(2/5) Dangerous Missions Dam Busters

The Lancasters were organized into three groups. Formation 1 was to attack the Moehne and after that, aircraft still with bombs would attack the Eder. Formation 2 was to attack the Sorpe. The third group was a mobile reserve, it would take off two hours later and bomb as directed, either attacking the main dams or bombing smaller dams at Schwelm, Ennepe and Diemel.
The operations room for the mission was at 5 Group headquarters in Grantham. The codes, transmitted in morse, for the mission were agreed on as Goner for bomb dropped, Nigger for the Moehne breached, Dinghy for the Eder breached and ?? for the Sorpe breached. The Nigger code was after Gibson's black dog that had been run-over and killed on the morning of the 17th.
The aircraft flew two routes, carefully skirting known flak hot spots, and no more than 75 feet (25 m) off the ground. Formation 1 entered continental Europe between Walcheren and Schouwen, crossed Holland, skirting the airbases at Eindhoven and Gilze-Rijen, curved round the Ruhr defenses and turned north to avoid Hamm before turning to head south to the Moehne. Formation 2 flew further northwards, cutting over Vieland and crossing the Zuider Zee before joining the first route near Wesel and then flying south beyond the Moehne to the Sorpe.
Formation 1 was of nine aircraft in three groups - Gibson, Hopgood, Martin; Young, Astell, Maltby; and Maudslay, Knight, Shannon. Formation 2 was of five aircraft, those of McCarthy, Byers, Barlow, Rice and Munro. Formation 3 consisted of the aircraft of Townsend, Brown, Ottley and Burpee. Two crews were unable to make the mission because of illness.
The first aircraft, those of Formation 2 and heading for the longer northern route, took off at 21:10, McCarthy's aircraft had a hydraulics fault and he took off in a reserve craft twenty minutes late. Formation 1 took off from 21:25.
The first casualties were taken soon after the craft reached the Dutch coast. Formation 2 didn't fare well: Munro's aircraft lost his radio to flak and turned back over the Zuyder Zee while Rice flew too low and lost his bomb in the water but recovered the aircraft to return to base. The aircraft of both Barlow and Byers crossed over the coast around Harderwijk and were shot down shortly thereafter. Only the tardy aircraft of McCarthy survived across Holland. Formation 1 lost only Astell, somewhere over Rosendaal.
Formation 1 arrived over Moehne Lake and Gibson's aircraft (G for George) bombed first. Hopgood (M for Mother) attacked second. Hopgood's aircraft was hit by flak as it made its low-level run and was then caught in the blast of its own bomb and destroyed. Martin (P for Peter) bombed third; his aircraft was hit but made a successful attack. Then Young (A for Apple) made a successful run and after him Maltby (J for Johnny) and then, finally, the dam was breached. Gibson then led Young, Shannon, Maudslay and Knight to the Eder.
The Eder valley was heavily fogged but not defended. The tricky topology of the surrounding hills made the approach difficult and the first aircraft, Shannon's, made six runs before taking a break. Maudslay (Z for Zebra) then attempted a run but the bomb struck the top of the dam and the aircraft was caught in the blast. Shannon made another run and successfully dropped his bomb and the final bomb of the formation, from Knight's aircraft, breached the dam.
McCarthy (T for Tom) reached the Sorpe alone. It was the least likely to be breached - a vast earth dam rather than the two concrete structures successfully attacked. Despite the mist and ill-placed hills, McCarthy's aircraft successfully dropped its bomb but did not breach the dam. Three of the reserve aircraft were directed to the Sorpe, Burpee (S for Sugar) never reached the dam. Brown (F for Freddy) reached the dam and in increasingly dense mist finally dropped his bomb without breaking the dam. Anderson (Y for Yorker) arrived last and the mist was too dense for him to even attempt the run. The remaining two aircraft were sent to subsidiary targets, Ottley (C for Charlie) was shot down en route while Townsend (O for Orange) successfully dropped his bomb on the Ennepe.
On the way back, only one further aircraft was lost, that of Young which was hit by flak and crashed into the sea just off the cost of Holland. In all, 53 of the 133 aircrew were killed and three bailed out to be made POWs.

Видео (2/5) Dangerous Missions Dam Busters канала 2bn442RCT