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Bezig met laden... Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germanydoor Ted Barris
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National Bestseller Foreword by Peter Mansbridge "Barris tells the jaw-dropping story of a night that changed the war." --The Globe and Mail It was a night that changed the Second World War. The secret air raid against the hydroelectric dams of Germany's Ruhr River took years to plan, involved an untried bomb and included the best aircrewmen RAF Bomber Command could muster--many of them Canadian. The attack marked the first time the Allies tactically took the war inside Nazi Germany. It was a military operation that became legendary. On May 16, 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers carrying 133 airmen took off on a night sortie code-named Operation Chastise. Hand-picked and specially trained, the Lancaster crews flew at treetop level to the industrial heartland of the Third Reich and their targets--the Ruhr River dams, whose massive water reservoirs powered Nazi Germany's military-industrial complex. Each Lancaster carried an explosive, which when released just sixty feet over the reservoirs, bounced like a skipping stone to the dam, sank and exploded. The raiders breached two dams and damaged a third. The resulting torrent devastated enemy power plants, factories and infrastructure a hundred miles downstream. Every airmen on the raid understood that the odds of survival were low. Of the nineteen outbound bombers, eight did not return. Operation Chastise cost the lives of fifty-three airmen, including fourteen Canadians. Of the sixteen RCAF men who survived, seven received military decorations. Based on interviews, personal accounts, flight logs, maps and photographs of the Canadians involved, Dam Busters recounts the dramatic story of these young Commonwealth bomber crews tasked with a high-risk mission against an enemy prepared to defend the Fatherland to the death. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)940.54History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War IILC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Barris also describes the creation of the special bouncing bomb that would be required to destroy the dams. Then there was the modifications to the Lancasters to enable them to carry the special bomb and and the creation of the modified bomb sights that were necessary to be able to drop the bomb at the right distance from the dam.
Of the nineteen planes that started the mission, eight did not return costing the lives of 53 airmen. Two of the three dams targeted were breached. Was the cost worth it since the the Germans rebuilt the dams in less than a 10 days? The opinion is that it was since the Germans had to pull 1000's of workers from other projects including the Atlantic wall to pull it off as well as the boost to British morale in finally hitting Germany with something big.
Barris includes a chapter on efforts to keep the story alive including the making of the British film, The Dam Busters and the many books including Paul Brickhill's 1951 The Dam Busters on which the film was based. Included as well are the efforts by Canadians in Canada to preserve the story for succeeding generations especially by the Nanton Lancaster Society in Alberta. ( )