Death Of The Last Dambuster Pilot.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3184691/Death-Dambuster-Les-Munro-final-surviving-member-617-Squadron-carried-daring-bouncing-bomb-raids-Nazis-dies-New-Zealand-aged-96.html

RIP Les.

[Mamyalynne]

Indeed, RIP Les and thank you.

[Sqad]

Yes......I saw that........grand chap.

Cannot begin to understand how those chaps climbed onto their Lancasters and made their way to the Dams of the Ruhr.

[douglas9401]

Courage, duty and that belief in indestructability that youth has, Sqad?

[mikey4444]

Quite a few of the RAF crews never rurned that night. Such brave men, most of them very young.

[Sqad]

I took a minibus loaded with hospital staff, doctors, theatre staff etc to Scampton and got permission from the Air ministry to be allowed into the base. It was really odd as we stood on the runway and you could convince yourself that you heard the "grumble" of the Rolls Royce engines as the 19 Lancaster bombers taxied to their take off positions.

We then spent the night at the Petwood Hotel Woodhall Spa which was the Officers Mess of 617sqadron.

Fabulous weekend.

[LochNessMonster]

Gone but not forgotten ! RIP lads.

[youngmafbog]

Sadly we are loosing all these brave men.

Let us hope they are never forgotten.

RIP Les.

[Bazile]

Brave men indeed .

What effect on the war did the mission achieve ?

[Peter Pedant]

Bazile not an awful lot - the Germans were much better than us at damage limitation and Speer testified that the overall effect on the Ruhr was minimal at his trial after the war ( no I dont have a ref )

The effect on British Morale was huge especially the bouncing bomb etc.

The flooding caused was filmed but then suppressed ( so it is difficult to identify ) as bad for German morale
bombing didnt have a great effect on the German war effort or course to the war ( altho obviously Berlin was quite flat when we finally got there )

altho Hiroshima and Nagasaki terminated the pacific war - the flattening of Tokyo by conventional methods orchestrated by Curtis E Lemay didnt - and 80% fo the japanese population was bombed out by August 1945. ( and lemay had run out of placed to bomb )

[Sqad]

PP is correct, the effect on the length of WW2 was not markedly reduced.

However, the war was going badly for the Allies, our bombers were suffering huge losses from the Geman Ack ack and to less extent the ME109 and we badly needed a tonic.

The Dams raid was just that tonic, showing that the R.A.F could penetrate into the German heartland. After the Dams, artillery was moved from other strategic targets and workers taken from other projects.

[Bazile]

If i recall correctly - in the film , Dr Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave ) asked Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd ) if the loss of all those pilots was worth it .

[Sqad]

and he said that if all the pilots had know the odds of returning, they would all still have gone.

[Bazile]

Indeed - brave men - as was a lot of poor souls who lost their lives defending the freedoms that we have in a lot of countries presently .

Just think ( or i wonder what life would be like now if Herr Hitler had been succesful in his aims )

[Bazile]

Er - what the *** are you on about ?

If there is a 'jumped up smart rs ' on here' then you might want to look in the mirror .

I was in no way questiong the value of what he accomplished - i was simply asking how the mission affected the war

[mikey4444]

Bazile...I have found the following on the Wiki entry for the Dambusters raid.

"After the operation Barnes Wallis wrote, "I feel a blow has been struck at Germany from which she cannot recover for several years", but on closer inspection, Operation Chastise did not have the military effect that was at the time believed. By 27 June, full water output was restored, thanks to an emergency pumping scheme inaugurated the previous year, and the electricity grid was again producing power at full capacity. The raid proved to be costly in lives (more than half the lives lost belonging to Allied POWs and forced-labourers), but was no more than a minor inconvenience to the Ruhr's industrial output. The value of the bombing can perhaps best be seen as a very real boost to British morale."

So, perhaps not quite the success that was planned, but that doesn't take anything away from all the people involved, especially all the men that were lost on the mission.

[jourdain2]

One of the dambusters, lived in Saltaire (next to where I grew up) and I remember him being pointed out to me when I was small. He looked very ordinary to my young mind, no 'side' to him. I don't know what I was expecting!

This morning I was driving over a hill when the usual crackling on the radio cleared and Classic FM belted out the 'Dambusters' in tribute. I stopped the car to listen and pay a silent tribute.

[Bazile]

mikey4444

//So, perhaps not quite the success that was planned, but that doesn't take anything away from all the people involved, especially all the men that were lost on the mission.//

Thanks for that and to the others who answered my question , without making unfounded accusations .

My post of 17:12 ( which i posted before seeing this particular individual's comments ) clearly showed what i think about the airmen that went on this mission .

[mikey4444]

Bazile....its obvious what you were trying to say, and I am entirely unsure why such an unwarranted attack was made on you....best ignore people like that !