Dambusters ! : The Inside Story of the Most Famous Bombing Raid of WWII

The original story of the Dam Busters by the bomber pilot who led the daring raid.

This new illustrated Kindle edition published by Spitfire Publishers in May 2019 is illustrated with 33 rare contemporary colour and black and white photographs.

Includes a rare interview with Guy Gibson from November 1943, additional primary documents detailing the mission and a comprehensive list of the aircrew involved and their fates.

THE DAM BUSTERS is the most detailed and authoritative first hand account of the Dam Buster raid in existence. Guy Gibson, VC, commander of the mission and 617 Squadron, had flown over 170 operations and was Bomber Commands most experienced and gifted pilot and a natural choice to lead the crack new squadron tasked with destroying three dams deep in German territory.

The Dam Buster raid (officially known as Operation Chastise) of the 16/17 May 1943 proved to be one of the iconic missions of the Second World War. It is not difficult to see why – Barnes Wallis’s ingenious bouncing bomb, matched to the seat-of-the-pants bravery of 133 airmen flying nineteen modified Lancaster bombers to precision bomb a tiny target at night. The success of the mission was as much of a PR coup as it was a devastating blow to the German’s industrial might. However, the human cost was high, eight Lancasters were shot down and 53 airmen lost their lives.

Gibson’s vivid narrative puts you into one of those Lancasters, flying at tree-top height across Europe and on the most dramatic bomb-run of all time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Guy Gibson was born in India in 1918 to English parents. He joined the RAF in 1936 and led a distinguished career as a bomber pilot and squadron leader culminating in the successful breaching of the Möhne and Eder dams on the night of 16/17 May 1943 for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Gibson wrote his memoir of the raid in early 1944 whilst off operations and on a lecture tour of America at the behest of Churchill’s government, partly to keep the new national hero safe. He was killed in action over enemy territory in September 1944, aged just 26 leaving a wife, Eve.