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Op Chastise - 74 yrs ago tonight

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Op Chastise - 74 yrs ago tonight

Old 16th May 2017, 10:00
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Op Chastise - 74 yrs ago tonight

Most of us lead busy lives, so in the hubbub of that daily routine one could be forgiven for overlooking today's date.

So this is hopefully a timely reminder that this evening might be an appropriate juncture to open a bottle of your favourite tipple and have a drink to 133 men whose Personal Parts were clearly ferrous in nature.

And have a second for the 53 that didn't make it back, especially Flt Lt John Hopgood DFC* who should have also got a VC, IMHO.
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Old 16th May 2017, 12:30
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Originally Posted by Downwind.Maddl-Land
Most of us lead busy lives, so in the hubbub of that daily routine one could be forgiven for overlooking today's date.
... or for not having time to Google it to remind ourselves what dam occasion you're referring to.
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Old 16th May 2017, 12:49
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For those who came in late, as the Phantom would say. (I'm referring to those who think 30 years ago, was ancient times).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chastise

Those brave men must have needed wheelbarrows to haul around their cojones, I'd say. One doubts whether we'll see their like again.
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Old 16th May 2017, 12:50
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Is there much point in mohning about it now - eider you remember it or you don't, but it takes all sorpes.

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Old 16th May 2017, 12:58
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Designed by a spin doctor?
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Old 16th May 2017, 13:14
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Watched the film this afternoon with a bottle of New Zealand's finest (appropriate). There seemed to be more dust about in Wanchai than usual.
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Old 16th May 2017, 14:24
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May have mentioned it before but had a gite guest a few years back who as a small boy had been awakened by aircraft noise and explosions. He went for a walk and came back and told hid Mother that someone had pulled out the plug of the Edersee.......
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Old 16th May 2017, 19:47
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Based at JHQ Rheindahlen in the early 1970s it was standard practice to visit the Dams or in my case the Möhnesee during ones' tour in Germany.



I took this photo of the dam in 1973, but struggled then as now when I examine the photo to see where repairs to the face had been made, although to be fair the photo was taken thirty-years after repair and assume the brick facing has weathered over the years.
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Old 16th May 2017, 19:56
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Under the Geneva Conventions of nowadays, wouldn't the deaths of the 800+ Allied POWs which resulted from that 'atrocity' be considered to be a war crime?

Or is that outdated thinking?
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Old 16th May 2017, 20:11
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Visited the Eder on the 40th anniversary of the raid...

In an F-4. At low level, several passes - some in formation. The Gutersloh SNavO had forgotten to tell us that we weren't supposed to use the dams as turning points / targets etc. But lots of genpub waving at us seemed happy enough.

I think...

Didn't have the heart to tell the SNavO that we'd also 'said hello' to the Möhne on the way back to Gut...
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Old 16th May 2017, 21:16
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What was an F4 doing operating out of Gutesloh - it was a Harrier/Wessex station. IIRC the F4s were at Wildenrath.

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Old 16th May 2017, 22:02
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PDR1, we were there on detachment from Wattisham for EX BOLD GAUNTLET, together with some F-15s, Mirage 3, C-160 and a C-130.
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Old 17th May 2017, 02:24
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Under the Geneva Conventions of nowadays, wouldn't the deaths of the 800+ Allied POWs which resulted from that 'atrocity' be considered to be a war crime?
At my age I thought I was up to date on the dams raid and subsequent events but I never heard of the 800 POW deaths as a result, would you enlighten me (us) please Caz?
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Old 17th May 2017, 06:45
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Originally Posted by parabellum
At my age I thought I was up to date on the dams raid and subsequent events but I never heard of the 800 POW deaths as a result, would you enlighten me (us) please Caz?
Casualties of the Dams Raid
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Old 17th May 2017, 09:45
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PDR

What was an F4 doing operating out of Gutesloh
Just to back Beagle up - it was as he says, detached Ops - there was an (?) annual exercise based at least in part at Gutersloh that involved various NATO Air Defenders, (and others). Looking at the logbook I've got a few F-4 sorties flown out of there in '81.

Last edited by wiggy; 17th May 2017 at 09:59.
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Old 17th May 2017, 10:05
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Onetrack,


"One doubts whether we'll see their like again."

Oh contraire, we saw many MANY examples of 'their like' in Iraq and Afghanistan and many paid a grievous price for it.
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Old 17th May 2017, 13:38
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Try au contraire.
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Old 17th May 2017, 13:51
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To mark the occasion, I see that the RAF Museum has circulated a photograph .... with a certain dog front and near-centre:


https://twitter.com/rafmuseum/status/864786354017796096
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Old 17th May 2017, 14:38
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Originally Posted by Beagle
PDR1, we were there on detachment from Wattisham for EX BOLD GAUNTLET, together with some F-15s, Mirage 3, C-160 and a C-130.
Originally Posted by wiggy
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Just to back Beagle up - it was as he says, detached Ops - there was an (?) annual exercise based at least in part at Gutersloh that involved various NATO Air Defenders, (and others). Looking at the logbook I've got a few F-4 sorties flown out of there in '81.
Abject apologies, chaps! I read that the wrong way entirely. I was at Gutesloh for a couple of weeks in 1976, but as an ATC cadet. Spent time with 18sqn (including a Wessex flight along the border) and did visits to the border itself, the Paderborn viaduct and the Mohne Dam. They warned us that a previous group of cadets had been thrown off the damn for marching up and down singing the dambusters theme, and then left us there for two hours. Well after spending 20 mins looking down the valley (where all the water went) and up the valley (how did they get such a big aeroplane in there!) there wasn't that much more to do.

We found that at one end you could get down to a small pebbley beach next to the dam, so some of us went paddling. And of course we started skimming stones - for some reason this really upset them...

Mind you, I thought they were rather selective in their outrage, because the gift-shop/cafe on the dam itself sold the old Revel plastic kit of the Lancaster Type 464 as a souvenir.

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Old 17th May 2017, 15:05
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of course we started skimming stones - for some reason this really upset them...
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