Dam busters : the true story of the inventors and airmen who led the devastating raid to smash the German dams in 1943 / James Holland.
Material type:
TextPublication details: New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2013]Description: xix, 437 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps ; 24 cmISBN: - 0802121691 (hbk.)
- 9780802121691 (hbk.)
- Dambusters : the true story of the inventors and airmen who led the devastating raid to smash the German dams in 1943
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 940.5449 H735 | Available | 33111007474790 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The night of 16 May, 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, each with a huge 9000lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.
From the outset it was an almost impossible task, a suicide mission: to fly low and at night in formation over many miles of enemy-occupied territory at the very limit of the Lancasters' capacity, and drop a new weapon that had never been tried operationally before from a precise height of just sixty feet from the water at some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany.
More than that, the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks. When visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis's concept of the bouncing bomb was green lighted, he hadn't even drawn up his plans for the weapon that was to smash the dams. What followed was an incredible race against time, which, despite numerous setbacks and against huge odds, became one of the most successful and game-changing bombing raids of all time.
Originally published: Great Britain : Bantam Press, 2012, with the subtitle The race to smash the dams, 1943.
Includes filmography (p. 420), bibliographical references (p. [415]-420) and index.
An account of the daring May 1943 mission to destroy three heavily defended German dams documents the ten-week race to create the necessary weapons and orchestrate a bombing raid that nearly cost the lives of its pilots.