Welcome to E-Goat :: The Totally Unofficial Royal Air Force Rumour Network
Join our free community to unlock a range of benefits like:
  • Post and participate in discussions.
  • Send and receive private messages with other members.
  • Respond to polls and surveys.
  • Upload and share content.
  • Gain access to exclusive features and tools.
Join 7.5K others today

Dambusters 65th Anniversary

  • Following weeks of work, the E-GOAT team are delighted to present to you a new look to the forums with plenty of new features. Take a look around and see what you think!
Trending This Week
View More Trending
M

mad_collie

The Other Mods Made Me Do It
4,273
36
0
This weekend is the 65th anniversary of OP CHASTISE, arguably the RAF's most famous mission in WWII.

On Fri 16 May 08 the BBMF Lancaster will being flying around Derwent Water, where the practices were made prior to the raids on the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams. Following this the Lancaster will fly over RAF Scampton, from where the mission was launched. Hopefully the Lancaster will passing over the Lincoln area at around 1100L.

RAF Scampton will hold an all ranks dining in night in the evening to commemorate the event.
 
Ex-Bay said:
Wish I could be there and see it.
But I thought they took off From Woodhall Spa?
Click to expand...

Dams raid was launched from Scampton

Dambuster bases in WWII

Scampton March - August 1943
Coningsby - August 1943
Woodhall Spa - Some time in late 43 / Early 44. (Woodhall was an out station of Coningsby anyway).

Haven't got access to the book with the dates in it at the minute.
 
Splendid stuff. I was at the 45th Anniv' thrash in Goose Bay of all places - we were doing a bit of low flying out there.

The CO (who incidentally had a black Lab' who's name rhymed with Rigger) pulled a few strings and a few of the "originals" flew out and joined us as special guests. Amazing blokes, I couldn't believe how young they all were at the time. Gibson was the Wing Co at 22 yrs old, there was no-one else left !!
 
Ex-Bay said:
Wish I could be there and see it.
But I thought they took off From Woodhall Spa?
Click to expand...

IIRC they flew the training missions from Woodhall Spa, in secret.
The crews were even messed in a local hotel (the petwood?)to stop them discussing the mision with outsiders.
 
Nice to see our "Special Relationship" American Friends talking about it out here. And no mumblings of when we bailed you out of dubya dubya two either.

:PDT_Xtremez_30:
 
Inevertouchedit said:
Splendid stuff. I was at the 45th Anniv' thrash in Goose Bay of all places - we were doing a bit of low flying out there.

The CO (who incidentally had a black Lab' who's name rhymed with Rigger) pulled a few strings and a few of the "originals" flew out and joined us as special guests. Amazing blokes, I couldn't believe how young they all were at the time. Gibson was the Wing Co at 22 yrs old, there was no-one else left !!
Click to expand...

More like 23 1/2 when he made acting Wing Co in April 42 (he had joined the RAF at 18 in 1936) and had two operational tours under his belt, one on Bombers (83 Sqn Hampdens) and one on Night Fighters (29 Sqn Beaufighters, where he got four kills) by that time. He was very good at what he did, thats why he was promoted so quickly after the war started (saying that there were quite a few guys promoted just as fast, like Bob Barham, who was on 29 Sqn with Gibson).

Tashy_Man said:
And apparently to be shown live on BBC News channel at 10:30 ish

Crack on.................:PDT_Xtremez_09:
Click to expand...

Did quite a good job of it as well, thanks to the fact that they had a histoian who knew his subject, unlike the Sky News bod that stated that Gibson was killed in 1945 (Sept 1944 in fact).
 
Tashy_Man said:
So the commentator said on the third pass the Lancaster would be joined by present day 617 Sqn Tornado's....where were they ?

Crack on...................:PDT_Xtremez_09:
Click to expand...

Maybe they got lost!?! They buzzed our place around 11 o'clock, followed shortly afterwards by the Lanc and a Hurri.
 
Tashy_Man said:
So the commentator said on the third pass the Lancaster would be joined by present day 617 Sqn Tornado's....where were they ?

Crack on...................:PDT_Xtremez_09:
Click to expand...

Two Tornado's from 617Sqn flew over the Dam at about 1045ish. Watched it all live on BBC News. Made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

Would the Tornado's be able to fly slow enough to match the speed of the Lanc to fly in formation?
 
Ex-Bay said:
Wish I could be there and see it.
But I thought they took off From Woodhall Spa?
Click to expand...
There's a very good film called "Dambusters" about this very subject. I'm sure it's available on DVD.
 
fathairyfairy said:
There's a very good film called "Dambusters" about this very subject. I'm sure it's available on DVD.
Click to expand...

A good film, without doubt. However made when most of the story of bouncing bomb was still classified, and a lot was missed out or only covered by one line. The Sorpe dam was 2nd major target, and had 5 aircraft from the force were targeted on it (plus 3 aircraft from the reserve force) as though Wallis thought that one 'Upkeep' Bomb would break the Mohne and Eder dams, he though it would have taken 6 correctly dropped 'Upkeep's' at least to break the Sorpe (which were not bounced by the way). That part of the mission and the fact that a good number of the Gongs won on the night went to two crews in the reserve wave are not even covered in the 1955 film. Hopefully Peter Jackson’s remake will make up for the omission, instead of being just a modern day rehash like King Kong was.
 
It`s a shame they couldn`t overfly the original sites to remind harry hunn and billy bosch who won the pesky war!!:PDT_Xtremez_40:
 
fathairyfairy said:
There's a very good film called "Dambusters" about this very subject. I'm sure it's available on DVD.
Click to expand...

There's an even better book !

A cousin of mine brought back the following picture from a trip to Germany just about at the end of the War:
 

Attachments

  • DAMS1Copy.jpg
    DAMS1Copy.jpg
    58.2 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
grumpyoldb said:
Here's a video taken from inside the lanc yesterday...................
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7405514.stm
Click to expand...


Superb.

Darn that fly, kept thinking there was a Messerschmit coming for us at one o`clock. That Tornado went to sort him though.

And theres no truth in the rumour i was screaming `pull up pull up` approaching the hills.


Better men than me, without a doubt. True heroes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top