During WWII, 'Operation Chastise' was undertaken by the RAF, by what more familiar name is this operation now known?
"The marshland gunnery range itself, located along The Wash, survived as RAF Holbeach Bombing Range becoming parented to RAF Marham, it continues active service as a practice bombing range for the RAF as well as NATO-allied air forces. During the early part of 1943 Sutton Bridge and Crosskeys Bridge was used by 617 Squadron from RAF Scampton to practice their low-level flying needed for Operation Chastise (the legendary Dam Busters raid). The mission was led by commanding officer Guy Gibson, who was familiar with the village of Sutton Bridge having participated in advanced training at RAF Sutton Bridge during the"
"Operation Chastise, better known as the Dambusters raid, was an attempt to damage German industrial production by crippling its hydro-electric power and transport in the Ruhr area. Operation Hydra of August 1943 sought to destroy German work on long-range rockets but only delayed it by a few months. Subsequent efforts were directed against V-weapon launch sites in France. In mid 1942, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) arrived in the UK and carried out a few raids across the English Channel. The USAAF Eighth Air Force's B-17 bombers were called the ""Flying Fortresses"" because of their heavy defensive armament"
"an instrument of war involved the British Royal Air Force Dambusters raid on Germany in World War II (codenamed ""Operation Chastise"" ), in which three German reservoir dams were selected to be breached in order to damage German infrastructure and manufacturing and power capabilities deriving from the Ruhr and Eder rivers. The economic and social impact was derived from the enormous volumes of previously stored water that swept down the valleys, wreaking destruction. This raid later became the basis for several films. All reservoirs will have a monetary cost/benefit assessment made before construction to see if the project is worth"
"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"
"of Britain by putting a reporter in a war-time Spitfire plane. In August 2016 the company presented Porthcawl Museum in South Wales with a selection of replica blueprints, photographs, maps, plans, and other documents from the National Archives that once briefed Squadron 617 ahead of their 'Dambusters' mission over Nazi Germany in May 1943. Many of the aircrews that took part in the daring raid, codenamed Operation Chastise, included men trained either at RAF Stormy Down, near Porthcawl or at RAF Saint Athan in the neighbouring Vale of Glamorgan. The London Mint Office also donated a commemorative coin issued to"
"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"
"Operation Chastise, the attack on German Ruhr valley dams. Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles, including daylight precision bombing, for which some Lancasters were adapted to carry the Tallboy and then the Grand Slam earthquake bombs (also designed by Wallis). This was the largest payload of any bomber in the war. In 1943, a Lancaster was converted to become an engine test bed for the Metropolitan-Vickers F.2 turbojet. Lancasters were later used to test other engines, including the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba and Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops and the Avro Canada Orenda and STAL"
"remained in Norwegian fjords to threaten Allied shipping until she was destroyed by the RAF in Operation Catechism on 12 November 1944. St Nazaire was one of the 38 battle honours presented to the Commandos after the war. The raid has since been called ""The Greatest Raid of All"". The survivors formed their own association, the St Nazaire Society, which is a registered charity in the United Kingdom. A memorial to the raid erected in Falmouth bears the following inscription: A new , a Type 22 Frigate, was launched on 7 October 1987. She carried the ship's bell from the"
"Operation Chastise. The same year he was granted the Honourary Freedom of the City of London. He is commemorated by a blue plaque on the surviving office building of the Avro factory at Greengate. and a blue plaque at 38 Chessel Avenue in Bitterne, Hampshire, where he lived from 1922-29 when the AVRO design team was based nearby at Hamble. His bust is displayed at the RAF Club in London, among other notable designers, and at the Chadwick Center at the International Bomber Command Center in Lincoln. The Chadwick Centre at the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincolnshire is named"
"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"
"Different, inert versions of the bomb were tested at Reculver, leading to the development of the operational version known as ""Upkeep"". This bomb was used by the RAF's 617 Squadron in Operation Chastise, otherwise known as the Dambuster raids, in which dams in the Ruhr district of Germany were attacked on the night of 16–17 May 1943 by formations of Lancaster bombers. On 17 May 2003 a Lancaster bomber overflew the Reculver testing site to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the exploit. Two prototype bouncing bombs, about long and wide, lay in marshland behind the sea wall until about 1977,"
"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"
"was disbanded on 1 April 1920 after being renumbered, becoming No. 60 Squadron. The squadron was reformed on 16 September 1935 at RAF Catfoss, and later became one of the Pathfinder squadrons in April 1943. Commonly known as the Dambusters, No. 617 Squadron was the squadron that took part in Operation Chastise in May 1943, destroying Nazi factories, mines, and hydro-electric power stations. 617 Squadron was based at RAF Scampton, but often made use of RAF Woodhall Spa during exercises and missions. No. 619 Squadron was a Heavy bomber squadron, initially formed at RAF Woodhall Spa on the 18th April"
"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"
"spies in the county in preparation for invasion, which by 1940 had been well-planned by Hitler. Herne Bay in Kent was used for test trials of the “bouncing bomb” eventually to be deployed during Operation Chastise by No. 617 Squadron RAF – better known as “The Dambusters.” A colleague of Jenkins, an Inspector Setterfield, was responsible for overseeing the bomb trials in the county. The police had the unenviable task of training up the local Home Guard, managing the disorder caused by visiting allied troops and dealing with the aftermath of German air raids. The officers of Kent, and indeed"
"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"
"Operation Chastise with its bouncing bomb. It was filmed in the UK documentary ""Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb"", Canadian documentary ""Dambusters Fly Again"", ""Nova"" season 39 episode ""Bombing Hitler's Dams"", and ""Ice Pilots NWT"" season 3 episode 2 ""Dambusters"". The movie ""The Big Lift"", starring Montgomery Clift shows extensive operations of the C-54 as it was shot on location during the peak of the Berlin Airlift in 1949. Douglas C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47"
"and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and carried out on 17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy Barnes Wallis's ""Bouncing bomb"", and undertook some of its training over the dams of the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, as the towers on the dam walls were similar to those to be found on some of the target dams in Germany. The squadron's badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam in commemoration of ""Chastise"". The squadron's chosen motto was """"Après moi le déluge"""" (""After me, the flood""), a"
"affect military operations – in early 1943 around 150 locomotives and many freight cars were being destroyed each month. On the night of 16–17 May 1943 the RAF carried out the famous Dambusters raid (Operation Chastise) to breach the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams which supplied the Ruhr industries with hydroelectric power and fresh water needed for the production of steel. The raid drowned 1,500 people and countless farm animals, but was not as successful as claimed; and half of the 18 bombers were shot down. On 24 July 1943 Hamburg, a major manufacturing centre for Tiger tanks and 88mm"
"can be seen. Descendants of those buried there go to visit the graves of their ancestors. The dam was breached in World War II by bouncing bombs dropped by British Lancaster bombers of No. 617 Squadron RAF as part of Operation Chastise. The early morning raid of 17 May 1943 created a massive wide and deep breach in the structure. Water emptied at the rate of into the narrow valley below, producing a flood wave which roared as far as downstream. By the time it diminished in the widening floodplains of the lower Eder, into the Fulda and into the"
"Belgian trainee graduated. Women were admitted to the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 as members of the Women's Division - the ""WDs"". The first WDs, 70 in number, arrived at Jarvis on 27 April 1942, and within six months airwomen were serving in many areas of the station including the control tower, the bomb plotting office, the kitchens, and the stores. Airwomen were not permitted to serve as aircrew. A key member of the famous ""Dambusters"" (No. 617 Squadron RAF) trained at Jarvis: RCAF navigator, Harlo “Terry” Taerum. In May 1943, in Operation Chastise, commonly known as the ""Dambusters"
"Ruhr Valley (Operation Chastise) with 617 Squadron in May 1943. It was first published in book form in 1946, to much critical acclaim and a fully uncensored account released in 2003. The book was serialised in the Sunday Express during the winter of 1944-45, following his death in September 1944, when his Mosquito crashed near Steenbergen in the Netherlands. Gibson joined the RAF prior to the war, and he recounts the early stages of combat and the daily struggle with first the Handley Page Hampden and then the Avro Manchester aeroplanes on long and arduous missions into enemy airspace. He"
"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"
"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"
"corner held up to the eye, projections on the other two corners would line up with pre-determined points on the target when it was at the correct distance for bomb release. In practice, this could prove awkward to handle, and some aircrews replaced it with their own arrangements, fixed within the aircraft itself, and involving chinagraph and string. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, Operation Chastise attacked dams in Germany's Ruhr Valley, using Upkeep. Two dams were breached, causing widespread flooding and damage, and loss of life. The significance of this attack upon the progress of the war is"
"facility. From Friedrichshafen the planes refueled at El Bouleïda, Algeria. On 23–24 June, eight of the original Operation Bellicose force of sixty Lancasters remained in Algeria for repairs and the remaining 52 bombed the Italian naval base at La Spezia, damaging an ""oil depot"" and an ""armaments store"" and continued to Britain without loss. Operation Bellicose was an attack by Avro Lancaster bombers of the Royal Air Force on a radar factory, housed in the former Zeppelin airship hangar at Friedrichshafen, southern Germany, on the night of 20–21 June 1943, during World War II. The raid marked the first use"
"Yatesbury village. There were two airfields, East Camp and West Camp, each with buildings and hangars; two target areas were marked out. Training continued until 1919, then squadrons were sent to Yatesbury to be disbanded. The station closed in 1920 and returned to farmland. Part of the west site was operated from 1936 by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a civilian flying school (No. 10 Elementary Reserve & Flying Training School) where trainees were prepared for service in the RAF or the Reserve, using Tiger Moth aircraft. Guy Gibson, leader of the famous ""Dambusters"" raid (Operation Chastise) of 1943, took"
"war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. From 31 May 1942 RAF Bomber Command was able to mount large-scale night raids, sometimes involving up to 1,000 aircraft. From mid-1942 increasing numbers of these aircraft were heavy four-engined bombers such as the Handley-Page Halifax and the Avro Lancaster. Noteworthy raids include Operation Millennium against Cologne, the first 1000-bomber raid; Operation Chastise, the 'Dambusters' raids on targets in the Ruhr Valley; Operation Gomorrah, the destruction of Hamburg; and the 'Battle of Berlin'. The lighter, fast two-engine de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber was used for tactical raids like Operation Carthage, a raid on"
"Operation Biting Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid, was a British Combined Operations raid on a German coastal radar installation at Bruneval in northern France during the Second World War, on the night . Several of these installations were identified from Royal Air Force (RAF) aerial reconnaissance photographs during 1941, but their exact purpose and the nature of the equipment that they possessed was not known. Some British scientists believed that these stations were connected with the heavy losses being experienced by RAF bombers conducting bombing raids against targets in Occupied Europe. The scientists requested that one of"
"as opposed to 3.5% of those without it. Gee was considered so important that a non-working Gee set would ground an aircraft. One illustration of Gee's routine employment by Bomber Command in navigation tasks was its use (albeit a limited one) in Operation Chastise (commonly known as the ""Dam Buster Raid"") in May 1943. In his memoir, ""Enemy Coast Ahead"", Guy Gibson, the leader of the raid, briefly mentions his navigator, F/O 'Terry' Taerum, RCAF, employing what Gibson calls Taerum's ""G Box"" to determine groundspeed while flying very low at night over the North Sea from Britain to Holland, en"
"received a bar to his DFC. In July 1942, he was sent to Washington DC to serve as part of the RAF Delegation. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, he began training to fly the Avro Lancaster with a new crew. They all joined 57 Squadron in March 1943, where Young became a flight commander. Soon after joining 57 Squadron, he was transferred to No. 617 Squadron, specially formed for the purpose of carrying out Operation ""Chastise"", the raid to attack German dams in the Ruhr Valley. Young together with Henry Maudslay carried out much of the organising work"
"doors in order to accommodate their special payloads and additional fuel tanks to provide the necessary endurance. A total of three attacks, individually codenamed Operation Paravane, Operation Obviate and Operation Catechism, were conducted against ""Tirpitz"", which was anchored in a fjord in Occupied Norway. The first of these attacks disabled the vessel while the third mission was responsible for sinking the ship. As a result of actions such as Operation Chastise and the sinking of ""Tirpitz"", No. 617 Sqn was perhaps the most famous of all Lancaster squadrons. During early 1945, a total of 33 Lancaster B Is were modified"
"of one runway now dissolved by housing. RAF Marston Moor RAF Marston Moor was a Royal Air Force airfield at Tockwith, North Yorkshire, during the Second World War. It was originally called RAF Tockwith, but confusion with RAF Topcliffe lead to the name change. RAF Marston Moor and RAF Church Fenton were the closest airfields to West Yorkshire and would act as a defence should Leeds be attacked. As it happens Leeds was seldom bombed. In 1943, group captain Leonard Cheshire was made the Station Commander. Following the death of Guy Gibson he requested to be transferred to the command"