Operation Chastise

Calling all Hattons!

dambusters1 Comment

The Wakefield Express recently ran a piece about my book, but didn’t use some of the material I had given them about the family of the late Sgt William Hatton, flight engineer in aircraft AJ-J on the Dams Raid. For the book, I tracked down relatives of all the other members of this crew, but the Hatton trail went cold. So I am repeating what I know here, in the hope that one day someone will Google the name, find this link and get in touch…

William Hatton was born on 24 March 1920 and went to Holy Trinity and Thornes House schools in the town. He was one of four children, two boys and two girls. His parents were called George and Florence Hatton. His brother was called George Hatton and his two sisters were called Ethel (born 1924) and Irene (born 1926). Ethel married Arthur Castle in June 1944, and they had a son, William David Anthony Castle, born in 1946. Irene married Donald Tait in February 1950. If anyone has any leads on this family, then please contact me.

Great new publication

dambustersLeave a comment

At a time when so much stuff about the Dams Raid is simply the recycling of old material (and often inaccurate old material at that) it’s great to be able to say that this new publication,  Breaching the German Dams from the RAF Museum comes up with real new information. As it is written by two genuine experts, Richard Morris and Robert Owen, you would expect nothing less. For the bargain price of six quid you get 80 A4 pages containing a number of articles: inter alia, family memories of Barnes Wallis, Roald Dahl and the film script that never was, how the crews were trained, how the Lancasters were modified, how Gibson was selected as the operation leader (including the daring suggestion that he might have been the only available candidate!), possible uses of Upkeep later in the war, and the final Operation Guzzle (you’ll have to read it to find out what that was all about). Order it now from the RAF Museum!

Dambuster survivors

dambusters3 Comments

Somebody has recently asked me privately how many of the original Dambusters are still alive. The answer to that is six. I am not going to name all of them here, as I think that one of them no longer does any public events. Of the five who still appear in public there are two in the UK. At the time of the dams raid, George (Johnny) Johnson was Sgt G L Johnson, the bomb aimer in the crew of AJ-T, piloted by Joe McCarthy. The crew dropped their bomb on the Sorpe Dam. 

Ray Grayston also lives in England. As Sgt R E Grayston, he was the flight engineer in Les Knight’s crew, AJ-N. They were the crew which dropped the mine which finally breached the Eder Dam.

The only pilot still surviving is Les Munro, one of two New Zealanders on the Dams Raid. Flt Lt J L Munro flew AJ-W on the raid, and was also supposed to attack the Sorpe Dam. Unfortunately, crossing the Dutch coast near Vlieland, they were hit by flak, which put the intercom and the VHF radio out of action, as well as damaging the compass and the tail turret pipes. With no way of speaking either to each other on board, or to other aircraft, they had no option but to return to Scampton with their mine still intact.

The final two Dambusters who are still active returned to their native Canada after the war. Both were gunners: Fred Sutherland and Grant MacDonald. Sgt F E Sutherland was the front gunner in Les Knight’s crew, AJ-N. Flt Sgt G S MacDonald was the rear gunner in Ken Brown’s crew, AJ-F. Like AJ-T, they attacked the Sorpe Dam, but failed to breach it. 

In my dealings with these gentlemen, I have to say that they were all models of courtesy. They have all told their stories hundreds of times and yet their patience and willingness to provide information is outstanding. We owe them all a huge debt as they keep the story of the Dams Raid alive.

The bombsight used to break the Möhne Dam

dambusters10 Comments

John Fort\'s bombsight used to break the Möhne Dam, 17 May 1943

I’ve only had this blog up and running for about a week, but I’ve noticed that I already get many more hits on it than on the companion site devoted to my book. So with that in mind, I thought that I would draw the attention of my blog readers to the remarkable picture of an original Dambusters bombsight which recently came into my attention. This is thought to be the only original wooden bombsight still in existence, and it was used by Plt Off John Fort, the bomb aimer in David Maltby’s crew. Some time in mid 1943 it was given by David to his father (my grandfather) Ettrick Maltby. The full story is told here. 

There has been a certain amount of scepticism as to whether any of the 617 Squadron bomb aimers actually used the bombsight (devised by Wg Cdr Dann) on the Dams Raid (Operation Chastise). Some of them certainly preferred their own makeshift sights and used chinagraph marks and tape on their Perspex blisters. But this artifact would seem to prove that at least one bomb aimer used the type that later became famous through the 1955 film. And he was the one that dropped the bomb which finally broke the Möhne Dam!