BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 43
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
intensive training in low-level night flying and
navigation in and around the secret chosen
location in Scotland, until they were deemed
ready enough to undertake the dangerous
and life threatening 'Operation Chastise'.
The three main targets were the
Möhne , Ed er and Sorpe dams.
The Möhne was a curved gravity
structure forty metres high and six
hundred and fifty metres in length.
There were tree-covered hills around this
reservoir however attacking aircraft could be
easily spotted on any immediate approach.
The Eder was of similar construction but
being a more winding reservoir, an even more
challenging target, which was bordered by
steep hills allowing the only way to approach,
was to come in from the north.
The Sorpe was another differing type of
construction having a watertight concrete core
which was a staggering ten metres wide.
At each end of this reservoir the land
rose steeply, but there was also another
unrelated object that had to be avoided; a
tall church spire that rose heavenly into
the sky but hellishly, into the direct path of
the attacking aircraft.
THE NIGHT OF THE RAID
At exactly 21.28 hours on the evening of
May 16th, 1943 one hundred and thirty-three
aircrew ensconced within nineteen heavily
armed Lancaster bombers, took off in three
waves on their way to attack the targeted
German dams.
As Flight Commander, Guy Gibson flew
in the leading wave, with his aircraft being
the first to attack the Möhne three hours
later at 12.28am on the 17th; however
those five aircraft had to drop all their
bombs before this particular dam could be
finally breached.
The remaining planes still had to release
their deadly cargos on the Eder before it too
finally collapsed at 1.52am in the early hours.
Meanwhile, the aircraft from the two
other waves had also bombed the Sorpe
but defiantly it had remained intact.
Of the full complement of airmen who took
part in the overnight raid, fifty-three of them
were killed, with three others taken prisoner.
One of those brave airmen paying the
supreme sacrifice during the bombing
was twenty-three year old Londonderry
born Flight Sergeant Richard Bolitho,
who died when his ED-864 plane struck
a 100,000 high voltage electricity mast
and burst into flames near the Marbeck
Canal, before crashing to the ground.
Although the immediate impact was to
limit Germany's industrial production, the
raid did give a significant morale boost to
the people of Britain, with the surviving
crew of the 617 Squadron being lauded as
heroes, as well as establishing it as a
specialist precision unit, experimenting
with new bomb-sights, target marking
techniques and colossal new earthquake
type bombs which were being further
developed by Professor Wallis.
FOR HIS PART IN THE DARING RAID, GUY
GIBSON WAS AWARDED THE VICTORIA CROSS.
"Let there not be a man or a woman among us who, when the war is
over, will not then be able to say: I was no t idle, I took such part as I
could in the greatest task wh ich in all the storied annals of our
Country, has ever fallen to the lot of Great Brit ain to achie ve."
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 41 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING