A Dambuster? It’s like crawling bent-double into a giant cigar tube
Of the 19 aircraft which set out on Operation Chastise, eight were shot down, with 53 men lost in action while another three became prisoners of war.
On May 17, television historian Dan Snow will host a Dambusters evening at the Royal Albert Hall, with the history of the raid explained by former Army Air Corps Colonel Paul Beaver.
This will be followed by a screening of the new remastered version of the 1955 epic film The Dam Busters.
In recent years there have been claims that the raid achieved little more than a propaganda success.
But, Mr Beaver said: “The raid put back the production of tanks and aircraft for six months. To rebuild the dams the Germans had to use 70,000 workers, including men who were supposed to be building the Atlantic Wall shore defences in France which, as a result, were not finished on D-Day in June 1944 [when the allies landed in Normandy to begin the campaign to liberate north-west Europe].
“Forty-five miles of road and railway were washed away, 23 bridges destroyed and three coal mines shut down.
“The naysayers do not understand what the raid achieved.”
Mr Snow added: “The raid was that extraordinary combination of free thinking, innovation, cutting-edge technology and basic balsa wood gadgets, as well as old-fashioned bravery and deception.”
For tickets to the Dambusters night please go to www.thedambusters75.co.uk Our man John, above left and left, in the cockpit of the Lancaster which sat outside the Albert Hall yesterday with re-enactors, top right, to promote a night to celebrate the raids, right, in 1943