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Dam Busters Manual: A Guide to the Weapons Technology Used Against the Dams and Special Targets of Nazi-Occupied Europe
The famous dams raid in May 1943 was made possible only by the fusion of cutting-edge technology with the raw courage of a hand-picked squadron of RAF airmen. The incredible bouncing bomb, used to devastating effect by 617 Squadron on the Ruhr dams, was the vanguard of a whole train of technical developments that made this and other precision raids possible. Using the Haynes Manual approach, Iain Murray describes the technology behind the bouncing bomb as well as the heavily modified Lancasters that were used to deliver the weapons.
- GenresAviation
160 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 14, 2020
Published in 2011, 'Dam Busters - 1943 onwards' is a novelty Haynes manual which looks at the weapons used by and various missions carried out by specially trained RAF such as 617 Squadron during WW2. The Dam Busters operation of May 1943 is the obvious example, and it does occupy nearly 60 pages of the book. Thereafter, much space is devoted to weapons like the Tallboy and the Grand Slam bomb series and the missions in which they were used. This is accompanied by a lot of technical detail of how the weapons worked, with excerpts from technical documents and pics of preserved items of equipment alongside many terrific wartime images. A very impressive presentation.
August 11, 2016
This is a detailed and interesting close look at the weapons and tactics used by 617 Squadron during the Second World War. It can be argued that 617 Squadron truly were the progenitors of today's precision strikes using precision weapons.
The first part of the book is in many ways the most frustrating, because it is Operation Chastise, the dams raid, that really made 617's reputation and remains probably the most famous aerial operation of the war. But the nasty fact is, much of what is "known" about the aircraft and weapons has had to be back-engineered from fuzzy photographs and imprecise descriptions. Incredibly, the most detailed information we have on the operational Upkeep mine comes from German documentation on one they were fortunate to find intact, the mine having been flung clear of the crashing Lancaster AJ-E and failing to detonate. Fortunately Murray reproduces the German drawings, with captions in English, for this Upkeep. However, in other places he alludes to German information without reproducing it; the bomb bay fittings and especially the placement of the rear light on the aircraft are still a mystery and might be found in or puzzled out from the German sources, since they carefully examined the crashed aircraft.
For the later weapons used by 617, the 12,000 lb lightcase blockbuster, and the series of medium capacity earthquake bombs codenamed "Tallboy" (interestingly, the true name for Grand Slam, the 22,000 pound earthquake bomb, was Tallboy Large), there is a great deal more information since the weapons and aircraft were much more thoroughly documented. One can only marvel at the poor apprentices who climbed into the castings of the earthquake bombs to smooth out the interior with an angle grinder! The missions on which these weapons were employed are described in detail, including a number of fairly unsung raids on various German V-weapons sites.
Much minutae is covered in great detail; firing pistols, how to aim the height-judging lamps for the dams raid, an entire chapter on British bombsites. It's all very good stuff and much of it will interest not just those interested in this specific squadron but in bombing in general.
One of the saddest parts of the book can be found in the appendix, where the crews of the dams raid are named out and Murray uses color coding to indicate who was lost on Operation Chastise (very nearly half the squadron), and who was lost on later missions. Very few of the original Dambusters survived the war. Another part of the appendix that will appall is a list of the Lancasters converted for the dams raids. Not one survives today, and we can only boil at the historical idiocy that caused Guy Gibson's Lancaster AJ-G - still fitted with its original equipment - to be scrapped as late as the middle of 1947!
The first part of the book is in many ways the most frustrating, because it is Operation Chastise, the dams raid, that really made 617's reputation and remains probably the most famous aerial operation of the war. But the nasty fact is, much of what is "known" about the aircraft and weapons has had to be back-engineered from fuzzy photographs and imprecise descriptions. Incredibly, the most detailed information we have on the operational Upkeep mine comes from German documentation on one they were fortunate to find intact, the mine having been flung clear of the crashing Lancaster AJ-E and failing to detonate. Fortunately Murray reproduces the German drawings, with captions in English, for this Upkeep. However, in other places he alludes to German information without reproducing it; the bomb bay fittings and especially the placement of the rear light on the aircraft are still a mystery and might be found in or puzzled out from the German sources, since they carefully examined the crashed aircraft.
For the later weapons used by 617, the 12,000 lb lightcase blockbuster, and the series of medium capacity earthquake bombs codenamed "Tallboy" (interestingly, the true name for Grand Slam, the 22,000 pound earthquake bomb, was Tallboy Large), there is a great deal more information since the weapons and aircraft were much more thoroughly documented. One can only marvel at the poor apprentices who climbed into the castings of the earthquake bombs to smooth out the interior with an angle grinder! The missions on which these weapons were employed are described in detail, including a number of fairly unsung raids on various German V-weapons sites.
Much minutae is covered in great detail; firing pistols, how to aim the height-judging lamps for the dams raid, an entire chapter on British bombsites. It's all very good stuff and much of it will interest not just those interested in this specific squadron but in bombing in general.
One of the saddest parts of the book can be found in the appendix, where the crews of the dams raid are named out and Murray uses color coding to indicate who was lost on Operation Chastise (very nearly half the squadron), and who was lost on later missions. Very few of the original Dambusters survived the war. Another part of the appendix that will appall is a list of the Lancasters converted for the dams raids. Not one survives today, and we can only boil at the historical idiocy that caused Guy Gibson's Lancaster AJ-G - still fitted with its original equipment - to be scrapped as late as the middle of 1947!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews