Pure History Specials - Dambusters of ww2 - Part 3 - Dangerous mission

At 9:30, on the evening of the 16th of May 1943, 19 Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron began to take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. Flying at treetop height, they slipped out over the wash across Norfolk and Suffolk and left the English coast at south. Okay, Steve. Each aircraft was carrying a top secret weapon. Rogers here, headed 115 degrees, connect it from there. Five hundred miles ahead shimmering in the clear moonlight over Germany lay the targets, massive, heavily defended dams holding back over 500 million tons of water. For the air crews, the operation would test their flying skills to the limit. Eight out of the 19 aircrafts would not make it back to England. The Dambusters raid was one of the most intricate, perilous and impressive pieces of flying in the history of military aviation. One of the most successful pilots was 22-year-old Australian, Les Knight. He and his crew of six performed an extraordinary feat of airmanship that still amazes flyers even up to the present day. His flight engineer was 26-year-old Ray Grayston. He was exceptionally good pilot. He was actually brilliant, he flied the Lancaster the old fighter. I mean, nowadays we're coming on the wing drop it then on to the runway. To show just how hard the dam's raid was, for the last 7 weeks we have been training a young RAF aircrew to fly a Dambusters Lancaster simulator. They're going to try and do what Les Knight and his crew did 60 years ago. They fly to Germany at night in a computed generated world that accurately matches the geography, weather, and enemy action of the real raid. Then, they'll try to hit the dam. Flight Lieutenant Lucy Robinson, the pilot, has learned to master the idiosyncrasies of flying a heavy World War II bomber. The whole crew has been weaned off computers and forced to learn how to navigate with pencil, map and compass. Paul Branty Brent has been landed the job no one on the crew wanted. As the navigator, he's had to learn complex trigonometry. His job will be to sit in a black tight box for the entire mission calculating all the aircrafts hittings and timings. If he gets one wrong, they'll be horribly lost. The rest of the crew scout the horizon feeding Branty information about everything they can see. It's not easy, at very low altitudes in the dark, visibility is severely restricted. The crew has also had a taste of wartime operations. But their training is not over. Tonight they will attempt to follow in the footsteps of the Dambusters. Mission accomplished, N for none. The fact that you're responsible for an aircraft and that crew and you taking off inside this quite unknown and you relying upon that len, the mark on eyeball where as nowadays we've got a lot more technology in the cockpit that's gonna enables us to be that much safer. Hey, bomb aimer anything seen off that railway line? As it's showing by the iteration rate. If you do make a mistake, if you do fly too high, if you do straight of course then that can land you in serious trouble. It's unbelievable to think that I actually went out there and did it. After weeks of intense pressure, the aircrew who's led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson and scientist Barnes Wallis finally stood face-to-face on the 16th of May, 1943. History was about to be made. Basically this is where the final briefing took place on the 16th of May, Sunday 16th of May, 1943, in through these doors here. Now if you can imagine-- Security was so tight that only the pilots and navigators were told what the route to the target was in mere 12 hours before take off. Everybody on the squad was wondering what was going to happen, people were speculating. But every once while, we'd have electro from the boss Gibson. And he would say, "I don't want anybody going around and wondering what we're gonna do or what we're doing this for?" He said, "The only way we can do what we're going to do is if everybody keeps their mouth shut. We've been put under a quarantine of not being allowed to discuss, phone and write letters to anybody. Telephones were banned, everything else. So we were in the isolation position really knowing something big was going to happen. All through the 16th, the atmosphere at Scampton was thick enough to cut with the knife. Locked in rooms all day long, navigators silently worked on all the complex calculations they had to perform to get to the dams. But still the strict level of secrecy prevailed. Even the head of administration, the adjutant, knew little of the raid. I knew that it was going to be something special and we already had the flying program and all that sort of thing, had two briefings and so on. And they all gathered around the fly officers on the ground waiting for the transportations near the aircraft. Now that was really something. You knew that something historical was gonna happen. Then at 6 P.M., three and half hours before the operation, the rest of the aircrews were finally letting on the secret. They were told about the operation first of all by Guy Gibson. Then Barnes Wallis explained the details and finally Air Vice-Marshal, the honorable RA Cochrane then gave them a final send off and said good luck. There was a great surprise when we found out eventually what the target was. We had no idea that was the dams. In the operational briefing, the nine crews who had performed best in practice were the first wave led by Gibson himself. They were assigned the big price, the massive and heavily defended, Mohne Dam. Their second target was the Mittelland Canal. Together these two held back over 300 million tons of water which supplied key industrial sites. In addition, the Eder was used to control the level of the Mittelland Canal, the major supply route. Les Knight flying aircraft AJ-N was included in the first wave of nine. The second wave of five aircraft, were to attack the Sorpe. But despite its key strategic value, there was doubt about the chances of success. It was a totally different design, instead of a mason restructure, the Sorpe was an earth bank dam. A central water tight concrete core supported by two enormous earth banks. These would absorb most of the impact of the explosion. But Wallis was not deterred, he knew how vital it was to destroy the Sorpe as well. He insisted that if several Upkeeps were dropped correctly, the concrete core might crack and the seeping water would soon erode the dam. But with only five Lancaster's detailed to attack it, there was no margin for error. The third wave of five aircraft, were flying reserve to be called into replace casualties. By the time the briefing had ended and crews had studied the models and photographs of the targets, they were only a couple of hours left until take off. We all normally went to the mess and like I was a cracking meal could it might be a last one. At 8:30 P.M., the crews head it out to their aircraft. It was a great thrill really and we got this, that Guy Gibson turns up and he shoot him right with his crew. And kind of stroll across the men says, don't forget we'd have the beer when we come back, you know. Dramatic parties weren't, it's silent. You know, and then suddenly they opened the engines and they start, you know, open the throttles and you know they start revving up, you know, and waddling along to the takeoff point, that's the exciting part. They took off in the formation and lay very low and that was tremendous sight and I knew somehow that it's going to be a historical night. In groups of three, they climbed up above the tree line and slipped over the Lincolnshire country side towards the heart of enemy territory. One hundred and thirty three young men setting out in a raid most knew nothing about 4 hours previously to drop a secret weapon for the first time. Over a third of them would not be coming back. For many senior figures, it would be a long night. I stayed at until they have taken off both blocks have taken off, you know, and then it, all goes quiet then we got back in the mess anyway. And I sat in the mess next to a WAF officer, he was an intelligence officer. Faigal her name was, very nice and I think she said to me, isn't this exciting? Humphy she called me, Humphy. And anyway I said, well, I got to tell you, Fai, I don't know where they are going. Across the Atlantic, Churchill and his chiefs of staff were waiting to meet their American counterparts to discuss the future conduct of the war. Tomorrow, the dam's raid would make the headlines all around the world. Lights off. Our crew are part of the first wave. They have been instructed to follow the exact same route as aircraft AJ-N piloted by Les Knight. Around at 11 o'clock the crew saw the Dutch coast on the horizon. Captain, Molly, confirm you have visual coast. Disaster was about to strike. Just about. The second wave of aircraft have taken a more northerly route than the first wave. They reached the enemy coast just before the others. At 3 minutes to 11, aircraft AJ-K flown by pilot officer Byers was slightly off track. It paid the penalty. It was shot down by flak. At exactly the same time after the south AJ-W piloted by New Zealander Les Munro was hit by anti-aircraft fire as he approached the Dutch Coast. The whole plane went dead as far as intercom was concerned and as far as the electrical equipment was concerned. I asked my wireless operator to inspect the damage and see whether there was any possibility of repairing it and he came back and said, no, there's no possibility. Munro had to abort his mission. Then only three minutes later AJ-H piloted by Jeff Rice was flying so low, it clipped to the sea. Pull, pull, we're close, pull out. The up kick bomb was ripped clean off. The rear gunner complained bitterly about getting wet. They two flew back to Scampton. Forty minutes later AJ-E in the hands of flight lieutenant Barlow crashed. It flew into power cables, although it may have been previously hit by flak. Four out of the five second wave aircraft ordered to hit the Sorpe dam had been lost even before reaching Germany. The fifth was piloted by big Joe McCarthy. He was an American who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. Joe flew unto his target alone. Luckily the first wave was faring a little better. The nine aircraft were flying in three groups of three at 10 minute intervals. The leading group of Gibson, Martin, and Hopgood had crossed the coast too far south. Wind across the North Sea had more affect than anticipated. They had to correct to the northeast to reach the next landmark of Roosendaal. Despite their relative inexperience, our modern crew are doing well. They too have blown of course across the North Sea. But Branty works this out and makes a timely correction. We got the information-- They hit the coast at exactly the right point but immediately encounter unexpected flak. Okay, I cruised up out of heavy flak. Yeah, copy that. I see. Take that. Looking out for-- Sixty years ago the operational planners had notified the crews of all the known flak positions along the route, but much of it was mobile. The navigators could only plan routes that would avoid the worst of the trouble. And in the mind I think they succeeded to keep us away from that trouble. Equally the intent were to keep us away from the hot flak points best they could. But I think Gibson advised one or two to reroute on the way because of flak to avoid hot spots. But as they cross the Dutch border into Germany? Gibson and the other two lancs beside him were caught by search lamps. Hopgood's aircraft was damaged by flak. He was so low at one point that the rear gunner looked up to see electricity cables go over head. I mean, the main fear would be high tension cable, bit huge grid system in Germany even during the war. And it is hoped that the people who plotted the route for you have avoided these situations that you're not flying on a coast to intercept them. AJ-N piloted by Les Knight with 20 minutes behind Gibson flying in the last group of the first wave. In Central Holland, they picked up the Wilhelmina Canal, from there they headed to the German border. Our crew are also now reaching the same canal. Molly and the gunners were unsure about a turning point earlier. Any visual? Now we're following just both left and right, split. They also think they maybe following the wrong canal. But Branty the navigator is a 100% confident despite having the most difficult job on board. He reassures the others that they are exactly on course and goes back to his relentless calculations. Let's copy this. Now they turn north towards a distinctive bend in the Rhine River. They find it without trouble. They maintain track 085. Gibson had been 6 miles too far south at this stage. The last three aircraft of the first wave managed to avoid the flak which Gibson had encountered just inside Germany. But as they crossed north of the Ruhr valley, an unseen danger allude. The right hand aircraft piloted by Bill Astell hit an electricity fire. That's so close she were to sudden death ready because they would have all killed and yet it was formatting on us, so what the hell did he hit? At 12:20, Gibson and his crew crested the hills of the Mohne valley and saw the lake spread out in front of them. Gun crews on the dam ran to their positions. Already 5 of the 19 aircraft which had left Scampton had been lost or had to turn back. And the really dangerous part of the night was just about to start. Back in England, Barnes Wallis the inventor of the bouncing bomb waited in anxious anticipation. No one had ever dropped a live Upkeep under the required launch conditions. Not even Wallis could guarantee it would work. But the ultra determined and indefatigable Wallis had designed into Upkeep one final crucial quality, the magic ingredient was back spin. Somehow in the process of thinking about this problem having had the innovative thought of bouncing some kind of device towards these targets. He came up with the idea of spinning it as well. The backspin of 500 rpm did four remarkable things. It gave Upkeep gyroscopic stability keeping it level. It would give it lift which meant, it would hit the water at a shallower angle. It would bounce harder off the water and most amazingly the spin would actually keep the bomb in contact with the wall as it sank. It's not only you got a downward force due to gravity acting on it and it's also got a force acting up because of the lift. Something like a third of its weight will be supported in air by the spin. So what that does is it will tend to extend this trajectory and therefore the angular impact will be reduced and enables you to fly the released aircraft higher or slower. When it hits the dam and actually sinks into the water, the spin is such that in fact it's sinking so the water is flowing up past it that way. I mean, it's dropping down the dam face, it doesn't just drop down the dam face, it's the forces 'cause the water is 800 times more dense than air. Although the velocity is much lower as it sinking, the force is a very, very big indeed. But now the force is pushing it against the dam and it literally clamps this thing against the wall and the spin will sort of creep it down the wall. So if you like the innovation was not only in the bouncing bit, it was in this use of spin to be able to flatten out the trajectory in air and to keep it against the target when it sank down. At 12:30 A.M., AJ-N piloted by Les Knight arrived at the dam. It was a surreal sea with Astell lost the eight remaining Lancasters of the first wave went out orbiting in clear moonlight at treetop height. German fighters would not engage them at this incredibly low altitude. Guy Gibson had just finished his run. He and his crew had endured withering fire from the flak guns on top of the dam. Afterwards he wrote that the shells flying past his aircraft had terrified him. He believed in a second, he'll be dead. He survived, his Upkeep bounced, but it exploded short of the target. It was going to be a long night. The next aircraft to attack the Mohne Dam was piloted by flight lieutenant Hopgood. He was unlucky. The other crew saw him being hit several times. By the time his plane crossed the dam, it was in flames. It exploded and crashed 3 miles beyond in a field. They are not getting. As the third run went in, Gibson did an incredibly brave thing, he flew at the dam to draw the fire as Mac Martin attacked. Martin's aircraft was hit, but he released his Upkeep, it was another miss. So the fourth aircraft was ordered in. Despite the terrible dangers Gibson and Martin again flew alongside Dinghy Young. His attack seemed to be perfect. As Maltby went in for the fifth attack, the dam was in fact starting to crumble. Young had been successful. Nevertheless Maltby released his mine. Maltby's drop was also spot on, 220 miles per hour exactly 60 feet high, the Upkeep bouncing three times. The dam gave way in a huge tone. It had taken five runs to crack the Mohne. Now only three aircrafts in the first wave still had an Upkeep on board. Gibson ordered Les Knight, Dave Shannon and Henry Maudslay to follow him to the second target, the Eder dam, 15 minutes away. While the dangers of the Mohne had been largely manmade. The Eder's natural topography was going to be the next huge obstacle. The approach was hellish, to the north of the dam is Waldeck Castle. It stands thousand feet above the lake surface. The crews had to dive steeply, turn sharply through 90 degrees and then hop up over a promontory. They then had just 5 seconds to line up with the dam at the correct speed and height. To top things off, on the far side was a thousand foot hill. We had to come in through the 800 feet, drop the machine down to 60 feet. In a few seconds to level off and it's more or less released within seconds. And then climb back to get at the other end. In fact it was so hazardous that the Germans haven't even bothered to defend it. They were just two sentries with rifles. Good job, Brighton. Ah, negative but I think we will-- Lucy and her crew have already achieved an immense amount. They have much to be proud of. Despite a huge disadvantage in wartime operational experience, they have found their way to the target. Killer 1, this is Killer 9 checking in. They have been in the air for three and half hours flying at concentration sapping treetop height in the dark in unfamiliar territory. Killer 1, Killer 9, how do you read? They were of course for a while over the North Sea and confused landmarks on the Dutch coast, but they have accurately navigated through Holland and Germany to the Mohne dam. They've all waited patiently at the Mohne and have flown without hitch to the Eder. Okay, crew now enjoy, I'm back with you just straightens in. They are now waiting for their turn to attack. Down, down. A little bit further down. At 1:30 A.M., Gibson flicked on his VHF radio and ordered Dave Shannon to start his attack on the Eder. He tried four times to get his aircraft down into the correct position, but it was nightmarishly tricky. Down. Steady down. In fact pull up, pull up. Pull up, pull up, pull up. What a still mighty day come out little bit. Now we gonna again turn, have a crack.. Henry Maudslay tried twice but he too found it almost impossible to get the right line. Too high, too high. Pull up, pull up. Pull up. So Gibson asked Shannon to go back in. This time Shannon did whistled his aircraft into the correct position. His Upkeep hit the right of the dam and exploded, but the dam stood firm. Maudslay was now sent him to try once more. Down steady. Maudslay went in and there was a disaster. We were on the impression he got damaged on the way in. And he had to hang up on the Mohne and he didn't hit the target area at all, it was way over in the valley before it exploded and Gibson caught him up to ask him if he was all right. And he only said, Boss, I think so and that was a last words we heard from him. Maudslay in fact was shot down near the Dutch border on his return journey. Les Knight was now the only hope. He was the last of the first wave still carrying an Upkeep. He had been watching the proceedings quietly for the last 20 minutes. He had formed a plan of his own and made a dummy run to try it out. I suppose we were lucky really. We done one dummy run and got it pretty well right. They went back around to try it for real. No visual of the dam until we pass this one. Now it's our modern crews turn. Frankie in the control room playing the part of Guy Gibson calls up Lucy on the VHF radio. Killer 9, this is Killer 1, it's your turn to attack. You're cleared in for the attack. Early, early, we're cleared in for attack. Crew stand by. Killer 1, this is Killer 9, I'm exactly into the attack positioning. Okay, we've to stay up slightly high and drop down there if we wish to get the speed up. In 1943, the main problems caused by the hills in front of and beyond the dam were with air speed. The steep dive in, then the aircraft was too fast at the drop point. Les Knight and his flight engineer Ray Grayston had a cunning but dicey plan. I was lucky really out tumbled with the fact that, if I shut my engines right then, she would glide then to 60 feet which I did. I was responsible for air speed. So I drop the engines right back and get the model down to 60 feet. With my fingers crossed I slammed--and they did. Our modern crew's first run is way of line. On their second run they've erred too far left, the spit of land that masks the dam for most of the approach is forcing them offline. Keep it down 120 feet. 100 feet, keep it. Keep it, coming down. Keep it, coming down. 100 feet, 100 feet. 80 feet. Steady, steady, steady. All right, little up, little up. Okay, bring it around left. 12-295. They're catching behind and are up there, that was close. 12-295. They're catching behind and are up there, that was close. Slightly off the grid to get, just pass on the right hand side of it. Okay, we need to get it soon crew. It's going. On Les Knight second run, he judged his height and turn over the approach promontory of land perfectly. Right. But then they had less than 5 seconds to line up with the dam. Right. Bit more, bit more. Steady. Steady, keep going right. Off the way. And matter of fact we were spot on, absolutely spot on. We hit it right in the middle and the bottom came out initially. This blew holes right through it, then the top fell away. And I was there. At 200 knots. Our crew may not have hit the Eder dam in two attempts like the remarkable Les Knight, but they still have their bomb, their nerves are getting afraid. They have been in the air now for 4 hours. They go around for a third run at the target. Please go down, 100 feet. Speed still good. 80 feet, steady, steady, steady. Good height, good height, good height. Full power. Good height again. Again Molly the bomb aimer is not happy and refuses to release the Upkeep. They go around for a fourth attempt. Okay, I have visual of the dam. Keep it, coming down. We'll do. Come right. All right. Keep it, coming down. Nice and loud, crew. Come right. Keep it, coming down. 100 feet still keep it coming down. Speed is good. Keep it, coming down. Keep it, coming down. Keep it, coming down. 100 feet, keep it, coming down. Come right, come right. Still down, go down. Get down. Speed is good. 100 feet. Keep it, coming down. Come left, come left. 80 feet. Steady, good height. Come right, come right. Steady, steady, steady, steady. Good height, good height. Let's go. Crew, stand by. Molly has dropped their one and only Upkeep. The aircrafts exact position at the release point is quickly noted. As Lucy and her crew head back to England, Frankie and the control room team start their calculations. Was it a hit or a miss? The devastation caused by the breaching of both dams wrecked havoc. 1,300 people died in the floods. Armaments production was halted for two weeks. Steel production fell by 8%. Electricity supply was disrupted for the rest of the year in the rural area. Gas works were knocked out. Food supplies were crippled. But the third major dam attacked that night stood firm. The Sorpe long seen as a vital target was hit, but not critically. Joe McCarthy got through as did one of the flying reserve Ken Brown. Wallis had predicted, it would take several good hits to crack the Sorpe, two was not enough. Despite this in military terms the raid was hugely effective. It had demonstrated incredible accuracy against small targets in the heart of Germany. 30,000 workers have to be taken off key military projects to rebuild both dams. And the effect on morale was immense. The Germans called it a disaster, the British a major victory. To the inhabitants of occupied Europe, it was a huge psychological boost. But the cost to the squadron was heavy. 8 out of 19 aircraft were lost. 53 out of 133 air crew died. Barnes Wallis actually cried because he felt that he was responsible for the loss of all those young men's lives. He wasn't of course. But that was the way he felt it. And it was pretty shattering, to think that we had lost so many and then to realize how lucky we had been to survive because we were lucky. Guy Gibson was awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery on the night. And 31 other members of squadron were decorated by the king and queen at Buckingham Palace. After the dams raid, 617 squadron went on to further successes. They bombed U-boat pens in France. Attacked the large and menacing V2 rocket sites and sank the battleship Tirpitz with another of Barnes Wallis' inventions. The 12,000 pound Tallboy earthquake bomb. Guy Gibson however had been posted out of the Dambuster squadron. His personal legend was too great an asset to risk having him killed on future operations. But he hated desk jobs, impressed to be put back on active duty. He was killed in 1944 while returning from a raid on Germany. Ray Grayston and the rest of Les Knight's crew were also missing from the Dambusters later successes. By September 1943, a new commander had taken over. 617 mounted another low level operation. The target was again deep in enemy territory, the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The raid itself from the beginning was a disaster. We got there, it was a bit of a mess. We ran into full rainfall, we couldn't see the land at all. Blinded they clipped some trees. Their two port engines were wrecked. Flying on two starboard engines the aircraft wanted to turn in the circle. Pilot Les Knight was in a contortion trying to keep it flying straight. The remaining members of Les' crew, Ray, Doc and Johnnie recall the night clearly. There was Johnnie in the bomb aimers department. And that's what in the sea. And when he gave the orders to pilot, Johnnie, she went for-- All you go chaps. You didn't count 30 before you pulled your rib-- Oh, I didn't Donn. I was still near the military ground, you can't tell. Ray didn't either. After struggling back to Holland, Les knew he couldn't keep the aircraft flying much longer. Les Knight was left alone in the aircraft unable to move. His six crew jump to safety. He was killed trying to crash land his airplane. For our modern crew, the whole experience has been long, exhausting and unique. They've had to adapt to a low tech world, reliance on others not computers has been the order of the day. For the pilots at least, it is unlikely that they will ever work as part of such a large crew again. And as for their credentials as Dambusters, well, the jury has been out so long deciding that the crew are now back in England. In fact there's been a heated debate for the last hour. I thought I was a little late person. The figures seem to indicated dropped slightly early. We're gonna recheck the figures as the visuals looked good. Yeah. We thought they drop late when they went over, they went over that speed they seem to have delayed a long time. Already late. Calculations suggested Lucy and the crew were too far from the dams, much too far in fact. But the video replay seemed to suggest that they were fractionally close. No one can workout why there's a discrepancy. You've got 1,000 meters in between the spit of land and the dam. And in my view you were at least halfway between the two when you made the release. The figures from the electronics are saying that despite needing to jump at 450 yards, you dropped at almost 700 yards. Now that doesn't compute, there's nothing we can do with that but I'll suspect what we've got here is some form of an error in the--well, an error somewhere, because these figures are indicating you drop more than 50% out on your arrange range. I'm tapping in the longitude, latitude, altitude and heading. To see what Molly's saw when we dropped the bomb. Suspense is killing me. It's only when the sim's operated checks the numbers on the bomb aimer's panel that the mystery is solved. Who is in girls place you bets now. When Molly fires the weapon, the sim freezes. The exact code and it's compared to the ideal drop position. On scale of 31, yeah. In the wee small hours of the night before, the ideal drop position in the computer had been incorrectly noted down. Molly was virtually spot on. I think you might be right guys. I think I'm very happy to say it was the direct hit. I think with bomb side, the way we set up the bomb side are ideal drop positions for lat and longitude was wrong. And they had it right. And I think it's a direct hit. They seems to be within the in a tolerance that's allowed and all it will mean as far as I can see is that instead of hitting the center of the dam, it head slightly to the side of the dam. And therefore from the evidence that I've seen here, it hit the dam. Yes, well done. Lucy and her crew are Dambusters. In only 7 weeks our young RFA crew have traveled back in time and thrown off their reliance on computers. Instead they've learned to rely on each other in a way that was crucial to survival back in 1943. By reliving the raid, they've also found out just how tough it was to be a Dambuster. Johnnie Johnson, Doc Sutherland, Bob Kellow, Hobby Hobday, Harry O'Brien and Ray Grayston all survived the war. Johnnie, Doc, Bob and Hobby with the help of the resistance made their way from Holland to Gibraltar and to freedom. The last time Ray was in a Lancaster was that night 60 years ago when he bailed out? He and Harry O'Brien were caught by the Germans. They both ended up in the notorious Stalag Luft III in Poland. But that's another story.