617 Squadron: the Dambusters at War

617 Squadron: the Dambusters at War PDF Author: Tom Bennett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description

617 Squadron: the Dambusters at War

617 Squadron: the Dambusters at War PDF Author: Tom Bennett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Dambusters and the Epic Wartime Raids of 617 Squadron

The Dambusters and the Epic Wartime Raids of 617 Squadron PDF Author: Military Gallery (Publisher)
Publisher: Griffon International
ISBN: 9780954997076
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
On the night of 16/17 May 1943 one of the most daring raids in the history of air warfare took place when nineteen crews from the newly-formed 617 Squadron successfully attacked the great dams of Germany. Their audacious low-level assault gained them immediate fame and legendary status. They were the Dambusters. Their incredible story is now told through an unparalleled collection of paintings and drawings from the archives of the Military Gallery. Featuring works from some of the world's most talented artists, the stunning visual record in this lavishly illustrated book provides a unique insight into the wartime exploits of 617 Squadron. However, it is not simply a collection of artwork; first and foremost it is a historically accurate recollection of events, painstakingly researched with the assistance of leading historians. Being illustrated by the world's leading military and aviation artists rather than photographs makes it a totally unique account and very different to any others.

617

617 PDF Author: Tim Bouquet
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1409144178
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
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.

Chastise

Chastise PDF Author: Max Hastings
Publisher: Collins
ISBN: 9780008280529
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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.

The Complete Dambusters

The Complete Dambusters PDF Author: Charles Foster
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750988487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
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.

Dam Busters

Dam Busters PDF Author: Ted Barris
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 144345544X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
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.

The Dambusters

The Dambusters PDF Author: John Sweetman
Publisher: Little Brown GBR
ISBN: 9780316726184
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The Dambusters' mission is of enduring fascination and appeal. The breaching of the dams in Germany's industrial heartland was to have a pivotal effect on the outcome of World War II. This book, accompanying a TV series of the same name, reveals the scientist behind the 'bouncing bomb' and re-enacts the mission.

Flight Artworks

Flight Artworks PDF Author: Gary Eason
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781320369176
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Collected in book form for the first time – and also available as an ebook – are some of Gary Eason's acclaimed Flight Artworks: carefully researched and crafted photorealistic pictures of historical air combat. This first volume presents images of WWII scenes, selected from artworks created since 2011."From my point of view as a pilot for the last 43 years and an RAF fighter pilot for 30 years, the realism he captures is uncanny ...". - Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Retd)Third edition, September 2015

The Dam Busters Story

The Dam Busters Story PDF Author: Jonathan Falconer
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
ISBN: 9780750947589
Category : Dams
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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.

Operation Chastise

Operation Chastise PDF Author: Max Hastings
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062953621
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
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.