Operation Chastise

Flak is coming from both sides of the dam.

That was Operation Chastise.

That was the dam busters.

And none of it would have been possible without one of the most important bomber aircraft in the history of flight.

I'm Tail Dragger, and this is the Hangar on Radio Hangar.

German industrial output in the Ruhr recovered faster than anyone on the Allied side expected.

Whether Operation Chastise shortened the war is a question historians still disagree on.

What it did unambiguously was demonstrate that precision, real precision, built on physics and engineering and practiced by men willing to hold exact parameters in the most hostile conditions possible, could reach targets that were supposed to be unreachable.

It changed what Bomber Command believed was possible.

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Hello and a very warm welcome to Nevermind the Dambusters, the podcast that explores the history, people and often controversial legacy of RAF Bomber Command.

I'm Jane Gulliford-Lowes and I'm really looking forward to this week's discussion.

James is unable to join us today, so I'll be flying solo once again.

It was so fantastic to catch up with lots of you and lots of old friends.

Particular shout outs go to Jamie Heffer, Stuart Green, Stu Burbridge, Ali Campbell-Greave, Joe Wilding.

and the People's Mosquito team, all of whom have been guests on Nevermind the Dambusters.

There were so many other people there, too, who I didn't get an opportunity to see.

The total industrial disruption fell somewhat short of the most optimistic projections.

Some historians argue that Operation Chastise was more of a propaganda victory than a strategic one, and there is legitimate weight to that argument, but I think that framing misses something important.

The engineering knowledge and the precision delivery techniques developed for this mission fed directly into later operations that nobody contests.

Barnes Wallis went on to develop the Tallboy and Grand Slam deep penetration bombs.

In the dark in a Lancaster bomber, four Merlin engines at full throttle, 232 miles an hour, straight and level, while the gun emplacements on the dam ahead of you try to find the range.

That was the requirement for Operation Chastise, not an approximation.

The physics of the weapon demanded exactly 60 feet, exactly 232 miles an hour, and the men of 617 Squadron trained for six weeks flew the mission and came home with eight of their 19 aircraft missing.

Radio Hangar, I'm Tail Dragger, and tonight on The Hangar we're going back to May of 1943, to the dams of the Ruhr Valley, and to one of the most precisely engineered, bravely flown, and genuinely audacious attacks in the history of aerial warfare.

If the target was something that required extraordinary precision and extraordinary nerve, 617 was the answer.

The Dam Busters, the name stuck.

What Operation Chastise demonstrated was something beyond the damage it caused.

It proved that the limiting factor in aerial warfare was not always the aircraft or the bomb.