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Mary Stopes-Roe
| Dr Mary Stopes-Roe (deceased) The daughter of Sir Barnes Wallis who, as a child, helped to inspire her father to invent Upkeep - the Bouncing Bomb - whilst the family was skipping stones across the water. Together with her brother and sister they assisted their father in his experiments catapulting her marbles over a washtub at home, later famously portrayed in the 1955 film The Dam Busters. After the war she became an eminent psychologist at Birmingham University. She died on 10th May 2019. |
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Approach to the Möhne Dam by Anthony Saunders. With the threat from Hitler's increasingly belligerent regime growing, minds within Britain's Air Ministry had already identified potential targets should the unthinkable happen and war with Germany become a reality. The list included the great dams of western Germany, some of the largest in the world. On 9 September 1939 Hitler's armies invaded Poland and, as Britain once again found herself at war with Germany, plans to attack the dams became a reality. Three were chosen as primary targets; the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams which between them controlled the vast supplies of water to the factories and manufacturing industries of the Ruhr. If these dams could be destroyed, the beating heart of industrial Germany would be dealt a heavy blow. But there were problems; the range and dam defences were too great for a low-level attack by existing aircraft and commando raids were thought suicidal, with little chance of success. Barnes Wallis, however, had an idea - a cylindrical 'bouncing bomb' codenamed Upkeep - a mine designed to skip across the surface of the water clearing the torpedo nets, and explode against a dam wall at a depth that would cause maximum destruction. To deliver his weapon, however, would require men of extraordinary flying skills, and an aircraft big enough for the job. By March 1943 all the criteria had been met; Upkeep was ready and tested, a new special squadron numbered 617 had been formed under Wing Commander Guy Gibson, and Avro's mighty Lancaster bomber was up to the task. On the evening of 16 May 1943, after weeks of intensive training, Gibson led the first wave of bombers away from RAF Scampton and set course for the Möhne dam. The Dambuster raid had begun. Following three attempts and the tragic loss of one aircraft the dam still held; it is now the turn of Flight Lieutenant David Maltby at the controls of Lancaster AJ-J to press home his attack. With Mick Martin drawing the enemy's fire to port and Guy Gibson to starboard, Maltby holds his aircraft steady and true as bomb aimer John Fort releases their Upkeep mine. The time was 00.49hrs on the morning of 17 May 1943 and the mine bounced to perfection, hit the target, sank, and detonated against the already damaged stone wall. Immeasurable pressure forced water through the groaning, already cracking blocks of granite until the dam could stand no more. The wall shuddered and then surrendered. 'There was a breach 100yds across,' Gibson wrote later, 'and the water, looking like stirred porridge in the moonlight, was gushing out and rolling into the Ruhr valley....' |
The Dambusters - Three Good Bounces by Robert Taylor. In the history of air warfare few missions come close in terms of courage and the highest skills of precision flying to the one carried out by 617 Squadron on the night of 16th-17th May 1943. Codenamed Operation Chastise, their mission was to destroy the great dams that were vital to the industries of the Ruhr and, to do so, they would use a radical new weapon designed by Barnes Wallis - a bouncing bomb that would skip across the water before detonating against the dam wall. On the night of 16th May, after seven weeks of intensive low level training, nineteen crews flew their Lancaster bombers from RAF Scampton to carry out what became one of the most legendary missions of all time. The result was the destruction of the Möhne and Eder dams. Robert Taylor's outstanding painting depicts a moment at the height of the successful attack on the Möhne Dam, the first of three primary targets that night, as 'Dinghy' Young powers Lancaster AJ-A over the wall of the dam just after releasing his bouncing bomb. Commanding Officer Guy Gibson, flying high with lights on to draw enemy flak, noted that Young's bomb made 'three good bounces' before successfully detonating against the dam wall to trigger its collapse. David Maltby in AJ-J will shortly deliver the final, decisive blow. |
Pathway to the Ruhr by Anthony Saunders. The words from Air Vice-Marshal the Hon. Ralph Cochrane., newly appointed as AOC of No.5 Group, to the young Wing Commander were simple enough. I can't tell you the target he continued but you've got to fly low-level, on the deck, and at night. As far as aircrews are concerned, I want the best - you choose them. And by the way... I want to see your aircraft flying on four days. Guy Gibson, the highly decorated Wing Commander concerned, had 173 operations behind him and was due to be rested when the unexpected call to see Cochrane had come. Would you like to do one more trip? he'd been asked. What kind of trip? he replied. An important one was all Cochrane would say and now, two days later, he was being asked to form a squadron. What the special target might be Gibson could only speculate but, whatever it was, he realised it would be dangerous. Cochrane had given him four days. Within an hour he'd selected the aircrew; he knew most of them personally and had flown with several before. There was no doubt they were the very best in Bomber Command. Exactly four days later Squadron X - soon to become 617 Squadron - was ready at RAF Scampton. Many familiar faces were there to meet him : amongst the pilots he spotted Hoppy Hopgood, Dave Shannon from Australia, and Canadian Lewis Burpee from his own 106 Squadron. together with Dinghy Young whom he'd chosen as a flight commander. The tall, lugubrious figure of New Zealander Les Munro was there along with two other pilots from 97 Squadron, David Maltby and the big, beefy, American pilot Joe McCarthy with his Bomb-Aimer George Johnny Johnson. His B flight commander, Henry Maudsley was there, as was Australian Mick Martin, the expert in low-level flying. Every one of the nineteen crews who would fly the mission was there and seven weeks of intensive low-level flying lay ahead before, on the afternoon of 16th May 1943, Gibson finally revealed the target - that night they were to attack the mighty dams of the Ruhr valley. |
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