Dambusters Weblog

… summer holiday. Well, at least I am - so there will be little or no posting between now and 15 August. I hope to have some interesting material lined up by the time I get back!

I’ve recently been contacted by New Zealander John Saunders, the great-nephew of a 617 Squadron airman from later in the war, Flg Off Bruce Hosie RNZAF. 

Just to say how much I’ve enjoyed your recent book - ‘Breaking the Dams’ - just neat neat stuff. I have read a few of the 617 & Dambusters books but this one has something special - the personal touch I think. Congratulations !
I’m trying to track down a photo of my great-uncle, Bruce Hosie. Bruce was a young Wireless Operator/Gunner on 617 Sqn in 1944 but was killed on the Oct 44 raid on the Kembs Dam down near Basel. He was my grandmother’s younger brother … and is still remembered back home in NZ. He had done a previous tour on 75 Sqn (NZ) and was posted to 617 in Jan 44 - and did most of his time on Jimmy Cooper & then Bob Knight’s crews…he did the first of the Tirpitz raids…then came back from leave to end up on a scratch crew for the Kembs deal. He was shot by the local Nazi Chief after their aircraft crashed in Rheinwheiler and is buried near Metz. 

The Kembs Dam was on the Rhine in the very south of Germany, near a threeway border with both France and Switzerland. The plan was to attack it with the giant Tallboy bombs from both low and high level. Bruce Hosie’s aircraft, which was piloted by Sqn Ldr Wyness, was badly damaged and he ditched in the Rhine, hoping to reach the safety of the Swiss bank. They did not make it, however, and four of the crew were captured. In what was a clear abuse of the Geneva convention all of them were shot by local Nazi chiefs, and their bodies dumped in or near the river.

Sorry to anyone who travelled all the way to Manston in Kent for Sunday’s event – it was cancelled at short notice due to adverse weather conditions. (Of course, by Sunday afternoon, the skies were blue, and the air was full of the songs of the lark. But that’s Sod’s Law for you.) 

There was a good piece about David Maltby in Kent on Sunday, which might have whetted the appetite of anyone coming along. There are a few minor typing errors, but otherwise it tells the all too familiar wartime story of a life cut shot and a widow and infant child left behind. You can still read it in an archived online edition here (scroll through the paper to pages 24 and 25).

I’ve set this blog up as a service to anyone interested in the exploits of the RAF’s famous Dambusters, 617 Squadron, during the Second World War.

The reason for my personal interest is because my uncle was David Maltby, the pilot of aircraft AJ-J, J for Johnny, on the Dams Raid on 16-17 May 1943. His was the fifth aircraft to attack the Möhne Dam and the mine it dropped was the one which caused the final breach, and its destruction.

I have written about David and his crew in my newly published book, Breaking the Dams, which is described on the related website here.