No. 617 Squadron — Dambusters

Après moi le déluge

Group
No. 5 Group
Command
Bomber Command
Home station
RAF Woodhall Spa

In the database: 31 aircraft · 148 service members · 28 sorties.

History

No. 617 Squadron is the most famous unit in the history of Bomber Command — the “Dam Busters”. It was formed in great secrecy at RAF Scampton in March 1943, under the 24-year-old Wing Commander Guy Gibson, for a single extraordinary task: to breach the great dams of the Ruhr. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, nineteen specially modified Avro Lancasters carried out Operation Chastise, releasing Barnes Wallis’s cylindrical “bouncing bomb” against the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams; the Möhne and Eder were broken, at a cost of eight aircraft and fifty-three men.

Rather than disband, the squadron became Bomber Command’s specialist precision unit. Later commanded by Leonard Cheshire, it developed low-level marking and carried the enormous Tallboy and Grand Slam earthquake bombs against targets too hard for ordinary attack — among them the battleship Tirpitz, U-boat pens and key bridges and viaducts. Flying latterly from RAF Woodhall Spa, it took as its motto Après moi le déluge — “after me, the flood”.

Photographs

Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, Commanding Officer of [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) (The Dambusters), May 1943. Half-length portrait of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, while Commanding Officer of No 617 Squadron RAF, wearing flying kit.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (F/O) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wing_Commander_Guy_Gibson_VC,_Commanding_Officer_of_No._617_Squadron_(The_Dambusters),_May_1943._CH11047.jpgView source & full licence →
Wing Commander Guy Gibson (in door of aircraft) and his crew board their [Avro Lancaster](/aircraft/1/) bomber for [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/)'s raid on the Ruhr Dams, 16 May 1943. Personalities: Wing Commander Gibson and his crew board their Avro Lancaster AJ-G (ED 932/G) for the Dams' raid. Left to right: Flight Lieutenant R D Trevor-Roper DEM; Sergeant J Pulford; Flight Sergeant G A Deering RCAF; Pilot Officer F M Spafford DFM RAAF; Flight Lieutenant R E G Hutchinson DFC; Wing Commander Guy Gibson; Pilot Officer H T Taerum RCAF.
ⓘ licence & creditBellamy W (F/O), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wing_Commander_Guy_Gibson_(in_door_of_aircraft)_and_his_crew_board_their_Avro_Lancaster_bomber_for_No._617_Squadron%27s_raid_on_the_Ruhr_Dams,_16_May_1943._CH18005.View source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. King George VI, with Wing Commander Guy Gibson (right) , talking to Flight Lieutenant D J H Maltby, during his visit to [No 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) RAF at [Scampton](/airfields/1/), Lincolnshire, following the Dams raid in Germany. Maltby and his crew delivered the Squadron's final attack on the Moehne Dam, which successfully breached the dam wall.
ⓘ licence & creditHensser (F/O), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH9929.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. A 12,000-lb MC deep-penetration bomb (Bomber Command executive codeword 'Tallboy') is hoisted from the bomb dump to its carrier at [Woodhall Spa](/airfields/4/), Lincolnshire, to be loaded into an [Avro Lancaster](/aircraft/1/) of [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) RAF for a raid on the V-weapon site at Wizernes, France. 617 Squadron were unable to bomb the target on this occasion because of low cloud cover, but were to succeed two days later.
ⓘ licence & creditStanley Devon / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH15363.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. An RAF officer inspects the hole left by a 22,000-lb deep-penetration 'Grand Slam' bomb which pierced the reinforced concrete roof of the German submarine pens at Rekum, north of Bremen, Germany. This was the result of a daylight raid mounted by 18 [Avro Lancasters](/aircraft/1/) of [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) RAF on 27 March 1945, in which two direct hits by 'Grand Slams' caused much of the partially-completed roof to collapse.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Wilson (Plt Off) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bremen-Farge,_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945_CL2607.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Interior of one of the E-boat pens at le Havre, showing the collapsed ferro-concrete roof, caused by 12,000-lb deep-penetration 'Tallboy' bombs dropped by [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) RAF in a daylight raid on 14 June 1944.
ⓘ licence & creditStanley Devon / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Havre,_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945_CL1208.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Low-level oblique aerial photograph showing the heavily-bombed flying-bomb assembly and launch bunker at Siracourt, France, the target for a number of attacks by Bomber Command and the USAAF in June 1944. The final attack on the site was made by 17 [Avro Lancasters](/aircraft/1/) of [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) RAF in the afternoon of 25 June 1944.
ⓘ licence & creditBridge B (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siracourt,_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945_CL4157.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Oblique aerial photograph of the V2 assembly and launch site in a quarry at Wizernes, France, from west-north-west. Taken from over the railway loop line, looking towards the quarry head and the large concrete dome which covered the underground workings. After repeated raids by Bomber Command, the site was finally neutralised by a daylight attack on 17 July 1944 by [No. 617 Squadron](/squadrons/38/) RAF, whose 12,000-lb deep-penetration 'Tallboy' bombs caused a landslide, collapsing the underground galleries and sealing the tunnel entrances.
ⓘ licence & creditBridge B (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wizernes,_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945_C5637.jpgView source & full licence →

Operations flown