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History on your Doorstep V
It was announced in the press last week that RAF 617 squadron, aka the Dambusters will be temporarily disbanded until they receive their new fleet of F35´s in around 2 years time.
The Dambusters are so called for the successful raids carried out on the Mohne and Eider Dams in Germany in 1943 using the unique bouncing bomb, designed by Barnes Wallis, Britains most famous wartime engineer. In addition, he was the inventor of the Geodesic airframe used in the R100 Airship and Wellington bomber,and was the inventer of the first bunker busting bomb.
During the war, Barnes Wallis was working initially at Brooklands Airfield in Surrey, but the staff based there were dispersed around the surrounding areas to avoid being bombed by the Luftwaffe. Barnes Wallis was sent to nearby Burhill Golf club.
The concept of the bouncing bomb was inspired by skipping stones and golf balls mishit over water hazards. Barnes Wallis figured out that if you could get a bomb to bounce across water, you could deliver it to targets protected by torpedo nets, such as hydroelectric dams and large ships in safe moorings. He tried out his idea using marbles on a pond in his garden, and using golf balls and a catapult at Silvermere lake, which is were I first learnt to play golf, when I lived in the area in the late 80´s,and lost hundreds of golf balls.
He proposed his ideas to the War Ministry and was given a green light to develop it. Although called the "Bouncing Bomb", it was in reality a depth charge with a fuse set to explode at 30 feet depth, in order to maximise damage. Initially spherically shaped with dimples (like a golf ball), it became apparent that a cylindrical shape, like a Barrel was more effective. Taking the golf inspiration further, he developed a means of giving it a back spin, which slowed it relative to the aircraft, increased its range and reduced the rebound on reaching its target
Here is a video of some of the tests of prototypes
After successful testing, a raid, codenamed Operation Chastise, was planned for the night 16/17May 1943 to bomb the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams on the Ruhr in West Germany. Testing had shown that success was dependent upon very strict criteria
Bombing from an altitude of 60 ft (18 m), at an air speed of 240 mph (390 km/h), and at a pre-selected distance from the target called for expert crews. Intensive night-time and low-altitude flight training began.
In the absence of radar guidance, some very rudimentary aiming methods were used.For the height, 2 downward angled search lights were set up such that when at exactly 60 feet thebeams were aligned. For the distance, a forked wooden tool which was measured to align with two hilltops on the sides of the targets.
Of the targets,Both the Mohne and Eder dams were breached, although it took multiple bombs to achieve this.Of the 19 lancasters who went on the raid, 8 were lost with 53 dead. In Germany some 1600 people died, a large part of these being forced labor prisoners. Several hundred factories downstream were damaged or destroyed, and the loss of the hydropower from the dams further restricted production.
Here is the Mohne Dam in May 1943
source Wikipedia
Despite the huge damage, the Germans were able to repair the dams within six months using prisoner labor.
And here is one I took last week.
As an end note, the code word for a successful breach of a dam to be transmitted in morse was "Ni**er", apparently chosen because of this was the name of the CO´s (Guy Gibson) black labrador. I don´t think that would be the choice today!
So what´s on your mind today?