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i see today is the anniversary of the dambuster raids,what an amasing operation that was ,the precision bombing and the courage of these men was outstanding,well done guy and his squadron.seafire

Yeppir, 1970 the beginning of the end for the Brit motorcyle industry.

I don’t think we can discuss this raid without mentioning a word or two on the leader of the parade, the enigmatic, utterly fearless, prickly, abrasive perfectionist, Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson. He was a man who was not easy to like, but universally admired and for good reason. There are some men, it appears, who are destined to live, no matter what risks they take (Churchill is the prime example) and Gibson was a senior member of this club for an amazingly lucky length of time. He was born in the Raj’s summer retreat of Simla, in India, his dad being a senior civil servant. Amusingly, for one of the RAF’s greatest all-time heroes, he was initially refused entry, due to being too small, but was eventually accepted at the age of 18. He actually flew into battle on the very day war was declared. He flew two operational tours, before being taken off the front line and made an instructor, but it was not for him. Gibson just wanted to kill Germans and if necessary, he would have continued on and fought the war alone. They thought he had finished with bombers after his tours of duty, so he decided to join fighter command instead and flew 99 sorties, claiming four kills, but his heart was with Bomber Command, and after another spell as an instructor, they put him in Lancs, where he became a legend. Although he was not a socialiser, in fact he was a bit of a loner, he was never short of people who wanted to fly with him, because he was considered a talisman, you flew with Guy, you got home. Before taking over 617 squadron (the Dambusters) he did a goodwill tour of America with other officers of the three services. To a packed audience he gave a quick lecture and when he was finished, he invited questions from them. A lady stood up and asked him how many bombing operations he had done. 170 he replied�? The audience was stunned into a reverent silence. After the raid on the Dams he got his VC and the authorities did not want him to fly again, so as not to give the Germans the propaganda coup of killing a national hero, but he could not be grounded, as he had a very important war to win. Leading a raid in a Mosquito, he crashed on his return, but nobody knows the reason for it and so died a very courageous and remarkable man. Barnes Wallis wrote these words about him following his death.

For some men of great courage and adventure, inactivity was a slow death. Would a man like Gibson ever have adjusted back to peacetime life? One can imagine it would have been a somewhat empty existence after all he had been through. Facing death had become his drug. He had seen countless friends and comrades perish in the great crusade. Perhaps something in him even welcomed the inevitability he had always felt that before the war ended he would join them in their Bomber Command Valhalla. He had pushed his luck beyond all limits and he knew it. But that was the kind of man he was…a man of great courage, inspiration and leadership. A man born for war…but born to fall in war.

Bomber Harris described him as "As great a warrior as this island ever produced"

CREW MEMBERS OF 617 SQN THAT TOOK PART IN THE 19 PLANE ATTACK THAT WEREN'T ENGLISH.

Plt Off Taerum RCAF - Canada
Plt Off Spafford RAAF - Australia
FS Deering RAF - Ireland
Fg Off Earnshaw RCAF - Canada
Plt Off Fraser RCAF - Canada
Fg Off Burcher RAAF - Australia
Flt Lt Martin RAF - Australia
Flt Lt Leggo RAAF - Australia
Fg Off Chamber RNZAF - New Zealand
Flt Lt Hay RAAF - Australia
Plt Off Foxlee RAAF - Australia
FS Simpson RAAF - Australia
Sqn Ldr Young RAF - USA
Fg Off MacCausland RCAF - Canada
Fg Off Wile RCAF - Canada
Sgt Garshowits RCAF - Canada
Sgt Garbas RCAF - Canada
Fg Off Urquhart RCAF - Canada
Sgt Cottam RCAF - Canada
Flt Lt Knight RAAF - Australia
Sgt Kellow RAAF - Australia
Sgt Sutherland RCAF - Canada
Sgt O'Brien RCAF - Canada
Flt Lt Shannon RAAF - Australia
Fg Off Walker RCAF - Canada
Flt Lt McCarthy RCAF - USA
Sgt Radcliffe RAF - Canada
FS McLean RCAF - Canada
Fg Off Rodger RCAF - Canada
Sgt Byers RCAF - Canada
Sgt McDowell RCAF - Canada
Flt Lt Barlow RAAF - Australia
Fg Off Williams RAAF - Australia
Fg Off Glinz RCAF - Canada
Sgt Gowrie RCAF - Canada
FS Thrasher RCAF - Canada
Flt Lt Munro RNZAF - New Zealand
Sgt Pigeon RCAF - Canada
FS Weeks RCAF - Canada
Plt Off Howard RAAF - Australia
FS Brown RCAF - Canada
Sgt Oancia RCAF - Canada
Plt Off Burpee RCAF - Canada
Sgt Arthur RCAF - Canada
FS Brady RCAF - Canada

3 other Canadian airmen were trained but did not go on the raid because of illness.

A PIC FOR SEAFIRE OF THE MOHNE-SEE DAM TAKEN BY ME IN 1969.

OF THE 19 PLANES SENT 11 RETURNED.

Flt Lt Munro RNZAF is the last surviving pilot. There are two or three other crewmen still living too.

thanks a lot pete great pic,i did not realise how many australian and canadian crew there was.seafire

Kiwi VIP Dambuster guest (+video)

EMILY WATT and NZPA - The Dominion Post | Monday, 19 May 2008

Kiwi Dambuster Les Munro has made a bitter-sweet return to Britain, as the last surviving pilot, to mark the 65th anniversary of the raids.
View video: Kiwi dambuster guest of honour

The 89-year-old, from Tauranga, was one of 19 Lancaster pilots who flew in the May 1943 mission to blow up German dams. Mr Munro flew to England as a VIP guest to attend the anniversary celebration at the weekend, marked by one of the last two airworthy Lancaster bombers flying over Derwent Dam, in Derbyshire, northern England, where 617 Squadron had practised for the raids.

He was able to reminisce with surviving engineers and ground staff at the gathering.

"It's a great feeling to be able to come back and meet comrades from that time," Mr Munro said.

"In a way, it's very emotional. I'm not one to get emotional about things, but it's very nice to be back here. I'm very pleased to have had the opportunity to attend.

"I feel a great deal of pride in the fact that I took part in the dam raid itself and, as a consequence, trained on the Derwent water. We were actually . . . lining up those two towers as the main objective of our approach," he recalled.

He said he felt "a certain amount of pride" in outlasting the other pilots, many of whom did not survive the raids, in which 53 aircrew were killed and three taken prisoner.

"I think that I've always had a bit of satisfaction in that I've outlasted many of the others."

The Dambusters' raid delivered a specialised bouncing bomb designed to spin backwards, skipping over torpedo nets, before sinking at the walls of the dam and exploding. They had to be dropped from low altitude.

Mr Munro's Lancaster, W-Willie, was damaged by gunfire over Holland and turned back to England, unable to drop its bouncing bomb. Nonetheless, he won medals for his involvement and was promoted to squadron leader.

The Dambusters mission involved 133 people, including the 19 pilots, who smashed the Moehne and Eder dams on May 16, 1943. The resulting floods killed 1200 people and destroyed several factories.

Wellington film-maker Peter Jackson is producing a $66 million remake of the classic 1954 movie The Dam Busters, and is reportedly building 10 replicas of a Lancaster bomber.

Mr Munro earlier told The Dominion Post he had met Jackson. "I jokingly remarked to him he might want to use my services as a pilot."

I believe Gibson agitated strenously to be allowed to continue active operations ..... and was allowed to.

After receiving his VC Gibson wrote an account of his wartime career, Enemy Coast Ahead and was sent on a lecture tour of the United States by the government, partly to keep the new hero safe. The tour was "at a time when the first American airmen were coming home 'tour expired' after 25 operations. During questions one young lady asked 'Wing Commander Gibson, how many operations have you been on over Germany?' 'One hundred and seventy-four.' There was a stunned silence." ^[2]

Mr Munro was flown over especially to attend the reunion and the highlight of the meeting was held at Derwent water itself, where the last surviving flying Lancaster in Britain flew in low across the water to recreate what Les Munro and his colleagues had done. I recall many years ago, they did the same thing, only then there were far more survivors present back then. Afterwards, one of the pilots said.... I can't believe I survived, I could have thrown an orange at it and hit it. The nationality list is representative and testimony to the fantastic contribution of, what was then, the Empire countries, without whom, Britain would have been in deep doo-doo. Fighter command could boast an even more cosmopolitan force. Their success owed so much to another great New Zealander, Keith Park.

Pete, ref #17 - You mean the English used somebody else to do their dirty work for em?????? A point I have been making for years now & of course I have been suffering a severe bashing by Flash for my honesty but it is a burden I gladly bear.

Yes Tom, they were part of the large slave contingent we fetched here in chains and forced them to work.

Major, I see no Irish in this contingent. Perhaps they were better navigators eh?

Yes there is Tom, there's one Murphy amongst'em... FS Deering. Despite the despicable attitude of the Irish government in WW2, many ordinarry Irish volunteered for the British army.

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