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Bombing Nazi Dams
Posted: July 24th, 2008
In the spring of 1943, nearly 150 highly decorated pilots were ordered to report to a Royal Air Force base in England to begin preparations for a top secret Allied raid. In complete secrecy, the team trained to master the dangerous art of high speed, low altitude night flying. On May 16th, 133 of the airmen boarded 19 modified Lancaster bombers. Each aircraft carried a top-secret weapon — a newly-invented bouncing bomb — designed to shatter Germany’s major dams, stem the flow of water to the Ruhr valley’s steel factories, and, ultimately, undermine the enemy’s ability to produce weapons. In a matter of hours, four of the targeted dams were hit and two destroyed, more than 1,000 Germans killed on the ground, and countless factories and homes left in shambles. The raid took its toll on the airmen — 53 men were lost. Nevertheless, the mission was deemed a success and boosted morale throughout the Allied forces. The mysterious bouncing bombs were the brainchild of Allied aircraft designer Barnes Wallis. How did Wallis come up with this unlikely weapon? How did losing his marbles make it all work? What did he go through to make it functional, and how did the elite airmen ensure its successful deployment? |
A special modification created a backspin that allowed Wallis’ bomb to hug the wall of the dam as it sank and detonate near the base. Now it’s your turn to deliver a direct hit to the Nazi’s Mohne Dam.
George “Johnny” Johnson flew forty missions under McCarthy as a bomb aimer and flew on the mission to destroy the Nazi hydroelectric dams.
While working to aid Britain’s military efforts Wallis toyed with a problem the British military had largely considered unsolvable — how to destroy the Nazis’ most important hydroelectric dams.
Royal Air Force was on a mission to destroy several of the Nazi’s major hydroelectric dams with a strange new weapon — a bouncing bomb that would skip across the water.
In the spring of 1943, Allied forces to begin preparations for a top secret Allied raid. Each aircraft carried a top-secret weapon — a newly-invented bouncing bomb — designed to shatter Germany’s major dams.
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