**Best Nonfiction of 2020 -- Kirkus Reviews
**
**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.
Operation Chastise includes three 8-page black-and-white photo inserts
and 6 maps.
