Who can listen to Eric Coates's Dambusters March without tears pricking your eyes? The definitive oral history of the raid featuring contributions from Mission Commander Guy Gibson and Bouncing Bomb creator Barnes Wallis. The voices in this book show humour self-deprecation and unflinching honesty. The Dambusters raid was one of the most iconic missions of the Second World War. Three dams along Germany's Ruhr Valley, which powered the nation's industrial war effort, were the target. To overcome the torpedo nets and other defences, Barnes Wallis invented the 'bouncing' bomb to skim along the surface of the reservoirs before breaching the dam walls. 617 Squadron was chosen to deliver them. On the night of 1617 May 1943, 19 specially modified Lancaster bombers left Britain. Weeks of training under absolute secrecy were put to the test. Here, our dear last friend the acclaimed oral historian Max Arthur gathered together the voices of the Lancaster crews as well as the German civilians who endured the attack, compiling a unique picture of how the mission unfolded, and the devastation it caused. From the foreword by Stephen Fry: 'These men in their Lancasters look up in formation and flew low for hundreds of miles dropping an enormous bomb that is spinning at 500 revolutions per minute, from exactly the right height, at exactly the right speed, at exactly the right distance from the target, and then moved on to another target before returning home. Extraordinary.' 309pp, glossary, Paperback.
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