On the night of May 16, 1943, the roar of engines echoed through Lincolnshire. It was not an extraordinary event. It was wartime. And bombers frequently set out from local airfields towards targets unknown.

It was 19 four-engine Lancaster bombers from the RAF 617 Squadron. Three would turn back before reaching their target. Eight were lost. Eight returned from the raid. Of the 133 airmen on the mission, 12 were of the Royal Australian Air Force. The death toll amounted to 53, two of whom were Australian. Three were taken prisoner.

The toll was high. But that was not an uncommon outcome for the British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand — and sometimes US — crews of Bomber Command.

In this instance, though, their success far outweighed the cost.

This was Operation Chastise. It was a meticulously planned and organised strike against dams in Germany’s industrial heartland. It has become one of the most famous bombing missions of World War II.

But the events of that fateful night are slipping beyond living memory. A wildly successful movie, deliberate censorship distortions and inevitable tall tales are vying with the truth.

Royal Australian Air Force historian Martin James says the public’s fascination with the Dam Busters raid is worthy of the events of that night 75 years ago — even though elements of it have morphed into mythology.

And Australia has rightfully embraced the legend, he says: The two bouncing bombs that breached the Eder dam were delivered by RAAF pilots — Flt Lt Dave Shannon and Pilot Officer L.G. Knight. And tucked in the nose of 617 Squadron’s commanding officer, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, was a bomb-aimer from Adelaide — Fred Stafford.

“Calling the raid folklore may be doing it some disservice,” he said. “While there is no end to the public fascination with it, you must take this in the context of what was happening at the time.”

Most stories that have grown up around the event have an element of truth to them. Many have grown out of ignorance. Others from the wartime need for secrecy. But that secrecy has long since been lifted.

AGAINST THE ODDS

“The Dam Busters mystique is built upon these airmen being the elite of the elite, and the unique nature of the raid,” Mr James says. “Little wonder their story has grown into an almost legendary status.”

Bomber Command, bolstered by RAAF aircrew and Australian recruits, had suffered appalling losses in the early years of World War II. In some instances, every plane that reached their target had been shot down.

“The guys in bomber command knew they were in one of the toughest campaigns of the war,” Mr James says.

And this is one of the things that made 617 Squadron so special. Most of the pilots and aircrew in the hand-picked high-precision squadron were on their second tour of duty.

“That speaks a lot for the mission. They were quite rightly put up on a pedestal as incredibly courageous, especially those who volunteered for a second tour,” Mr James says.

“Can you imagine strapping these men into aluminium tubes powered by four engines, flying at just 100 feet, at night, through enemy territory? They knew there was a huge risk just getting to the target and back — yet alone the actual mission itself.”

But courage alone does not win wars, Mr James points out. And this is an important element at risk of being forgotten.

GUIDED INSPIRATION

The idea of attacking the dams did not originate with the bouncing bomb’s inventor, Barnes Wallis.

“It’s easy to lose sight of the huge technical effort that went into the raid, the planning and consideration that in a lot of ways started in 1937 when RAF considered target sets for what was a certain war with Germany,” Mr James says. “ The RAF were deliberately looking for targets that would have a disproportionate impact on the war.”

“Using science, technology and industry to generate the capability for specific missions like this still happens today, but it’s too easy to lose sight of these things,” Mr James says.

At first, the RAF considered using modified torpedoes or even a gliding bomb.

“The idea was the same — it had to penetrate the protective netting and detonate quite near to the dam wall,” he says.

Initially, it was concluded the RAF didn’t have a suitable weapon for such a mission to be a success.

That’s where Barnes Wallis — and the research teams around him — come into the picture.

But, contrary to popular belief, the Dam Buster raid wasn’t the only time in the war Britain would attack dams from the air.

In February 1941, eight Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal attacked the Tirso dam in Sardinia. Three torpedoes hit, but did negligible damage. One Swordfish was shot down.

Then, in 1944, 617 Squadron took part in an attack on the Urft dam — this time using heavy ‘Tallboy’ ground-penetrating bombs. Once again, this was a revolutionary weapon that had originated on Barnes Wallis’ drawing board.

But it was his concept of a bouncing bomb (Project Upkeep) that revived the dam-busting project as it offered the greatest chance of operational success. It also seized the public’s imagination for its innovation.

“I suppose if you look at it afterwards you can say it looks simple,” Mr James says. “But Barnes Wallis would get a little upset if he heard you say that. The technical and scientific input to produce the bomb was years in the making.”

It’s the same story for the innovative, and deceptively simple, bomb sights and height-finding lights.

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

“The Dam Busters’ raid was a really successful raid generating a very big effect,” Mr James says. “From 19 aircraft — eight of which were shot down — the effects are seen as absolutely outstanding. That naturally captures the imagination of the public”.

And it was intended to do so.

By 1943, the worst of the allied military disasters were behind them. The dark days of defeat in France, Dunkirk, the Western Desert and South-East Asia were over.

“There is now the success at El Alamein, the Japanese are in retreat, the Russians are moving on the Eastern Front,” Mr James says. “The era of bad news is gone, but governments still needed to promote the war effort. So they had to keep the good news coming.”

While many of the technical challenges of the mission were not revealed until after the war, the daring nature of the raid and its success was loudly trumpeted throughout the Commonwealth.

Such was the success of 617 Squadron that Wing Commander Guy Gibson was allowed to publish a heavily censored and modified book, “Enemy Coast Ahead” before his accidental death in 1944.

It also represented an appealing alternative to the carpet bombing campaign that had afflicted both Britain and Germany.

“The concept of precision attack was seen as very successful, and that gained an enduring place in the public consciousness,” Mr James says.

PRECISION THINKING

“The concept of precision-guided attack has become an enduring philosophy,” Mr James says. “Now we take it for granted that if you put up an aircraft with four precision-guided weapons, you’ll attack four targets. In 1943, the RAF would put 1000 bombers over Cologne to attack one industrial area.”

For the Dam Busters, many of the new techniques, and technologies, in that made this new mission profile possible had to be invented or adapted on the fly.

The raid was a very specialised event. Almost everything was out of the ordinary — from the modified aircraft being flown, the unique weapon they carried and the risky low-level night-time approach.

All were the outcomes of immense effort. Technology had to be found. The pilots had to invent — and practice — new techniques.

“The Y-frame bombsight was a great solution to a problem,” Mr James says, “But to be actually able to make one work, you need intelligence operators and photo interpreters to tell you how far apart the structures are on the dam married up with all the ballistic characteristics of the weapon to come up with the geometry of your release point.”

That involved more than just technical know-how.

“Technical mastery is knowing what your job is and how to do it proficiently,“ he says. “Professional mastery is knowing why you’re doing it, and seeking ways of doing it better. This produces leaps of intuition. Simple solutions to very complex and technical problems only come from professional mastery.”

Then, some bomb-aimers themselves further refined the concept. They realised attaching a carefully lengthened piece of string to their canopies and holding it to their nose to ensure their heads were in the right position enabled two marks on their Perspex nose cone to achieve the same result.

It’s a similar story for the use of calibrated spotlights which converge at a preset height.

“There’s certainly a bit of mythology about that one … Gibson’s navigator didn’t come up with the idea at a (burlesque) show,” Mr James says. “That was pure Pinewood Studios. Aircraft had already used that technique to determine height over water. But someone at some point had to think their way to that. Then someone had to remember it to apply it to this circumstance.”

@JamieSeidelNews

* Video footage is from The Dam Busters - Official Trailer - Newly restored in 4k