Between them, the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams provided vital water supplies to the industries of the Ruhr. To breach these dams and unleash millions of gallons of floodwaters would not only deprive Germany's war industry of its lifeblood, it would also wreak havoc in the Ruhr and Eder valleys and crush civilian morale.
Operation Chastise had all the ingredients of a classic war story: a miracle 'bouncing bomb', an eccentric inventor, a secret squadron formed from the very best crews the RAF could muster, and a seemingly impossible task of destroying a clutch of hitherto unassailable targets. Success in the task could alter the course of the war, but the final result was a pyrrhic victory. Two of the three main targets were destroyed, a Victoria Cross was awarded to the squadron's gallant leader, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, but an unsustainable casualty rate saw nearly half of 617's crews killed.
In later years the strategic impact of the dams raid has been called into question, but the fillip it gave to civilian and Service morale in wartime Britain was incalcuable. In 1954 the raid was immortalised in the film The Dam Busters, starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd.
Lavishly illustrated and featuring rare colour archive photographs of some of the aircrew who flew on the raid, The Dam Busters is a worthy tribute both to those who lost their lives and to the scale of their achievement.
