Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II

Written by Max Hastings

Narrated by Max Hastings and Peter Noble

One of the most lauded historians of our time returns to the Second World War in this magnificent retelling of the awe-inspiring raid on German dams conducted by the Royal Army Force’s 617 Squadron.

The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story—and the later wartime experience of the 617 Squadron—has never been told in full.

Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know. The RAF had identified the Ruhr dams as strategic objectives as far back as 1938; in those five years Wing Commander Guy Gibson formed and trained the 617 Squadron. Hastings observes that while the dropping of Wallis’s mines provided the dramatic climax, only two of the eight aircraft lost came down over the dams—the rest were shot down on the flight to, or back from, the mission. And while the 617 Squadron’s valor is indisputable, the ultimate industrial damage caused by the dam raid was actually rather modest.

In 1943, these brave men caught the imagination of the world and uplifted the weary spirits of the British people. Their achievement unnerved the Nazi high command, and caused them to expend large resources on dam defenses—making the mission a success. An example of Churchill’s ""military theatre"" at its best, what 617 Squadron did was an extraordinary and heroic achievement, and a triumph of British ingenuity and technology—a story to be told for generations to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9780062953643

Max Hastings

Max Hastings is the author of thirty books, most about conflict, including Bomber Command, Armageddon, Das Reich, The Korean War, The Battle for the Falklands, Vietnam, Operation Pedestal and Abyss, and editor of two anthologies. He worked as a reporter for BBC television and British newspapers, covering eleven wars, including Vietnam, the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the Falklands war. Between 1986 and 2002 he served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes for both journalism and his books. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London, and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.

[gothamajp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An engaging and absorbing account (I read it in one sitting) of 1943’s Operation Chastise, better known to posterity as The Dambusters Raid. It’s an honest and balanced account that celebrates the reluctant heroes of 617 Squadron while also addressing the moral implications of the raid which ended up killing 1400 non-combatants, half of which were female slave workers, drowned in the resulting torrents; and how the RAF’s failure to follow up meant that the impact of the raid ended up being a short term inconvenience rather than the decisive blow against the Nazi industrial operations it was conceived as.

[edwardsgt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliantly researched and detailed description of the events which lead to the May 1943 Dambusters raid, the raid itself and the aftermath, including the over 1000 civilian casualties.

[runner56_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I was a child I was thrilled to read the wonderful WW2 adventure stories by Scottish author Alistair Maclean. I mention this because The Dam Busters, on first blush, reads like a thriller, a boys own yarn, from the aforementioned author. However, as we know, the story of the Dam Busters is not an imaginary tale but rather an audacious attack right into the heart of Nazi Germany.



It was a time of world war, stagnation, constant heavy “carpet” bombing missions under the leadership of the somewhat controversial Arthur Harris. Harris appeared to be accomplishing little, the only way to mark/pinpoint a target from a Lancaster bomber was by use of a compass, a map, and a sharp pair of young eyes. It is therefore of little surprise that targeted carpet bombing had very limited success, and it is against this background that an enigmatic Barnes Wallis unfolds his bouncing bomb.



3 dams were chosen; the Mohne, the Sorpe and the Eder. A special 617 squadron was created under the auspices of Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, and a fleet of Lancaster bombers were requisitioned and accordingly modified to carry the inventors explosive device. In order to deliver the bouncing bomb at the centre of the chosen dam, great concentration, precision and nerve were demanded from the crew of the attacking plane. A modern generation can never imagine how brave and utterly fearless those young men inside the Lancaster bomber were. To fly at a height of only 60ft, under constant attack by enemy fire, and expected to destroy a specified target needs a certain type of resilience, a certain type of superhero. When you realize that an airman was expected to complete 30 missions as part of a tour it is little wonder that few survived beyond the first few.



There have been those who have voiced great concern and justification at the implementation of such at such a foolhardy mission. Not only a great loss of so many young airmen but equally devastating to those residents who lived immediately below and therefore directly in the path of a fast approaching mountainous volume of water. However Britain needed a hero, something to cheer for, in the stagnant waters of the early 1940’s, and a young boyish aircrew led by the flamboyant, abrasive Gibson aptly filled that role. Max Hasting’s “Chastise” is a truly inspiring, magnificent book. It brings to life a story of a daring mission deep into the heart of a hostile nation. How fearless young men were prepared to fight and most probably die for the greater good, free from oppression and tyranny so that future generations could live in relative freedom……. “We lived supremely for the moment. Our preoccupation was the next patrol, our horizon the next leave. Sometimes, jokingly, as one discusses winning the Derby Sweep, we would plan our lives after the war. But this had no substantial significance. It was a dream, conjecturable as heaven, resembling no life we knew. We were trained with one object -to kill. We had one hope - to live”.....Wonderful inspiring writing and highly recommended.

[martinhughharvey_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Operation Chastise

As an introduction, I must thank the author for his recognition that a substantial number of the Dambusters were not British - of the 133 flyers 30 were Canadian of whom 14 died and 1 imprisoned. Disgracefully, this was never recognized by the British. Other nationalities included Anzacs (Aussies and NZ) and one American. Incidentally of the 133, 33 died and 3 were captured. Eight of the 19 planes were lost. These numbers were high even by Bomber Command’s typical carnage statistics.

However, this was a terrific book. My first Max Hastings read, a prolific author especially of military history. Why? I already consider myself as very knowledgeable concerning the Dambusters but had come to realize the story documented in older books and the 1955 movie were quite inaccurate. Why? It seems to be triumphalism propaganda and that the Brits still regarded the bouncing bomb weapon as a strategic secret. Ironic especially as the Germans retrieved an intact Upkeep bomb after the raid! I assume this book is far more accurate than the earlier ones. I enjoyed its style - while comprehensive and seemingly covered all the actors in this story it is eminently readable and was quickly consumed. While the Dambusters raid was one night in May 1943 its gestation began in 1937 when the dams in the industrial Ruhr were identified as strategic targets but it was concluded there was no way to destroy them by air.  Then came along Barnes Wallace - the amazing engineer who designed the Wellington bomber and went on to develop the Upkeep bouncing bomb, the huge 4000lb through 22000lb earthquake bombs, and the hovercraft.

Wallace did have to lobby and convince that his bomb could do the job and unlike the inaccuracy of the 1955 movie, he enjoyed widespread support in his endeavour from the RAF, the civil servants, and eventually his employer Vickers. Bomber Harris, the head of Bomber Command, was an implacable opponent of the raid but when successful was happy to take undeserved credit. The author also spends significant time on the effect the wall of water had on civilians killed in the “tsunami”. A high percentage of these were not German but slave labour.

An excellent book and superbly written and should be read by the dwindling few who might be interested in this topic!

More rambles …

I have personally visited RAF Scampton where 617 squadron was based and the raid left from - my main motivation was to see Nigger’s grave as not much of the raid remains. Nigger was Guy Gibson’s beloved (mainly) black lab who was killed by a car the day before the raid.

 The author, in my opinion, falls into a popular, especially, British POV regarding the Lanc vs the B-17 regarding its bombload. He states “Cruising at 216 mph and carrying the bombload of two American Flying Fortresses at a ceiling of twenty-thousand feet” ignoring that the B-17’s total weight was similar and it could fly higher and faster and carried a huge weight in armament and accompanying ammo and gunners.  More personal nitpicking but he states predictably “ the Lancaster ranks with the Spitfire, Mosquito, Fortress, Mustang and Dakota among the great Allied aircraft design successes of the Second World War”. I’m always surprised the F6F Hellcat is omitted from this list - designed to beat the hitherto undefeatable IJN (Japanese Navy) Zero which is completely obliterated and then went on to perform yeoman duty as a fighter/bomber.


Hastings compares the courage of the Dambusters to  “many legendary feats of courage have been performed by warriors who clung to some bleeding piece of the earth: the Three Hundred at Thermopylae; Horatius on the bridge before Rome; the Guards’ defence of Hougoumont at Waterloo; Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s 20th Maine on Little Round Top at Gettysburg; C Company of the 24th Foot holding Rorke’s Drift”. I won’t comment on his choice which I don’t think can be criticized in any substance but a notable difference strikes me in the 5 examples are all defensive exploits with backs very much against the wall; the Dambusters were offensive. A little BTW - Heather and I have visited 3 of the 5 sites of which Rorke’s Drift was personally the most emotive.
We have become used to referring to (my previous generation’s) sacrifice as the “Greatest Generation” and the comment “almost all of the generation that fought for the Allies in World War II enjoyed a far more coherent view of what they fought against – the huge evil of Nazism – than of what they were fighting for, which no politician had bothered credibly to tell them” of the author I found profound. 

[lamour_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of many books about this famous WW II mission, this volume gives a very detailed description of the mission, the men who planned it, flew it and developed the weapon that made it possible. Starting by explaining how the German dams were obvious targets but neither the Germans or the British figured there was an airplane capable of carrying a weapon big and strong enough to break them so the Germans left them undefended and the British thought any plan to attack them was foolish.

Then along came Barnes Wallis with his idea of a bouncing bomb and using the power of water pressure resulting from a large explosion as the force required to puncture the dams. The recruiting of the crews and the flying of the mission is explained. Hastings spends more time explaining what happened to the people who were sleeping in the valley below the dams than I have read in other accounts.

Very readable effort.