Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xxxiv, 434 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map; 24 cm

Summary

1. It was a night that changed the Second World War. The secret air raid against the hydroelectric dams of Germany's Ruhr River took years to plan, involved an untried bomb and included the best aircrews the RAF Bomber Command could muster--many of them Canadian. The raid marked the first time the Allies successfully took the war inside Nazi Germany. It was a mission that became legendary. On May 16, 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers filled with 133 airmen took off on a night mission code-named Operation Chastise. Hand-picked and specially trained, the Lancaster crews flew at treetop level to the industrial heartland of the Third Reich and their targets--the Ruhr River dams--whose massive water reservoirs powered Nazi Germany's military industrial complex. Each Lancaster carried an explosive that, when released just sixty feet over the reservoirs, bounced like a skipping stone to the dam, sank and exploded. The raiders breached two dams and severely damaged a third. The resulting torrent devastated power plants, factories and infrastructure a hundred miles downstream.Every one of the 133 airmen on the mission understood that the odds of survival were low. Of the nineteen bombers outbound, eight did not return. Operation Chastise cost the lives of fifty-three airmen, including fourteen Canadians. Of the sixteen RCAF men who survived, seven received military decorations. Based on personal accounts, flight logs, maps and photographs of the Canadians involved, Dam Busters recounts the dramatic story of these young Commonwealth bomber crews that were tasked with a high-risk mission against an enemy prepared to defend the Fatherland to the death.

Subject

1. Dams
2. Germany > Ruhr Region
3. Destruction and pillage
4. 1900-1999
5. World War, 1939-1945 > Destruction and pillage > Germany > Ruhr (Region)
6. World War, 1939-1945 > Participation, Canadian
7. Ruhr (Germany : Region) > History
8. Military participation > Canadian
9. History
10. World War (1939-1945)
11. Dams > Germany > Ruhr (Region) > History > 20th century
12. Great Britain > Royal Air Force > Squadron, 617 > History
13. World War, 1939-1945 > Aerial operations, British
14. Military operations, Aerial > British

Genre/Form

1. History.

Call number

1. JFE 19-2049

Note

1. "Patrick Crean Editions."

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Author

1. Barris, Ted, author.

Title

1. Dam busters : Canadian airmen and the secret raid against Nazi Germany / Ted Barris.

Publisher

1. Toronto, Ontario, Canada : HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, [2018]

Copyright date

1. ©2018

Edition

1. First edition.

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological term

1. 1900-1999

ISBN

1. 9781443455435 hardcover
2. 1443455431 hardcover

Research call number

1. JFE 19-2049