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Free lecture on Dambuster research
Next Thursday, 10 March, will see the next in the series of the RAF Museum’s Trenchard Lectures. It should prove fascinating to anyone with an interest in 617 Squadron during the wartime years, since...
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Snaps from behind the scenes at Scampton in Gillon photo album
[Pic: Gillon collection] In March 1943 Fay Gillon, seen in the picture above at work debriefing an unknown bomber crew, was a WAAF officer based at Scampton when 617 Squadron moved in to start training...
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David Shannon’s changing crew
Plt Off Bernard Holmes, rear gunner in David Shannon’s crew in 106 Squadron. Holmes completed a full tour with Shannon, and was brought to 617 Squadron at Scampton in March 1943. Three weeks later, he...
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Off to the pub
It was good to see 617 Squadron veteran John Bell on TV last week, being interviewed at East Kirkby by Simon King of the Hairy Bikers. This was one of a series of programmes made by the dynamic duo...
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Seventy-three years on, the fifty-three who died
Seventy-three years ago this coming Monday, on 16 May 1943, nineteen Lancaster aircraft from the RAF’s 617 Squadron took off from RAF Scampton on what would become the Allied forces most famous single...
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Burns archive and clothing goes to auction
Photo: Dix Noonan Webb Sgt Stephen Burns, the young rear gunner in Geoff Rice’s crew, spent several hours on the night of the Dams Raid soaked in a disgusting mixture of Elsan contents and seawater...
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A quiet wood in Germany
Pic: Wim Govaerts One year ago last weekend, a bronze plaque was unveiled on the edge of a quiet wood near the little town of Haldern in Germany. It is a memorial to the seven men in the crew of AJ-E,...
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Dams Raid crews remembered at Reichswald
Pics: Mitch Buiting Twenty-seven of the 53 Allied aircrew who died on the Dams Raid on 16/17 May 1943 are buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. They came from the four crews captained by Henry...
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Faith and hope at Scampton, 1943
The chapel at RAF Scampton, 1942. [Pic: Stephen Murray] The spiritual needs of the Allied forces during the Second World War were met by a large number of clergy who volunteered to serve as chaplains...
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Alex Bateman convicted
Alex Bateman, filmed in a 2009 TV documentary Regular readers of this blog will know of the work of Alex Bateman, a long-time researcher of the Dams Raid and author of the book, No 617 ‘Dambusters’...
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617 Squadron uniform sold on Ebay ‘likely to be fake’
Several items of wartime RAF uniform, some supposedly once owned by 617 Squadron veteran Flt Lt (later Sqn Ldr) Lawrence ‘Benny’ Goodman, were recently sold on Ebay for a total of about £1065. These...
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Alex Bateman charged with theft of Fraser logbook
Alex Bateman, in an ITN report from 2013. Dambuster writer and historian Alex Bateman has been charged with the theft of the logbook belonging to Flt Sgt John Fraser, who took part in the Dams Raid as...
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Drive like a Dambuster
Forget the dodgy mirrors with fake 617 Squadron engravings or the wartime telephones whose Scampton control tower dial inserts have miraculously survived. Here is your chance to buy something with both...
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Möhne “intelligence” picture on sale is a fake
This photograph of the Möhne Dam is currently being offered for sale on Ebay by the Louth-based dealers Military Trader UK. The auction closes on 5 August. See here. The dealers describe the photo as:...
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Bateman trial fixed for January 2017
Flt Sgt John Fraser Report from the Daily Telegraph: A military historian denied stealing a logbook belonging to the widow of one of the heroes killed in the 1943 Dambusters mission. Alex Bateman – a...
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The shape of the future: Barnes Wallis’s 1929 airship design
The name of Barnes Wallis is of course well known to students of the Dams Raid. But I bet that most people would struggle to remember many of the other projects, besides the so-called bouncing bomb,...
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40s holiday snaps at the Möhne Dam
Blog reader Hilary George has just sent me these pictures of a relative, Kathleen George, and three other British forces personnel. They were taken at the repaired Möhne Dam after the war. The tops of...
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In a pub garden: Johnnie Tytherleigh and friends
A group of four airmen visited the Parklands Hotel in Lincoln some time in the early summer of 1941, after completing their training and before joining 50 Squadron. This photograph of three of the...
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Dambusters remake shoved to back of the queue, again
Pic: collider.com The good news: once again, Peter Jackson has indicated that his remake of the classic 1955 film, The Dam Busters, is still an ongoing project. The bad news: it has been shunted to the...
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Are you sitting comfortably?
Another item with no proven connection to Guy Gibson, 617 Squadron or RAF Scampton has emerged for sale on eBay. According to the seller, this is: An office chair as used by Guy Gibson in his office...
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