Return of the Dambusters: The Exploits of World War II's Most Daring Flyers After the Flood

by John Nichol

Overview

A history of the RAF’s 617 Squadron during World War II, from bombing Nazi battleships to attempts on the lives of Hitler & Mussolini, and more.

The Dambusters had another nickname—they were the “Suicide Squadron,” and these daring flyers were the go-to forces for dangerous precision attacks. They dropped the largest bombs ever built on Hitler’s prize battleship, Tirpitz, as well as rocket sites and secret weapon establishments; they were involved in attempts on the lives of enemy leaders, including Hitler and Mussolini; and they created a false fleet on D-Day, which fooled the Germans, among other crucial missions. but they also suffered brutal losses, with seventy-five percent of 617 Squadron killed in action by the end of the war.

In this awe-inspiring book, John Nichol—himself a former RAF flight lieutenant—retraces the path of 617 Squadron’s most dangerous sorties, the ones largely lost to history. With the sensitivity of a fellow soldier, Nichol gains unprecedented access to the surviving Dambusters, whose moving personal stories add depth to this impressively researched history. The result is a tense, poignant story of courage by men who braved death time and time again in the name of freedom.

Praise for Return of the Dambusters

“A truly epic tale of courage and sacrifice—an intensely moving epitaph to the men of Bomber Command.” —Andy McNab, bestselling author of Bravo Two Zero

“A straightforward account considers all sides to these precise missions.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This is both an exciting book and a saddening one . . . a tale of victory, in the end, magnificently told in lip-biting detail.” —The Daily Mail (UK)

“Drawing on interviews with survivors, as well as archive material . . . the book is [a] story of human suffering in the air and on the ground.” —The Times (UK)</

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468316117
Publisher:	ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	434
Sales rank:	418,411
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Nichol is the author, with John Peters, of the bestselling Tornado Down, and, with Tony Rennell, of The Last Escape and Tail-end Charlies. As a former RAF flight lieutenant in the first Gulf War, he was held as a prisoner of war when his bomber was shot down on a mission over Iraq. He is also a journalist and widely quoted military commentator.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xi

Maps xiii

Author's Note xvii

1 The Dams 1

2 What Next? 31

3 Press On, Regardless 56

4 Death or Glory 73

5 Spring 1944 102

6 The End of the Beginning 112

7 The Fight Goes On 127

8 Terror Weapons 137

9 Mac's Gone! 161

10 Life and Death on 617 Squadron 171

11 The Beast 193

12 'What Have You Been Doing Today?' 216

13 Back to the Tirpitz 233

14 The Last Christmas? 275

15 The Final Days 307

16 Counting the Cost 318

Sources and Bibliography 329

Notes 336

Picture Credits 351

Index 352

Editorial Reviews

A straightforward account considers all sides to these precise missions.” ---Kirkus

From the Publisher

Drawing on interviews with survivors, as well as archive material... the book is [a] story of human suffering in the air and on the ground.

The Times

This is both an exciting book and a saddening one... a tale of victory, in the end, magnificently told in lip-biting detail.

The Daily Mail

[D]eeply moving...Nichol's account is full of stirring stories that make you marvel.

The Mail on Sunday

A completely true story about a badass lady spy? Yes please! . . . Move over, James Bond. Daphne Park is here, and she's shaking up more than just martinis.

Butsle

2016-01-10
From breaching German dams to targeting U-boat pens with "Grand Slams," the Royal Air Force's 617 Squadron receives fresh recognition for crippling the Nazi war machine. Not everyone was eager to sing the praises of the Dambusters, a highly effective and deadly squadron, after their initial destruction of the Möhne and Eder dams on May 16, 1943. In this history of the squadron, complete with personal accounts of the pilots involved, journalist and former Royal Air Force pilot Nichol (co-author: The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Europe 1944-45, 2003, etc.) looks frankly at the terrible cost in terms of lives lost over the course of the squadron's deadly, strategic missions, as well as those of the enemy, especially among civilians, weighed against the exigencies of a terrible total war. British engineer Barnes Wallis had created the "bouncing bomb" that would be so effective against the German dams, dropped surgically by a well-trained, all-volunteer crew of the RAF Bomber Command, 617 Squadron, piloting powerful Lancasters under the initial fierce leadership of Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson. Following a disastrous attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal in September, low-level flying was out, with new bombs and more accurate bombsights employed, leading to runs on German-reinforced underground sites at Pas-de-Calais, France, where Hitler's new "V-weapons" were being assembled by an army of slave laborers. These "Death or Glory" commands—e.g., the bombing of the Michelin rubber factory in March 1944 and the German army camp at Mailly-le-Camp—were successful lead-ups to the Allied D-Day invasion. Subsequent "Tallboy" (Wallis' new bombs that could penetrate 15 feet of reinforced concrete) raids wreaked havoc on German construction and naval sites. There was no feeling rueful about the destruction until after the war, as many of the personal stories reveal here. A straightforward account considers all sides to these precise missions.

Kirkus Reviews