Dambusters Blog

Sqn Ldr Ted Wass died recently, and had a generous obituary in The Times. He was known to many researchers and other people with an interest in 617 Squadron from his many years’ work as the squadron association secretary, where he treated everyone with great courtesy and efficiency. 
Ted could have spent the whole of his Second World War career in a relatively safe position in the RAF supply department, but chose to volunteer for aircrew and was posted to 617 Squadron as a gunner in 1944. He took part in two raids on the Tirpitz, including the one in which it was finally sunk, and a number of other high profile operations, usually in aircraft captained by Sqn Ldr Tony Iveson. He was forced to bale out over Germany in January 1944, and spent the last part of the war as a PoW. The story of this raid is told here in a story in the Telegraph last autumn about Tony Iveson. (I linked to this at the time.)