80 years ago today!

…….fly past of a Lancaster over Lincolnshire as we speak. Just had footage of it shown on The One Show.
 
133 men took part in the Dams Raid. 19 Lancaster’s each with a 7 man crew.
8 crews were lost,53 were men killed,3 taken prisoner.
80 men survived the raid.
Of these, 22 men were killed serving with 617 Squadron later in the war and 10 more were killed serving with other Squadrons.
Only 48 men who took part in the Raid survived the war.
Les Munro died in New Zealand in 2015 aged 96. The last surviving member Johnny Johnson’s funeral was in December 2022. He was 101 years old.
My relative Geoffrey Rice DFC died in Taunton aged 64 in 1981. He is commemorated with a Green Plaque beside the front entrance to the Sycamores pub in Burbage. His medals and original Dambusters 617 Squadron log book featured on Antiques Roadshow. The military expert valued them then at £20,000. A surviving Dambusters log book is uniquely rare!
 
Geoffrey Rice’s Lancaster was hit by flak returning from a later raid on Liege. He gave the order to bale out just before the aircraft blew up. He was miraculously saved only by his steel reinforced pilots seat. Somehow he was blown clear and managed to open his chute. He landed tangled in trees with a broken arm and cuts and bruises. Sadly the rest of his crew were not so lucky and all died in the crash.The Belgian resistance got him away and hid him until he was betrayed by an informer in Antwerp. He had a hard time interrogated by the Gestapo before eventually being sent to Stalag Luft III in Poland. He was in the forced march where many died from ill treatment on the way to another camp near Berlin. It was there that he was liberated and repatriated by the advancing Russian Red Army. He remained serving in the RAF until 1947.
 
On the actual Dambusters mission he took off in the second wave of Lancaster’s from Scampton that had the Sorpe Dam as its target. On crossing the Dutch coast at 60 feet and skipping some sand dunes one of his wing tips hit the sea as he changed course.Even the dark shadow of his own Lancaster on the sea in the moonlight could have had a disorientating effect on events.Only his superb pilot skills managed to get the aircraft back up in the air to return home in the luckiest of escapes. They lost the bomb on impact with the waves,the tail wheel was pushed up through the fuselage which became entirely awash with sea water,oil and disinfectant from the chemical toilet at the rear. The tail gunner was nearly drowned by the escaping water,through the resulting hole near the damaged tail wheel, as Geoffrey managed to steady the aircraft and turn it for home. He had to circle Scampton while his crew had to lower the landing gear manually because the hydraulics were buggered. Even then there was another narrow escape as Les Munro’s returning Lancaster,with the radio not working, flew underneath Geoffrey as he was trying to land and they had to pull up and circle again before he finally landed safely.
He was quizzed by Guy Gibson as to why he had lost the bomb but was exonerated of any blame. It was inevitable that flying so low at night there would be some “mishaps”. The second wave of Lancaster’s to the Sorpe turned out to be the unluckiest with more than their fair share of shot down aircraft and fatalities!
 
Thanks for this Borebage, I find it really fascinating not to mention awe inspiring

But what the fuck re you doing up at 4 o'clock in the morning?
 
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