Overlooked, Dambusters slipped below radar

AFTER THE FLOOD: What the Dambusters Did Next<br><b>John Nichol<br></b><i>William Collins/HarperCollins
AFTER THE FLOOD: What the Dambusters Did Next<br><b>John Nichol<br></b><i>William Collins/HarperCollins
It was little wonder the Dambusters unit carried the gruesome tag ''the suicide squadron''. Of the 133 airmen who set out on the raid on the three Ruhr dams in 1943, just 73 returned.

Yet life didn't get any easier for RAF 617 Squadron: only 45 of those original crew survived World War 2.

New Zealander Squadron Leader Les Munro was one of them. After The Flood: What the Dambusters Did Next is a timely and fitting epitaph to the last surviving Dambusters pilot who died recently and other members of Bomber Command.

In his research, John Nichol interviewed Munro and other aircrew and ground crew of 617 Squadron. He weaves their stories and memories, together with official mission records, into a compelling account of those years from 1943 to 1945.

As well as missions over Germany, this elite unit's actions ranged from long distance raids on the German battleship Tirpitz, off Norway, to attacks in Europe on secret rocket sites, canals, U boat pens and a supergun facility.

Yet at war's end, they and their Bomber Command colleagues were treated as outcasts; then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in perhaps history's first act of political correctness, simply ignored their contribution to the war effort in his victory speech.

But it wasn't just Churchill and the politicians. There's a telling recall by Flight Engineer Frank Tilley on his return from hospital to a vacant RAF Waddington.

''My kit had gone from my hut ... I found it in a hangar with all the other belongings of the dead and missing, piled up in a corner. Lots of things were gone; bits of aircrew kit, my camera.

''Of course when I returned my kit to stores I had to pay for the items stolen. I hated that time after the war. The squadron had moved on and I was simply forgotten ...''

Peter Donaldson is ODT deputy news editor.

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