It may well vanish behind a paywall again shortly, but at the moment you can read The Times’s contemporary accounts of the Dams Raid. The page available is from 19 May 1943, two days after the raid. The previous day’s papers had carried the first reports, but the story was to dominate the news agenda for several more days to come – fed by the Air Ministry’s public relations officers, who had become highly skilled at releasing information in several stages.
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Just to let people know that the DVD of Last of the Dambusters featuring Johnny Johnson DFM, Joe McCarthy’s bomb aimer on the Dams Raid is available from distributors Quantum Leap http://www.qleap.co.uk and Amazon.co.uk now. As well as an extended version of the documentary first shown on Five TV, it also includes over 30 minutes of extra unshown footage with Johnny speaking at length about his part in history and recalling his amazing experiences , plus extended scenes of the unique excavation of a Type 464 Dambuster Lancaster