second World"
"originally referred to as ""Squadron X"", was formed at Scampton in order to carry out the proposed raid, codenamed Operation Chastise. More commonly referred to as the ""Dambusters Raid"", the raid would go down as the most famous and widely remembered in the history of the Royal Air Force. On the night of 16–17 May 1943, 617 Sqn despatched 19 Lancasters from Scampton. Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the main bulk of the squadron attacked the Sorpe, Eder and Möhne dams with an additional aircraft tasked to perform an attack on the Schwelm Dam. Both the Eder and Möhne"
"project was further cut back from five drifts to three, even though work had begun on some of the other drifts. The site was finally put out of commission on 6 July 1944, when bombers of RAF Bomber Command's 617 Squadron (the famous ""Dambusters"") attacked using ""Tallboy"" deep-penetration bombs. The project eventually came under the control of the SS, and SS General Hans Kammler ordered it to be ready for action in late 1944, assisted by Walter Dornberger. A battery was constructed of two shorter V-3 guns approximately long with 12 side-chambers, and it was placed in the hands of"
"first wave of the attack struck a tall lamp-post and crashed into a nearby Catholic school (the French school). Mosquitoes of the third wave bombed this area by mistake, killing 86 children, 10 nuns, 8 teachers, and 21 other civilians; no civilians had been killed during the main attack. Four Mosquitoes were lost and nine pilots/crew members died. Following Operation Chastise (the famous ""Dambusters raid""), Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, CO of RAF 617 squadron (Dambusters), developed a low-level dive-bombing method of target marking, expecting the main bombers to strike from a higher altitude. Initially he experimented with the squadron's Lancaster"
"of Dambuster David Maltby and His Crew"" written by Charles Foster. David Maltby Squadron Leader David John Hatfeild Maltby RAF (10 May 1920 – 15 September 1943) was a British Royal Air Force pilot, service No. 60335, best known for his part in the Dambusters raid. He had successfully completed over 30 operations before his death in September 1943. Born on 10 May 1920 in Baldslow, outside Hastings, Sussex. His father was a headmaster at Hydneye house school which Maltby attended for a while until he left and joined Marlborough College between 1934 and 1936. In 1938 he began training"
"she presented them to Gibson's father. He wore them to the Remembrance Day parade in 1956. He then passed them on to St Edward's School and they were placed in the school's memorial library until his death in 1968. Guy Gibson Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, (12 August 1918 – 19 September 1944), was the first Commanding Officer of the Royal Air Force's No. 617 Squadron, which he led in the ""Dam Busters"" raid (Operation Chastise) in 1943, resulting in the destruction of two large dams in the Ruhr area of Germany. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, and in"
"Bombardier (film) Bombardier is a 1943 film war drama about the training program for bombardiers of the United States Army Air Forces. The film stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott. ""Bombardier"" was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944 for the special effects used in the film. It was largely filmed at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, site of the first bombardier training school. The film follows the training of six bombardier candidates, seen through the differences between the two USAAF pilots in charge of their training over the efficacy of precision bombing. Brigadier General Eugene L. Eubank, commander"
"force of bomber destroyers in their turn from Germany's skies throughout most of 1944. With such heavy losses of their primary means of defense against the USAAF's tactics, German planners were forced into a hasty dispersal of industry, with the day fighter arm never being able to fully recover in time. On 27 March 1944, the Combined Chiefs of Staff issued orders granting control of all the Allied air forces in Europe, including strategic bombers, to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who delegated command to his deputy in SHAEF Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder. There was resistance"
"'bouncing bomb' conceived by Barnes Wallis and deployed to such devastating effect by the 'Dambuster' Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron, RAF, led by Guy Gibson against Germany's Ruhr Valley reservoirs on the night of 16–17 May 1943. After the war, the circuit was in poor condition and it was sold to Vickers-Armstrongs in 1946 for continued use as an aircraft factory. New aircraft types including the Viking, Valetta, Varsity, Viscount, Vanguard, 1-11 and VC10 were subsequently, designed, manufactured and delivered from there. In 1951, construction of a new hard runway required a section of the motor circuit's famous Byfleet Banking"
"London. On 22 June 2018 he was honoured by having a train named after him. Johnny Johnson (RAF officer) Squadron Leader George Leonard ""Johnny"" Johnson, (born 25 November 1921) is a retired Royal Air Force officer and Britain's last survivor of the original members of No. 617 Squadron RAF and of Operation Chastise, the ""Dambusters"" raid of 1943. George Johnson (known within the family as Leonard) was the sixth and last child born to Mary Ellen (née Henfrey) and Charles Johnson. He was born in the village of Hameringham in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. His mother died"
"bombers to and from their targets. In 1944, the USAAF bombers—now escorted by P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs—renewed their operation. Gen. Eaker gave the order to ""Destroy the enemy air force wherever you find them, in the air, on the ground and in the factories."" General Eaker was replaced at the start of 1944 as 8th Air Force commander by then-Major General Jimmy Doolittle, the leader who first struck Japan in April 1942 with a force of 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers, partly to damage Japanese morale. Doolittle's major influence on the European air war occurred early in 1944 when he"
"E. S. de Graft-Hayford in 1962. John Whitworth Air Commodore John Nicholas Haworth Whitworth, (10 January 1912 – 13 November 1974) was a Royal Air Force pilot in the 1930s and a commander during and after the Second World War. He was educated at Oundle School in Northamptonshire. Whitworth was station commander of RAF Scampton during the planning of Operation Chastise; in 1955 he was a technical advisor for the film dramatisation of the raid, ""The Dam Busters"". Whitworth was portrayed by Derek Farr in the film. Whitworth was later the Chief of Staff of the Ghana Air Force; he"
"unending pounding for days and nights by air and artillery"". On 11 February 1944, the acting commander of 4th Indian Division, Brigadier Harry Dimoline, requested a bombing raid. Tuker reiterated again his case from a hospital bed in Caserta, where he was suffering a severe attack of a recurrent tropical fever. Freyberg transmitted his request on 12 February. The request, however, was greatly expanded by air force planners and probably supported by Ira Eaker and Jacob Devers, who sought to use the opportunity to showcase the abilities of U.S. Army air power to support ground operations. Lieutenant General Mark W."
"Operation Chastise of May 1943 - immortalized in ""The Dambusters"" film - was planned. On the night of 16/17 May 1943 Air Marshall Arthur Harris, Barnes Wallis and other RAF high command were in St Vincents Hall when coded radio messages were received confirming that the raid had breached the Möhne and Eder dams. Air Marshall Harris is reputed to have said to Barnes Wallis: ""Wallis, I didn't believe a word you said about this damn bomb, but you could sell me a pink elephant now"". In 1944 the building became headquarters for the USAAF's Ninth Air Force's IX Troop"
"charge of the ""strategic direction"" of both British and American bomber operations. The text of the Casablanca directive read: ""Your primary object will be the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial, and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened."" At the beginning of the combined strategic bombing offensive on 4 March 1943, 669 RAF and 303 USAAF heavy bombers were available. In late 1943, the 'Pointblank' attacks manifested themselves in the infamous Schweinfurt raids (first and second). Formations of unescorted"
"Ernest J. Dawley Major General Ernest Joseph ""Mike"" Dawley (February 17, 1886 – December 10, 1973) was a senior officer of the United States Army, best known during World War II for commanding the VI Corps during Operation Avalanche, the Allied landings at Salerno, Italy, in 1943. After the landings, he was relieved of his command by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, commander of the Fifth Army, and returned to the United States. Dawley was born on February 17, 1886 in Antigo, Wisconsin. After graduation from the Ribbon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, he entered the United States Military Academy (USMA)"
"Lancaster squadrons - were dispatched in daylight to bomb the MAN factory producing diesel engines for U-boats, with the loss of seven aircraft from the dozen-strong force. Next was Operation Robinson, the Le Creusot raid of 17 October 1942, when 94 Lancasters, led by Wing Commander Leonard Slee of No. 49 Squadron RAF, made a dusk attack on the Schneider-Creusot munitions complex in Burgundy, ingressing at treetop height from the Bay of Biscay and recovering to England in darkness, for the loss of only one aircraft. Reconnaissance pilot Tony Hill, whose pictures had done so much for British understanding of"
"Augsburg raid The Augsburg Raid, also referred to as Operation Margin, was a bombing raid made by the RAF on the MAN U-boat engine plant in Augsburg undertaken during the daylight hours of 17 April 1942. The mission was assigned to No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron and No. 97 Squadron, both of which were equipped with the new Avro Lancaster. The speed of the Lancaster and its large lift capacity gave reason for optimism that the raid might succeed. It was the first of the attacks upon German industry in Augsburg. For Arthur Harris, Bomber Command's Commander-in-Chief, the Augsburg raid was"
"7500 bombers to drop 30 million bombs on German targets, with a density that sometimes reached 100–150 tons/ sq kilometer. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor and during the period within which the predecessor U.S. Army Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in late June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave command of the Navy to an aviator, Admiral Ernest King, with a mandate for an aviation-oriented war in the Pacific. FDR allowed King to build up land-based naval and Marine aviation, and seize control of the long-range bombers used in antisubmarine patrols in the Atlantic. Roosevelt basically agreed"
"Marshal Norman Bottomley issued the ""Area Bombing Directive"", which lifted the restrictions placed on the bombers in 1941. Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris, commonly known as ""Bomber"" Harris, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command. These decisions, coupled with the introduction of Gee, a radio navigation system which enabled better target-finding and bombing accuracy, led to the first Allied 1,000 bomber raid. In Operation Millennium, the RAF targeted and bombed Cologne on the night of 30/31 May 1942. Schnaufer did not participate in the missions in defence of Cologne. The ""Himmelbett"" procedure had limitations in the number of aircraft which can"
"John Emilius Fauquier Air Commodore John Emilius ""Johnny"" Fauquier, (March 19, 1909 – April 3, 1981) was a Canadian aviator and Second World War Bomber Command leader. He commanded No. 405 Squadron RCAF and later No. 617 Squadron RAF (the Dambusters) over the course of the war. A bush pilot, prior to the war, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a flight instructor in 1939. He then joined 405 Squadron in 1941 and would fly operationally for the rest of the war, taking a drop in rank on one occasion to return to active command. During his three"