The Complete Dambusters

Author : Charles Foster
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 0750988487
Total Pages : 511 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Complete Dambusters written by Charles Foster and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 16 May 1943, nineteen Lancaster aircraft from the RAF's 617 Squadron set off to attack the great dams in the industrial heart of Germany. Flying at a height of 60ft, they dropped a series of bombs which bounced across the water and destroyed two of their targets, thereby creating a legend. The one-off operation combined an audacious method of attack, technically brilliant flying and visually spectacular results. But while the story of Operation Chastise is well known, most of the 133 'Dambusters' who took part in the Dams Raid have until now been just names on a list. They came from all parts of the UK and the Commonwealth and beyond, and each of them was someone's son or brother, someone's husband or father. This is the first book to present their individual stories and celebrate their skill, heroism and, for many, sacrifice.

Author : Max Arthur
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0753517876
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Dambusters written by Max Arthur and published by Random House. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the night of 16-17 May 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron headed for Germany. Their mission, for which they had been trained under a cloak of absolute secrecy, was to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley and in doing so cripple the Nazi industrial war effort. It was to become one of the most famous raids of WW2. For the first time, acclaimed oral historian Max Arthur has gathered together the voices of the 'Dambusters', including Guy Gibson, commander of the mission and Barnes Wallis, who developed the iconic Bouncing Bomb. These voices tell of the hard training and sheer bravery that went into this legendary mission. We also hear from the German civilians who suffered the attack, who speak of the devastation that was wrought in their lives. This was a raid like no other, and in this extraordinary collection Max Arthur has created an enduring record of a unique event in British military history.

Author : James Holland
Publisher : Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0802193064
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Dam Busters written by James Holland and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-11-04 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the British-made bombs, Upkeep and Highball, successfully dropped on Nazi dams “has never been told in such depth before” (Daily Mail, UK). The night of May 16, 1943: Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from an RAF airfield in Lincolnshire, England, each with a huge nine-thousand-pound cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three hydroelectric dams that power the Third Reich’s war machine. It was a suicide mission from the outset. First the men had to fly extremely low, at night, and in tight formation over miles of enemy-occupied territory. Then they had to drop with pinpoint precision a complicated spinning cylindrical bomb that had never before been used operationally. More than that, the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks in order to hit the dams when water levels were still high enough for the bombs to be effective. The visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis hadn’t even drawn up plans for his concept when the bouncing bomb was green-lighted. What followed was an incredible race against time that, despite numerous setbacks, became one of the most successful and significant bombing raids of all time. “Holland has delved into the new trove” of declassified documents “to shed light on this weapons program, the politics of its development and the eventual mission” (The Wall Street Journal). “An impeccably researched work in the style of a fast-paced techno-thriller.” —Publishers Weekly “Extremely detailed but never dull . . . Holland offers a definitive, nuts-and-bolts history.” —Kirkus Reviews “A well-written study of engineering and invention operating under great pressure. . . . For all World War II history buffs.” —Library Journal, starred review

Author : Jonathan Falconer
Publisher : Sutton Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780750947589
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Dam Busters Story written by Jonathan Falconer and published by Sutton Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The RAF's dam buster raid of May 16th and 17th, 1943 is one of the most famous stories of the Second World War. The author narrates its planning, dramatic execution and aftermath and draws on a superb selection of color and black and white photographs. He lists the Lancasters and crews that flew in the raid, and what became of them.

Author : Guy Gibson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Enemy Coast Ahead written by Guy Gibson and published by . This book was released on 1946 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Max Hastings
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062953621
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Operation Chastise written by Max Hastings and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Nonfiction of 2020 -- Kirkus Reviews One of the most lauded historians of our time returns to the Second World War in this magnificent retelling of the awe-inspiring raid on German dams conducted by the Royal Army Force’s 617 Squadron. The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story—and the later wartime experience of the 617 Squadron—has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know. The RAF had identified the Ruhr dams as strategic objectives as far back as 1938; in those five years Wing Commander Guy Gibson formed and trained the 617 Squadron. Hastings observes that while the dropping of Wallis’s mines provided the dramatic climax, only two of the eight aircraft lost came down over the dams—the rest were shot down on the flight to, or back from, the mission. And while the 617 Squadron’s valor is indisputable, the ultimate industrial damage caused by the dam raid was actually rather modest. In 1943, these brave men caught the imagination of the world and uplifted the weary spirits of the British people. Their achievement unnerved the Nazi high command, and caused them to expend large resources on dam defenses—making the mission a success. An example of Churchill’s “military theatre” at its best, what 617 Squadron did was an extraordinary and heroic achievement, and a triumph of British ingenuity and technology—a story to be told for generations to come. Operation Chastise includes three 8-page black-and-white photo inserts and 6 maps.

Author : Max Hastings
Publisher : Collins
ISBN 13 : 9780008280529
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Chastise written by Max Hastings and published by Collins. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A masterly history of the Dambusters raid from bestselling and critically acclaimed Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the overnight destruction of the Möhne and Eder dams in north-west Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron, was an epic that has passed into Britain's national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who won the VC leading the raid. In the 21st Century, however, Hastings urges that we should review the Dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was wholly authentic, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, who invented the 'bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised wildly. What Germans call the Möhnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams at the cost of devastating losses. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Möhne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers under Hitler. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris gained much of the credit, though he opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. He also made what the author describes as the operation's biggest mistake - the failure to launch a conventional attack on the Nazis' huge post-raid repair operation, which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches upon Ruhr industry. Chastise offers a fascinating retake on legend by a master of the art. Hastings sets the dams raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history.

Author : Jenny Elmes
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 0750964529
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book M-Mother written by Jenny Elmes and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John ‘Hoppy’ Hopgood, pilot and 2nd in command in the May 1943 Dambusters raid, died a hero at just 21 years old. Wounded by flak and with his Lancaster M-Mother ablaze, Hoppy had no hope of escape yet managed to gain height for two of his crew to parachute to safety. The plane crashed moments later.Using Hoppy’s school diary and letters to his mother and sister, this book tells the story of how a boy from a small Surrey village matured into a gutsy war hero. A veteran of forty-eight bombing sorties and an expert pilot in three Bomber Command Squadrons, this is the man who taught Guy Gibson how to fly a Lancaster.

Author : Paul Brickhill
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Dam Busters written by Paul Brickhill and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Steve Darlow
Publisher : Fighting High
ISBN 13 : 9780957116344
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Dam Busters written by Steve Darlow and published by Fighting High. This book was released on 2013-01-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the nineteen aircrews of No.617 Squadron who carried out the May 1943 attack on dams that were viewed as essential to Germany's war efforts. Of the 56 airmen, 53 were killed and 3 were captured. Their stories are told through family archives, official documents, flying logbooks, and witness recollections.