Clik here to view.
At the Petwood
Pic: Petwood Hotel If you are in the Lincolnshire area on Sunday 15 May, the day before the 79th anniversary of the Dams Raid, you are welcome to attend a talk I will be giving at 3pm at the Petwood...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Appeal for squadron commemorative window in Scampton church
RAF Scampton is due to close as a working RAF station on 31 December 2022. To commemorate the station’s history a new window is planned for the local parish church in the nearby village of Scampton....
View ArticleClik here to view.
AJ-C crash site cleaned up, thanks to local German history group
Members of the Heimatverein Hamm-Heessen and Heimatverein Walstedde show the results of their work. [Pic: Heimatverein Hamm-Heessen] Here is a heart-warming story to mark last weekend’s 79th...
View ArticleClik here to view.
AJ-K crew memorial to go ahead in June at McDowell grave in Harlingen
The crew of AJ-K, shot down on the Dams Raid. L-R: Vernon Byers, Alastair Taylor, James Warner, John Wilkinson, Neville Whitaker, Charles Jarvie, James McDowell. The postponed ceremony to unveil a a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flt Lt Sydney Grimes
I am sad to have to report the news of the death of Flt Lt Sydney Grimes on 27 May, at the age of 100. Syd Grimes was born in Great Wakering, near Southend-on-Sea on 6 May 1922. After leaving school...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Harlingen ceremony honours AJ-K crew at McDowell graveside
Pic: Wim Govaerts In a small Dutch graveyard last Thursday morning, a trumpeter played the Last Post and the small group gathered there – Dutch, Belgian, German and British – stood in silence. As the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Allsebrook crew killed on Dortmund-Ems canal raid commemorated in Germany
Joerg Echelmayer of the Riesenbeck Historical Society and Chris Ward standing by the plaque depicting the Allsebrook crew at the Bergeshovede quayside. [Pic: Andreas Wachtel] This summer has seen...
View ArticleClik here to view.
AJ-N crew photographed 40 years on
Left to right: Harry O’Brien, Fred Sutherland, Bob Kellow, Sydney Hobday, Ray Grayston and Edward “Johnnie” Johnson. [Pic: O’Brien family]. Melvin Chambers has kindly allowed me to share these...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dambuster Crash Sites: revised driver’s guide
Revised version September 2022 Text and pictures by Malcolm Peel On the evening of 16th May 1943, 133 aircrew in 19 Lancasters took off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire to attack the German dams east...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New photo shows Trevor-Roper in 50 Squadron
Pic: Trevor-Roper family The family of Flt Lt Richard Trevor-Roper DFM, who was the rear gunner in Guy Gibson’s crew on the Dams Raid, have kindly sent me a photograph taken when he was flying in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Portrait of a legend by a legend
Pic: BBC It was Johnny Johnson’s 101st birthday last week, and many happy returns to him. And what better way for a man of such maturity, a legend in his own right, to mark his big day than by posing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Johnny’ Johnson, 1921-2022
Pic: Johnson family I am sorry to have to report that the last Dambuster, George Leonard (‘Johnny’) Johnson died yesterday, 7 December 2022, at the age of 101. As Sgt G L Johnson he flew on the RAF’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Johnny Johnson funeral service and memorial arrangements
The funeral service for Sqn Ldr G L (Johnny) Johnson MBE DFM took place yesterday, Monday 19 December, in Holy Trinity Church, Westbury-on-Trym. It was a private family service. Later this week,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
May your days be happy and bright
Poster by James Fitton from the IWM Collection (PST 2814). Clicking around the interwebnet in search of a seasonal image I came across this lovely wartime anti-waste poster whose message is just as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Dam Busters on TV
This blog’s favourite film The Dam Busters is being shown again on UK TV this evening (Channel 5 Action) so if you are checking this blog to see the names of the men who took part in the Dams Raid on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Apologies for the delay
You may have noticed that there has been a delay since the last post on this blog. My apologies, but I have a good reason for it. Some seven weeks ago, I had what in medicine is called a hemorrhagic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wing Commander John Bell hits his century
Wg Cdr John Bell. [Pic: 617 Squadron Association.] Guest post by Dr Robert Owen, official historian, 617 Squadron Association. Wing Commander John Bell MBE, DFC, L d’H, the last British wartime...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lancaster tributes to Dams Raid crews on Dutch Remembrance Day
Wreaths laid at Gilze Rijen, 4 May 2023. [Pic: Kath Fisher] Today, the RAF BBMF Lancaster was involved in tributes for wartime activities in the Netherlands on Dutch Remembrance Day. Two of these were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seeing the Möhne Dam from the German side
Guest post by Michael Richter [Michael Richter, a German reader of this blog living near the Sorpe Dam, has written to me about recent work carried out in Germany. This is at the crash site of the 617...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New film: Attack on the Sorpe Dam
A new film featuring George “Johnny” Johnson’s Dambuster crew has recently made its UK film premiere, in the run up to the 80th anniversary of the Dams Raid this week. The film is now on a UK tour and...
View Article