The Dambuster: The Rise of RAF Precision Bombing March 1943 - May 1944: Vol 1

It is a story that has been told on numerous occasions. Still, it has an air of improbability about it. A low flying aircraft, faced with an onslaught of Flak, releases a cylindrical, back spinning bomb that bounces across the water, against a dam, and succeeds in destroying it. Operation Chastise has captured the imagination of generations since its completion on the 17th of May 1943, but few know that the same squadron charged with the destruction of the dams was also involved in many of the most daring and devastating air attacks of the war, taking on the targets deemed too difficult, too well-defended and too strong for regular squadrons.Over the next two years this one squadron would go on to sink the battleship Tirpitz, demolish impregnable U-boat pens and smash deadly V-weapon sites. They would pioneer new methods of attack and target marking, and forever erase the RAF s reputation for inaccuracy. Their story is both unique and familiar, serving to remind us all of the sacrifice made by a generation to ensure the freedoms all of us enjoy today. They must not be forgotten - this is their story. See more