John Nichol - Return of the Dambusters - What 617 Squadron Did Next

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com

First published in Great Britain as After the Flood by William Collins in 2015

Text © John Nichol 2015

John Nichol asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover photographs © Fox Photos/Stringer (men); Shutterstock.com(plane, clouds)

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Source ISBN: 9780008100315

Ebook Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 9780008100865

Version: 2016-05-18

For Sophie

This book is dedicated to all the members of 617 Squadron, on the ground and in the air, who served during the Second World War with such courage and fortitude. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Maps

Author’s Note

1. The Dams

2. What Next?

3. Press On, Regardless

4. Death or Glory

5. Spring 1944

6. The End of the Beginning

7. The Fight Goes On

8. Terror Weapons

9. Mac’s Gone!

10. Life and Death on 617 Squadron

11. The Beast

12. ‘What Have You Been Doing Today?’

13. Back to the Tirpitz

14. The Last Christmas?

15. The Final Days

16. Counting the Cost

Picture Section

Notes

Sources and Bibliography

Picture Credits

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by John Nichol

About the Publisher

‘ Après moi, le déluge …’

King Louis XV’s last words became the motto of the most famous bomber squadron in history – 617 Squadron RAF – the Dambusters. Their role in Operation Chastise – the attack on the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams at the heart of the industrial Ruhr valley on 17 May 1943 – has been celebrated in print and on screen for more than seventy years. But what 617 Squadron did in the aftermath of this iconic raid is far less well known.

617 Squadron was a specialist squadron, formed from some of the RAF’s most brilliant and experienced aircrews for one specific task: breaching the dams. However, British commanders were soon finding other targets for their elite Dambusting squadron, and it was to play the lead role in a series of much less well-known but almost equally eye-catching attacks that destroyed some of the Nazis’ most deadly weapons and wrecked key parts of Germany’s industrial infrastructure.

617 Squadron’s devastating raids caught the imagination, raised the morale of the British public and made headlines around the world. More important, they also helped to tip the balance of hostilities in the Allies’ favour, saved countless thousands of lives and arguably contributed to shortening the war.

A 617 Squadron Lancaster takes off for the iconic raid on the German dams

During the dark days of 1940, 1941 and the early part of 1942, when the British public had been forced to swallow an unremitting diet of blood, sweat, tears, toil and gloom, the RAF and Bomber Command had offered almost the only glimmers of hope. Despite the propaganda spin, while the evacuation of Dunkirk reduced the scale of disaster, it was a disaster nonetheless. British defeats by the Afrika Korps on the battlefields of North Africa and by the Japanese in the Far East – where the surrender at Singapore on 15 February 1942 was not just the greatest humiliation in Britain’s military history, but the moment from which the end of Empire could be said to have begun – continued the string of military reverses. Only in the air, where RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes had defeated the German bombers in the Battle of Britain and Bomber Command was relentlessly taking the war to Germany’s industrial cities, could Britain be said to be on the offensive.