Return of the Dambusters: The Exploits of World War II's Most Daring Flyers After the Flood
The Dambusters were the go-to forces for dangerous precision attacks: They bombed Hitler's prize battleship, Tirpitz, as well as rocket sites, weapon strongholds, and the dams at the heart of the industrial Ruhr; they targeted enemy leaders including Hitler and Mussolini; and they created a false fleet on D-Day, which fooled the Germans. But they also suffered brutal losses, with 75 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. Including personal stories of the surviving Dambusters, Return of the Dambusters is a tense, poignant story of courage by men who braved death in the name of freedom.
1122170630
Return of the Dambusters: The Exploits of World War II's Most Daring Flyers After the Flood
The Dambusters were the go-to forces for dangerous precision attacks: They bombed Hitler's prize battleship, Tirpitz, as well as rocket sites, weapon strongholds, and the dams at the heart of the industrial Ruhr; they targeted enemy leaders including Hitler and Mussolini; and they created a false fleet on D-Day, which fooled the Germans. But they also suffered brutal losses, with 75 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. Including personal stories of the surviving Dambusters, Return of the Dambusters is a tense, poignant story of courage by men who braved death in the name of freedom.
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Return of the Dambusters: The Exploits of World War II's Most Daring Flyers After the Flood

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

by John Nichol

Narrated by Shaun Grindell

Unabridged — 11 hours, 56 minutes

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

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

by John Nichol

Narrated by Shaun Grindell

Unabridged — 11 hours, 56 minutes

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Overview

The Dambusters were the go-to forces for dangerous precision attacks: They bombed Hitler's prize battleship, Tirpitz, as well as rocket sites, weapon strongholds, and the dams at the heart of the industrial Ruhr; they targeted enemy leaders including Hitler and Mussolini; and they created a false fleet on D-Day, which fooled the Germans. But they also suffered brutal losses, with 75 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. Including personal stories of the surviving Dambusters, Return of the Dambusters is a tense, poignant story of courage by men who braved death in the name of freedom.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

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

The Times

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 Daily Mail

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

The Mail on Sunday

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

Butsle

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.

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940171012472
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Publication date: 08/15/2017
Edition description: Unabridged
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