by John Nichol
62 http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/bomber-pilot-captured-tirpitzs-demise-20110816-1iw9r.html#ixzz2vwI8GmM9
63 Arthur Ward, ‘With Tait to the Tirpitz’, Après Moi!, Summer 2010
64 Frank Tilley, interview with the author
65 Private papers of J. B. Tait, quoted in Patrick Bishop, Target Tirpitz
66 ibid.
67 Bob Barry, quoted in Colin Burgess, ‘617 Squadron: The Later War Operations’
68 Bernard ‘Barney’ Gumbley, letters supplied by John Gumbley
CHAPTER 14 THE LAST CHRISTMAS?
1 Arthur Joplin, interview with the author
2 Frank Tilley, interview with the author
3 Sydney Grimes, interview with the author
4 Benny Goodman, interview with the author
5 Ken Gill, personal letters supplied by his son Derek Gill
6 Tony Iveson, Lancaster: The Biography
7 ibid., and interview with the author
8 Murray Vagnolini, interview with the author
9 John Pryor, Bergen, 12 Jan 1944, personal account supplied by Rob Owen, Official 617 Squadron Association Historian
10 Colin Cole, interview with the author
11 Quoted in Ken Delve and Peter Jacobs, The Six-Year Offensive
12 ibid.
13 Karel Margry, ‘The Bielefeld Viaduct’, After the Battle, No. 79, 1993
14 ibid.
15 John Langston, interview with the author
16 Colin Cole, interview with the author
17 John Langston, interview with the author
18 Sydney Grimes, interview with the author
19 Murray Vagnolini, interview with the author
20 ‘Dropped 10-Tonner on Huns’, Illustrated London News, 24 March 1945
21 Murray Vagnolini, interview with the author
22 H. E. Wakefield DFC, IWM Documents 15411
23 Karel Margry, ‘The Bielefeld Viaduct’, After the Battle, No. 79, 1993
24 Axel Frick, Bielefeld Viaduct Civilian Accounts
25 H. E. Wakefield DFC, IWM Documents 15411
26 Don Day, quoted in Colin Burgess, ‘617 Squadron: The Later War Operations’
27 Benny Goodman, interview with the author
28 Sydney Grimes, interview with the author
29 Colin Burgess, ‘617 Squadron: The Later War Operations’
30 Werner Buhner, Civilian Accounts of the Bombing of the Arnsberg Viaduct
31 ibid.
32 Bob Barry, quoted in Colin Burgess, ‘617 Squadron: The Later War Operations’
33 Letter, Air Secretary to L. Gumbley, 7 January 1949
34 John Gumbley, letter to Sydney Grimes, 2005
35 Sydney Grimes, interview with the author
CHAPTER 15 THE FINAL DAYS
1 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007390
2 Email correspondence with Michelle Callan
3 Bob Barry, quoted in Colin Burgess, ‘617 Squadron: The Later War Operations’
4 ibid.
5 Email correspondence with Michelle Callan
6 Murray Vagnolini, interview with the author
7 David R. Ware, IWM Sound 24932
8 ibid.
9 Boleslaw Henryk Drobinski, IWM Sound 12892
10 Tony Iveson, interview with the author
11 Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, The Bomber Command War Diaries
12 Les Munro, interview with the author
13 Chris Ward, Dambusters: The Forging of a Legend
14 http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/commandlosses.html
CHAPTER 16 COUNTING THE COST
1 Frank Tilley, interview with the author
2 Hansard, 6 March 1945
3 Henry Probert, Bomber Harris
4 Sydney Grimes, interview with the author
5 Colin Cole, interview with the author
6 George ‘Johnny’ Johnson, interview with the author
7 ‘Major Nick Knilans’, obituary, Daily Telegraph, 27 June 2012
8 Correspondence with Jan Cheney
9 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?n=donald-cheney&pid=172298644
10 Don Cheney, interview with the author
11 Fred Sutherland, interview with the author
12 http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/17/a-real-suicide-run-70-years-after-the-dambusters-raid-an-airman-tells-remarkable-tale/
13 Sydney Grimes, interview with the author
14 Derek Gill, correspondence with the author
15 George ‘Johnny’ Johnson, interview with the author
16 Lawrence Wesley Curtis, IWM Sound 92111
17 Letter from Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, 18 April 1980, RAF Museum, Hendon
Sources and Bibliography
(IWM: Imperial War Museum)
PERSONAL INTERVIEWS WITH THE AUTHOR
John Bell
Don, Gladys and Jan Cheney
Colin Cole
David Fellowes
Basil Fish
Lawrence ‘Benny’ Goodman
Sydney and Iris Grimes
Gerry Hobbs
Tony Iveson
George ‘Johnny’ Johnstone
Arthur Joplin
John Langston
Les Munro
Klaus Rohwedder
Fred Sutherland
Frank Tilley
Murray Valentine (Vagnolini)
Russell ‘Rusty’ Waughman
PERSONAL PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS
Air Secretary to L. Gumbley, 7 January 1949, 5/2/5451 PRS
Brookes, Mrs M., ‘A WAAF’s Tale’, 2 July 1993, IWM 93/22/1
Buhner, Werner, Civilian Accounts of the Bombing of the Arnsberg Viaduct
‘Damn Busters’ dinner menu, RAF Museum, Hendon, AC 96/12
Frick, Axel, Bielefeld Viaduct Civilian Accounts
Gill, Ken, letters and correspondence with relatives
Gumbley, Bernard ‘Barney’, letters and correspondence with relatives
Gumbley, John, letter to Sydney Grimes, 2005
Harris, Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’, letter to 617 Squadron Reunion, 18 April 1980, RAF Museum, Hendon
Hebbard, Loftus, correspondence with relatives
Hobbs, G. H., IWM Documents 1839
Holt, A. A., IWM Documents 8597
Knilans, Nick, ‘A Yank in the RCAF’, private memoir, RAF Museum
Muirhead, Campbell, diary
Pryor, John, personal recollections supplied by Robert Owen, Official 617 Squadron Association Historian
Wakefield, H. E., DFC, IWM Documents 15411
Walsh, J., IWM Documents 12812
Wilshire, Cyril ‘Charlie’, correspondence with relatives
AUDIO RECORDINGS
Bickley, Wilfred George, IWM Sound 14588
Briars, Ralph Algernon, IWM Sound 13924
Curtis, Lawrence Wesley, IWM Sound 92111
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard, IWM Sound 9861
Drobinski, Boleslaw Henryk, IWM Sound 12892
Hamilton, Malcolm Lennox, IWM Sound 18264
Hobday, Harold Sydney, IWM Sound 7298
Johnson, Edward Cuthbert, IWM Sound 8204
Kearns, Richard Stansfield Derek, IWM Sound 9302
Knights, Robert Edgar, IWM Sound 9208
Munro, John Leslie, IWM Sound 33077
Poore, Arthur Frank, IWM Sound 20261
Reid, William ‘Bill’, IWM Sound 4993
Sanders, John Aelred, IWM Sound 14803
Shannon, David John, IWM Sound 8177
Tait, James Brian ‘Willie’, IWM Sound 2519
Ware, David R., IWM Sound 24932
Watts, Frederick Henry Arthur, IWM 21029
PERIODICALS
Après Moi! is the 617 Squadron Association newsletter
Memorial Flight is the journal of Lincolnshire’s Lancaster Association
Allett, Tom, ‘The Bright Sparks’, Memorial Flight, Spring 2007
Allett, Tom, ‘First Op Ti
rpitz’, Memorial Flight, Spring 2009
‘Bill & Ben, Mosquito Men’, Memorial Flight, 2009
Bennett, Tom, ‘Operation Taxable’, Flypast, No. 40, November 1984
Burgess, Colin, ‘617 Squadron: The Later War Operations’, Transit Magazine, Australia 1986
Chorlton, Martin, ‘A Home for Heroes’, Memorial Flight, Spring 2009
Cooper, Dennis, ‘A Visit to Wartime Russia or Tirpitz Ahoy!’, Après Moi!, Winter 2009/10
Cotterell, Anthony, ‘Did I Ever Tell You about My Operation?’, War: Frankfurt Revisited, Army Bureau of Current Affairs, No. 62, 22 January 1944, London
Daily Telegraph, 19 May 1943
‘Dam-buster Gibson to Get VC’, Daily Mirror, 27 May 1943
‘Dropped 10-tonner on Huns’, Illustrated London News, 24 March 1945
Eeles, Ron, ‘My Recollections of a Night bombing Raid upon Mailly le Camp, France’, www.49squadron.co.uk
Everyone’s War: The Journal of the Second World War Experience, No. 22, Autumn/Winter 2010
Gellhorn, Martha, ‘The Bomber Boys’, Collier’s Weekly, 17 June 1944
Goodman, Benny, ‘RAF Against the E-Boats: Rotterdam 29 December 1944’, Après Moi!, Winter 2009/10
Goulding, Ossian, ‘Heart of Berlin is Paralysed’, Daily Telegraph, 25 November 1943
Hobbs, Gerry, ‘Glad to be Back’, Après Moi!, Spring 2008
Hobday, Sidney, ‘Two Months in Occupied Europe’, Lloyds’ Log, October 1946
‘A Home for Heroes: The History of Woodhall Spa’, Memorial Flight, 2009
‘Major Nick Knilans’, obituary, Daily Telegraph, 27 June 2012
Margry, Karel, ‘The Bielefeld Viaduct’, After the Battle, No. 79, 1993
Morris, Richard, ‘The Legacy of the Dambusters’, BBC History Magazine, May 2013
Morris, Richard, ‘Prosopography – A Special Group of Men’, Après Moi!, Summer 2011
Munro, Les, ‘A Rude Awakening’, Après Moi!, Spring 2007
Noble, Vernon, ‘They Call This Man “Killer”’, Daily Mirror, 22 May 1943
Poore, Arthur, ‘Personal Recollections’, Après Moi!, Summer 2010
Shortland, Jim, ‘Tirpitz Survivors Recall Raids’, Après Moi!, Autumn 2006
‘Sinking of Tirpitz’, New Zealand Press Association, 28 November 1944
‘Specsavers 62 Years On!’, Après Moi!, Autumn 2007
‘Squadron Leader Tony Iveson’, obituary, Daily Telegraph, 10 November 2013
Stopes-Roe, Mary, ‘Memories’, Après Moi!, Summer 2013
Storey, Ron, ‘Mailly le Camp, “Like Falling off a Log”’, People’s War, BBC, Article ID A4292804
‘“Tallboy” Wallis’, Daily Express, 15 November 1944
Trevor, Hugh, ‘Blockhouse Buster’, Flypast, October 2010
Ward, Arthur, ‘With Tait to the Tirpitz’, Après Moi!, Summer 2010
‘Warrant Officer Tom McLean’, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2011
Welden, Yvonne, ‘Mailly le Camp – Sidney Lipman’, People’s War, BBC, Article ID A6660371
Whitehead, Chris, ‘Knights of the Air’, Aviation News, November 2003
Zuba, Alfred, ‘Tirpitz: A German Sailor’s Eyewitness Report’, Après Moi!, Winter 2009/10
BOOKS
Barbier, Mary, D-Day Deception: Operation Fortitude and the Normandy Invasion, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, 2007
Bennett, Tom, 617 Squadron: The Dambusters at War, Patrick Stephens, Wellingborough, 1987
Bishop, Patrick, Target Tirpitz, Harper Press, London, 2012
Blundell, Harold M. ‘Nobby’, They Flew from Waddington! 463-467 Lancaster Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force: A Brief History, 463-467 Squadrons Association, NSW Tour Committee, Sydney, 1975
—, 463-467 Squadrons R.A.A.F., 463-467 Squadrons Association, 1995
Boyle, Andrew, No Passing Glory: The Full & Authentic Biography of Group Captain Cheshire, Collins, London, 1955
Chandler, Chan, Tail Gunner: 98 Raids in World War II, Airlife Publishing, Bury St Edmunds, 2001
Cooper, Alan, Beyond the Dams to the Tirpitz, William Kimber, London, 1983
—, The Dambusters Squadron: Fifty years of 617 Squadron RAF, Arms & Armour Press, London, 1993
Currie, Jack, Battle under the Moon, AirData Publications, Wilmslow, 1995
Delve, Ken, and Peter Jacobs, The Six-Year Offensive, Arms & Armour 1992
Eaton, E. A., Two Friends: Two Different Hells, ReCall Publications, Northallerton, 2002
Foster, Charles, Breaking the Dams: The Story of Dambuster David Maltby and His Crew, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2008
Grayling, A. C., Among the Dead Cities, Bloomsbury, London, 2006
Hastings, Max, Bomber Command, Pan, London, 1999
Heathcote, Blake, Testaments of Honour, Doubleday, London, 2002
Hesketh, Roger, Fortitude, Overlook Press, New York, 2000
Higgs, Colin, and Bruce Vigar, Voices in Flight, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2013
Hobday, Sydney, Two Months in Occupied Europe (publisher/date unknown)
Humphries, Harry, Living with Heroes: The Dambusters, The Erskine Press, Eccles, Norwich, 2003
Iveson, Tony, Lancaster: The Biography, André Deutsch, London, 2009
Kellow, Bob, Paths to Freedom, Kellow Corporation, Winnipeg, 1992
Lambert, Max, Night after Night, HarperCollins, New Zealand, 2007
Le Maner, Yves, Mimoyecques: Site of ‘London Cannon’ (1943–1945), La Coupole Editions, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, 2011
Levine, Joseph, Operation Fortitude, Collins, London, 2012
Middlebrook, Martin, and Chris Everitt, The Bomber Command War Diaries, Midland Publishing, Birmingham, 1985
Morris, Richard, Cheshire: The Biography of Leonard Cheshire, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 2001
—, Guy Gibson, Viking, London, 1994
Murray, Iain R., Dam Busters: Owners’ Workshop Manual, Haynes Publishing, Yeovil, 2011
Nichol, John, The Red Line, William Collins, London, 2013
Nichol, John and Tony Rennell, Tail-End Charlies, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 2005
Pasmore, Anthony, and Norman Parker, Ashley Walk: Its Bombing Range, Landscape and History, New Forest Research & Publication Trust, Lyndhurst, 2006
Probert, Air Commodore Henry, Bomber Harris, Greenhill Books, Barnsley, 1998
Rowley, Clive, Dambusters: The Most Daring Raid in the RAF’s History, Mortons Media Group, Horncastle, 2013
Russell of Liverpool, Lord, Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes, Greenhill Books, Barnsley, 2005
Simpson, Tom, Lower than Low, Libra, Victoria, 1995
Ward, Chris, Dambusters: The Forging of a Legend, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2009
Zaloga, Steven J., German V-Weapon Sites 1943–45, Osprey, Oxford, 2007
TELEVISION PROGRAMMES
The Dambusters’ Great Escape, Channel 4, broadcast Sunday 30 March 2014
What the Dambusters Did Next, Channel 5, broadcast Monday 26 May 2014
WEBSITES
Kevin James Biltoff ID Number S01771 http://static.awm.gov.au/audio/S01771--1-.mp3
Marc Buggeln (transl. Stephen Pallavicini), The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 (Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007390
http://histru.bournemouth.ac.uk/Oral_History/Talking_About_Technology/radar_research/fooling_the_enemy.html
http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/storeys_summary.html
Charles Foster, Dambusters Blog, 30 January 2014 http://dam bustersblog.com/category/fred-sutherland/
http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/commandlosses.html
Picture Credits
The author would like to thank the following for generously supplying a number of the photographs reproduced in this book: John Bell, Jan Cheney, Colin Cole, Charles Foster, Benny Goodman, Sydney Grimes, John Gumbley, Gerry Hobbs, Johnny Johnson, Klau
s Rohwedder, John Saunders, Mary Stopes-Roe, Fred Sutherland, Frank Tilley and Rusty Waughman. Other photographs are from the author’s private collection and the following sources:
INTEGRATED
Robert Owen, Official 617 Squadron Association Historian: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
National Archives, Kew: here
Popperfoto/Getty Images: here
PICTURE SECTION
Robert Owen, Official 617 Squadron Association Historian: here, here, here, here, here
Anna Gowthorpe/PA Press/Press Association Images: here
Index
The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.
617 Squadron
1980 reunion 326–7
aftermath 321–6
attractions of joining 27–8
awards given to members of 6, 10, 12, 23, 61, 99, 121, 144, 157, 213, 216, 225, 231–2, 273, 274, 300, 302, 322
Bomber Harris’s congratulatory note to 326–7
casualties 7–8, 9, 12, 13, 14–15, 16–18, 22, 36, 40–2, 44–7, 48, 85, 86, 87, 153, 155–6, 167, 169–70, 184–6, 189, 212, 221–2, 231, 232, 281, 283, 289–90, 304–6, 314, 316
celebrate anniversary of Dams raid 120–1
deals with loss of comrades 17–18, 18, 22–3, 48, 69, 87, 184, 283
death and destruction due to 11, 21–2, 35, 41, 87, 214, 260, 261–7, 310–11
destruction of V-weapons 137–43
final operations 307–14
forbidden to operate at low levels 47
given post-war ‘Cook’s Tour’ of key wartime targets 316
increased accuracy in bombing 58
industrial raids 74–5, 76–8, 95, 99–100, 103–6, 223, 307–12
involved in Operation Overlord 122–6
involved in Operation Taxable 114–20
issued with pistols and Sten guns 121
Italian action 34
known as ‘The One-op Squadron’ 29, 46, 48
known as ‘The Suicide Squadron’ 48, 67, 73, 220
