Book Review –Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943
Chastise was the code name of an ambitious mission for the newly formed 617 Squadron, where on the 16th/17th May 1943 as nineteen specially modified Lancaster bombers with a crew of seven in each, 133 men in total led by led by twenty-four-year-old Guy Gibson, left the Scampton RAF (Royal Air Force) base in a dangerous and you could say, a suicide mission to fly over the occupied Holland to Germany, to fly as low as 150 feet/45meters, down to as low as 60 feet/18 meters above the man-made lake, in order to release the bomb, at the exactly the right position, that needed to skip across the few times across water so it would hit the dam wall, sink, which hopefully blow up and breach the walls and destroy the Mohne Dam especially important to destroy so it cause havoc of Germanys war industry, as well as the Eder Dam. Sorpe was another dam what was attacked, but caused little damage.
All the bombers were especially fitted with what was known as ‘bouncing bombs’, the concept devised by the brilliant engineer Barnes Wallis. They were known as Uptakes. The authorities were interested but there are many practical problems. Sir Author Harris, the British bomber command of the RAF was actually opposed to attacking the dams, as he thought it was a waste of time when it was better to burn German cities.
This is one of the famous stories of World War II. Max Hastings, I have found is an acclaimed military historian. His first book Bomber Command forty years ago, he interviewed many of the RAF personal when many were still alive at the time that included the survivors of Operation Chastise, Barnes Wallis, Author Harris aka ‘Bomber Harris’ whom the author was a great critic of and many others. In a novel like way, Hastings brings alive the trials of the bombs, the missions and pays tributes to all those involved. Yet, as they didn’t do any follow-up bombings of the area, the Germans were able to repair the Mohne and Eder dams, the factories and production soon started again. This was a mistake by the bomber command, so ultimately it didn’t affect the enemy very much.
He also looks at the human toll that is forgotten. The deaths of around 1500 people who died that night in what the Germans call Mohnekatastrophe. It was at that time the worst toll, which was soon surpassed by the Bomber command attack on Wuppertal with 3500 dead. The bombing wars were a terrible thing in the mistaken belief the more you try and bomb a city, the people will capitulate. It didn’t work with the British and neither did it work for the Germans. Hastings briefly talks of the crimes of bombing. That could be for another review if I write it for a book called The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945. I enjoyed this book, though it is not as technical than others but I assume this is the perfect introduction for anyone who wants to know the story of those heroic men. Eight Lancaster’s were lost that night, over fifty men died. Many who survived the mission would not survive the war itself. It is worth to note this was the only occasion the Uptakes were ever used.
Author: Max Hastings
Minimum Age: 16+
Type of Book: Military
Book Length: 364
Published: 2019
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