Download or read book 617 written by Tim Bouquet and published by Orion. This book was released on 2012-12-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inside story of today's Dambusters, 617 Squadron RAF, at war in Afghanistan. In May 1943, 617 Squadron RAF executed one of the most daring operations in military history as bombers mounted a raid against hydro-electric dams in Germany. 617 Squadron became a Second World War legend. Nearly 70 years later, in April 2011, a new generation of elite flyers, now flying supersonic Tornado GR4 bombers, was deployed to Afghanistan - their mission: to provide close air support to troops on the ground. Tim Bouquet was given unprecedented access to 617's pre-deployment training and blistering tour in Afghanistan. From dramatic air strikes to the life-and-death search for IEDs and low-flying shows of force designed to drive insurgents from civilian cover, he tracked every mission - and the skill, resilience, banter and exceptional airmanship that saw 617 through.
Download or read book 617 Squadron the Dambusters at War written by Tom Bennett and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dambuster 617 written by Rowland White and published by . This book was released on 2024-05-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Men Who Breached the Dams written by Alan W. Cooper and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-08-19 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published to acclaim in 1982, this was author Alan Cooper's first publication before he went on to become a prolific writer of aviation history. As we approach the 70th Anniversary of the Dam Buster Raids, this re-print will make a timely addition to the library of any enthusiast wishing to mark the occasion, and any curious readers who wish to expand their knowledge of this key operation in World War II history. Painstaking research went into every aspect of an operation, which at the time and ever since has captured the imagination of the world. This forms an evocative history of one of the most successful operations of the Second World War carried out by the famous 617 Squadron and led by Guy Gibson. This account includes the whole lead up to the final mission; the development of the bouncing bomb, the forming of 617 Squadron and the intense course of training carried out to make the operation a success. The raid itself is viewed from both British and German camps; many of the aircrew who took part in 617 operations give their accounts, as do several Germans, including Albert Speer, the Armaments minister. There is a remarkable eyewitness account of the raid from a man who was a gunner on the Mohne dam itself, telling of the damage after the raid and how he and his companions shot down one of the attacking aircraft. The investigation is completed by an in-depth study into the effects of the operation, how far it proved successful and the true extent of the devastation it caused. Overall, the book recreates the excitement and aura of danger and uncertainty, which surrounded the Dam busters' mission, giving the reader the full story of one of the greatest episodes of the war. 'A fascinating record which will be difficult to better' Group Captain W.S.O. Randle, Aerospace
Download or read book No 617 Dambuster Sqn written by Alex Bateman and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2009-10-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most famous for the dambusting raid in the darkest days of the Second World War, the No 617 Sqn were a vastly experienced crew, yet little has been written about the unit's later operations. Formed in 1943 and trained to learn new and unused bombing techniques, the squadron pioneered various experimental weapons throughout the entirety of the war, using both Mosquitoes and Mustangs in addition to standard and non-standard Lancasters. It was also the first and only squadron to use certain equipment and weapons (22,000 lb Tallboy bomb, for example) in combat. Covering the complete history of the No 617 Squadron, including before, during, and after the Dambusters Raid, this study draws on previously unpublished information to explain the men, aircraft, weapons and operations of this experimental squadron. Color plates of the planes and uniforms bring this history to life, including a never-before seen squadron badge which was rejected and never made it onto the uniforms of the squadron.
Download or read book Chastise written by Max Hastings and published by Collins. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A masterly history of the Dambusters raid from bestselling and critically acclaimed Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the overnight destruction of the Möhne and Eder dams in north-west Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron, was an epic that has passed into Britain's national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who won the VC leading the raid. In the 21st Century, however, Hastings urges that we should review the Dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was wholly authentic, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, who invented the 'bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised wildly. What Germans call the Möhnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams at the cost of devastating losses. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Möhne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers under Hitler. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris gained much of the credit, though he opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. He also made what the author describes as the operation's biggest mistake - the failure to launch a conventional attack on the Nazis' huge post-raid repair operation, which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches upon Ruhr industry. Chastise offers a fascinating retake on legend by a master of the art. Hastings sets the dams raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history.
Download or read book Dam Busters written by Ted Barris and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Complete Dambusters written by Charles Foster and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 16 May 1943, nineteen Lancaster aircraft from the RAF's 617 Squadron set off to attack the great dams in the industrial heart of Germany. Flying at a height of 60ft, they dropped a series of bombs which bounced across the water and destroyed two of their targets, thereby creating a legend. The one-off operation combined an audacious method of attack, technically brilliant flying and visually spectacular results. But while the story of Operation Chastise is well known, most of the 133 'Dambusters' who took part in the Dams Raid have until now been just names on a list. They came from all parts of the UK and the Commonwealth and beyond, and each of them was someone's son or brother, someone's husband or father. This is the first book to present their individual stories and celebrate their skill, heroism and, for many, sacrifice.
Download or read book The Dambusters Raid written by John Sweetman and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2002 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most audacious bombing raid in history is explained in amazing detail within this text. It includes the complex design and testing of Barnes Wallis theories, including dummy runs across English and Scottish lakes and lochs.
Download or read book Filming The Dam Busters written by Jonathan Falconer and published by Sutton Pub Limited. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The daring raid on the great dams of western Germany by Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron in May 1943 is probably one of the best known and most widely told stories of the Second World War. In 1955 the raid was immortalized on film by director Michael Anderson in The Dam Busters, starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd. It became Britain's top grossing film of 1955 and in the half-century that has followed, thanks to its almost annual airing on the small screen, it has become a film classic. It is also a firm favorite with aviation enthusiasts due in no small measure to the breathtaking flying sequences featuring the Avro Lancaster. Tucked away in the Pinewood Studios archives are hundreds of rarely seen 'still' photographs from the making of the film. Including everything from storyboarding to location shots, and from the stars and personalities to the aircraft themselves, it is estimated that only about 10 per cent of these high quality pictures have ever been published before. In this book they are supplemented by stunning and previously unpublished air-to-air photographs, taken by the aircrews who flew the Lancasters on camera. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and interviews with film unit and flying personnel, Filming the Dam Busters evokes the optimistic outlook of the new postwar Elizabethan Age, when British cinema had a force and reach not equalled before or since.
Download or read book Return of the Dambusters written by John Nichol and published by William Collins. This book was released on 2016-06-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Previously published as 'After the Flood') Former RAF Tornado Navigator and Gulf War veteran John Nichol sets out on a personal journey to discover what happened to 617 Squadron after the flood. RAF 617 Squadron's destruction of the dams at the heart of the Ruhr made them heroes and celebrities of their time. But this elite squadron was also called upon for a hundred more of the most secret and dangerous specialist precision attacks. As bestselling author John Nichol discovers, 617 would drop the largest bombs ever built on battleships, railway bridges, secret weapon establishments, rockets sites and U-boat construction pens. They were involved in attempts on the lives of enemy leaders, both Hitler and Mussolini, created a 'false fleet' on D-day which fooled the Germans, and knocked out a German super gun which would have rained 600 shells an hour on London. Of the 77 men who made it home from dams raid, only 45 survived to see the victory for which they fought - as 617's reputation called them into action again and again.
Download or read book The Dam Busters Story written by Jonathan Falconer and published by Sutton Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The RAF's dam buster raid of May 16th and 17th, 1943 is one of the most famous stories of the Second World War. The author narrates its planning, dramatic execution and aftermath and draws on a superb selection of color and black and white photographs. He lists the Lancasters and crews that flew in the raid, and what became of them.
Download or read book Operation Chastise written by Max Hastings and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Nonfiction of 2020 -- Kirkus Reviews One of the most lauded historians of our time returns to the Second World War in this magnificent retelling of the awe-inspiring raid on German dams conducted by the Royal Army Force’s 617 Squadron. The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story—and the later wartime experience of the 617 Squadron—has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know. The RAF had identified the Ruhr dams as strategic objectives as far back as 1938; in those five years Wing Commander Guy Gibson formed and trained the 617 Squadron. Hastings observes that while the dropping of Wallis’s mines provided the dramatic climax, only two of the eight aircraft lost came down over the dams—the rest were shot down on the flight to, or back from, the mission. And while the 617 Squadron’s valor is indisputable, the ultimate industrial damage caused by the dam raid was actually rather modest. In 1943, these brave men caught the imagination of the world and uplifted the weary spirits of the British people. Their achievement unnerved the Nazi high command, and caused them to expend large resources on dam defenses—making the mission a success. An example of Churchill’s “military theatre” at its best, what 617 Squadron did was an extraordinary and heroic achievement, and a triumph of British ingenuity and technology—a story to be told for generations to come. Operation Chastise includes three 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and 6 maps.
Download or read book The Dambusters written by Alan W. Cooper and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-06-26 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventy years ago, 133 airmen of 617 Squadron, later known as the Dambusters, set out to destroy the Ruhr Dams in Germany. This one operation amongst many carried out by Bomber Command has become one of the most well known in the whole history of WWII. Indeed, a very successful film was made about it which became a classic, etching the dramatic events of the Dambuster raids in the minds of young and old alike. The book covers every facet of this enthralling episode.It also works as a poignant tribute to the 53 men who were killed on the operation, as well as the men who returned from the operation but were later killed on further sorties with 617 and other squadrons. Cooper brings together various narrative threads, focussing on stories recorded in document form and acquired on a first-hand basis to give a real insight into the daily operations of the squadron.
Download or read book 617 Dambuster Squadron At War written by Chris Ward and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2009-08-19 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No. 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command is world-famous for its daring raids on the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe Dams, the Dortmund-Ems Canal and the attacks on the German ship Tirpitz. This book contains rarely seen photographs of the squadrons aircraft, crews and other behind-the-scenes operations. Each image is accompanied by a lengthy caption that convey the location and history surrounding the subject in question.
Download or read book No 617 Dambuster Sqn written by Alex Bateman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most famous for the dambusting raid in the darkest days of the Second World War, the No 617 Sqn were a vastly experienced crew. It was the first, and only, squadron to use certain equipment and weapons in combat. This study covers the history of the No 617 Squadron. It explains the men, aircraft, weapons and operations of this squadron.
Download or read book Return of the Dambusters written by John Nichol and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the RAF’s 617 Squadron during World War II, from bombing Nazi battleships to attempts on the lives of Hitler & Mussolini, and more. The Dambusters had another nickname—they were the “Suicide Squadron,” and these daring flyers were the go-to forces for dangerous precision attacks. They dropped the largest bombs ever built on Hitler’s prize battleship, Tirpitz, as well as rocket sites and secret weapon establishments; they were involved in attempts on the lives of enemy leaders, including Hitler and Mussolini; and they created a false fleet on D-Day, which fooled the Germans, among other crucial missions. but they also suffered brutal losses, with seventy-five percent of 617 Squadron killed in action by the end of the war. In this awe-inspiring book, John Nichol—himself a former RAF flight lieutenant—retraces the path of 617 Squadron’s most dangerous sorties, the ones largely lost to history. With the sensitivity of a fellow soldier, Nichol gains unprecedented access to the surviving Dambusters, whose moving personal stories add depth to this impressively researched history. The result is a tense, poignant story of courage by men who braved death time and time again in the name of freedom. Praise for Return of the Dambusters “A truly epic tale of courage and sacrifice—an intensely moving epitaph to the men of Bomber Command.” —Andy McNab, bestselling author of Bravo Two Zero “A straightforward account considers all sides to these precise missions.” —Kirkus Reviews “This is both an exciting book and a saddening one . . . a tale of victory, in the end, magnificently told in lip-biting detail.” —The Daily Mail (UK) “Drawing on interviews with survivors, as well as archive material . . . the book is [a] story of human suffering in the air and on the ground.” —The Times (UK)/
