Operation Chastise
16 May 1943 — Ruhr Dams
- Date
- 16 May 1943
- Target
- Ruhr Dams, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 19 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 8
Narrative
Operation Chastise was the attack on the dams of the Ruhr and Weser on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by the newly formed No. 617 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson and flying from RAF Scampton. The nineteen Lancasters were Type 464 Provisioning machines, specially modified to carry the cylindrical “Upkeep” mine designed by Barnes Wallis to skip across the water and sink against a dam wall before detonating. The force flew low across occupied Europe in three waves. The Mohne and Eder dams were both breached, sending floodwater down the valleys, while the Sorpe was damaged but held. The cost was heavy: eight of the nineteen aircraft failed to return and 53 of the 133 aircrew were killed, with three taken prisoner. Though the industrial disruption proved shorter-lived than hoped, the raid was a striking feat of airmanship and a propaganda triumph, and Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross.
3D model
3D model: Möhne Dam (Dambusters) by artfletch on Sketchfab, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Squadrons: No. 617 Squadron (Dambusters)
Order of battle
19 aircraft. Each crew links to the men who flew it; each airman to their own record.
The fallen
149 airmen in this archive died on 16 May 1943 or the day that followed. For a raid of this kind these are overwhelmingly the night's losses, though a death-date match is not by itself proof an individual flew this operation.
- Sergeant Percy Ronald Annetts (20)
- Warrant Officer Class II James Lamb Arthur (25)
- Flight Lieutenant William Astell (23)
- Sergeant Harry Kenneth Barker (28)
- Flight Lieutenant Robert Norman George Barlow (32)
- Warrant Officer Arthur Barnes (22)
- Flying Officer Jack Kenneth Barrett (22)
- Flying Officer Alexander Chalmers Barrie (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Jack Edward Bartrum (29)
- Flight Lieutenant Herbert John Blackshaw (26)
- Sergeant Jiri Bleier (28)
- Sergeant Richard Bolitho (23)
- Flying Officer Robert George Bowley (21)
- Warrant Officer Class II Joseph Gordon Brady (27)
- Sergeant Charles Brennan
- Flying Officer Robert Bridge (23)
- Flying Officer George Adrian Leonard Broderick (32)
- Flying Officer Andrew Alexander Brown (24)
- Flying Officer Philip Sidney Burgess (20)
- Pilot Officer Lewis Johnstone Burpee (25)
- Sergeant Norman Rupert Burrows
- Pilot Officer Vernon William Byers (32)
- Flight Sergeant Roy Dempsey Carne (22)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Joseph John Carter (34)
See all 149 who died on 16 May →
Source: Dambusters Blog — Operation Chastise complete crew list →