This ‘disaster in the West’, as Adolf Hitler put it, unleashed 336 million tonnes of water from both dams onto the communities below. Scampton in Lincolnshire, cracked open the Möhne and Eder dams located within Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley ( Ruhrgebiet) in North-Rhine Westphalia. Undertaken in the tense early hours between 16-, nineteen Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron, based at R.A.F. Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s blunt reflection on the culmination of Operation ‘Chastise’ – better known as the ‘Dambusters’ raid – perfectly encapsulates its most sparkling achievement: reinvigorating Britain’s fighting spirit as the tide of war began to turn.
‘Germany started a foul war, and we’ve got to show them we can be as foul and a lot more foul.’
