No. 617 Squadron RAF

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No. 617 Squadron RAF

617 Squadron crest. Lightning striking a dam, with water flowing from the breach
Active 21 March 1943 - 1955
1958-81
1983-present
Country United Kingdom
Branch Royal Air Force
Role Strike/Attack
Part of No. 1 Group
Base RAF Lossiemouth
Motto Après moi le déluge
French: "After me, the flood"
Equipment Panavia Tornado
Battle honours Fortress Europe 1943-1945
The Dams 1943
Biscay Ports 1944
France and Germany 1944-1945
Normandy 1944
Tirpitz, Channel and North Sea 1944-1945
German Ports 1945
Gulf 1991
Iraq 2003
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Guy Gibson
Leonard Cheshire
Willie Tait
John Fauquier RCAF

No. 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is better known as the "Dambusters" squadron. It currently operates the Tornado GR4 from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Second World War

The squadron was formed at RAF Scampton during World War II on March 21, 1943. It included Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel. The squadron was formed for the specific task of attacking three major dams on the Ruhr in Germany: the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and was carried out on 17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy Barnes Wallis's "Bouncing bomb".

The original commander of 617 Squadron, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the raid. The Squadron's badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam, in commemoration of Chastise.

After the raid, Gibson was banned from flying and went on a publicity tour. George Holden became Commanding Officer (CO) in July, but he was shot down and killed on his fourth mission with the squadron in September 1943, an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal; he had four of Gibson's crew with him. H. B. "Mick" Martin took command temporarily, before Leonard Cheshire took over as CO. Cheshire personally took part in the special target marking techniques required which went far beyond the precision delivered by the standard Pathfinder units — by the end he was marking the targets from a Mustang fighter. He was awarded the VC.

Throughout the rest of the war, the Squadron continued the specialist and precision bombing role, including the use of the enormous "Tallboy" and "Grand Slam" ground-penetrating earthquake bombs, on targets such as concrete U-boat shelters and bridges, and the Dortmund-Ems Canal was finally breached with Tallboys in September 1944.

A particularly notable attack was the sinking of the Tirpitz. Tirpitz had been moved into a fjord in northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already been damaged by an attack by Royal Navy midget submarines and a series of attacks from carrier-borne aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, but both attacks had failed to sink her. The task was given to No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons, who operated from a staging base in Russia to attack Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs. They damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to Tromsø fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland, and from there, in October, she was attacked again, but cloud cover thwarted the attack. Finally on 12 November 1944, the two squadrons attacked Tirpitz. The first bombs missed their target, but following aircraft scored three direct hits in quick succession. Within ten minutes of the first bomb hitting the Tirpitz she turned turtle. Both squadrons claim that it was their bombs that actually sank the Tirpitz. All three RAF attacks on Tirpitz were led by Wing Commander J. B. "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944.[1]

The World War II exploits of the squadron, and Chastise in particular, were described in Paul Brickhill's 1951 book The Dam Busters and a 1954 film.

The definitive work however is considered "The Dambusters Raid" by John Sweetman, Cassell Military Paperbacks (82,99,2002). It is based on careful research and cross checking of original documents as well as interviews with survivors of the raid.

In 2006, it was announced that New Zealand film director Peter Jackson and David Frost would co-produce a re-make of the film. It has been scripted by Stephen Fry and will be directed by Christian Rivers. The last living Dam Buster pilot, New Zealander Les Munro, offered his services as a technical adviser.[2]

[edit] Post war

No 617 Sqn Tornado GR1
No 617 Sqn Tornado GR1

After the end of World War II, the squadron was given the Avro Lincoln, following those in 1952 with the English Electric Canberra jet bomber. The squadron was deployed to Malaya for four months in 1955, returning to RAF Binbrook to be disbanded on 15 December 1955.

The squadron operated the Avro Vulcan upon reforming at Scampton on 1 May 1958 as part of the "V-Force". At first nuclear equipped, they reverted to conventional bombing after 1968 until disbanded on 31 December 1981.

The squadron was reformed at RAF Marham, Norfolk on 1 January 1983, to be equipped with the Panavia Tornado GR1. In 1993 it began the changeover to anti-shipping and by 1994 was operating from RAF Lossiemouth with Tornado GR1B with the Sea Eagle missile. 617 Sqn continued its pioneering heritage by becoming the first RAF squadron to fire the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise-missile, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[edit] Previous aircraft operated


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bomber Command: Tirpitz, November 12 1944, Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary web site
  2. ^ Alan Veitch, "Dambusters' Anzac legend" (Courier Mail October 01, 2006). Access date: October 01, 2006.

[edit] Further reading