'Mad Max' bombs the 'dambusters'!

According to a review in this week's 'Speccie', Max Hastings has written a history of the (in)famous 'dambuster raid' of 1943.  In these modern, effete times, the telling of that story is tricky given that the courageous leader of it had a dearly beloved black Labrador as a pet whose name was, er, well, "Nigger", actually!  I have always sympathised with that because the couple who took me in as an evacuee during the war had a similarly black dog with the same name.  The times they are a-changin'!

More important is the fact, apparently, that Hastings takes a dim view of the entire enterprise.  If so, he confirms my own doubts about the raid which, whilst requiring great skill and courage from the airmen concerned, actually achieved very little.  For example the 'Mohne' dam was repaired within 18 weeks and the vast majority of the people killed were civilians, many of them, according to the review, foreign women used for slave labour by the Nazis.  Well, of course, it is so easy to be 'wise' after the event but you have to wonder at the technical advice given as this enterprise took shape.  Also, as the reviewer reminds us, it raises yet again the very many questions that remain unanswered as to the entire efficacy of the allied bombing strategy during WWII, quite apart from the morality.  

I don't know why but this old poem leaps to mind:

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

 

Comments

[John Duckett]

As one who is old enough to have spent many nights in Air raid shelters,I have little sympathy with the German population. The thing to remember is that bombing raids were the only way of attacking the heart of the enemy until we gathered enough strength to invade.We can be thankful that the Luftwaffe was not equipped with heavy bombers as I am sure that Hitler would not hesitated to use them.

[David Duff]

John, I, too, have little sympathy for the German population that voted Hitler into power, however, flattening German cities was NOT a useful strategy and only had marginal effects on their industrial production. Heavy bombers, especially at night, are wildly inaccurate. It required faster, lighter bombers capable of *pinpoint targeting*, such as the Mosquito which 'Bomber' Harris resolutely refused to deploy.

[backofanenvelope]

I fail to see what is immoral about dropping bombs on Germans.

[Jack the dog]

What BOE said

[Steve T]

Even if the bombing itself was ineffectual (a bit hit or miss to be fair), it still tied up a lot of the Luftwaffe, thousands of AA guns, I think a million people. They built massive AA defense towers etc etc.

[David Duff]

@BOE/Jack: Well then, set aside the morality, although I thought that was part of what we were fighting for, and concentrate on the military effectiveness.

@Steve: But if the right sort of bombing had been applied, the factories making the AA guns, and all sorts of other militaria, would have been severely damaged, and the Luftwaffe would still have been tied up>

[backofanenvelope]

We were fighting for national survival. How many Mosquitos equal one Lancaster? And you still have the problem of "pin point" accuracy. Even in daylight it was hard; at night it was very difficult. Plus of course, the nasty Germans were shooting at you!

[David Duff]

Well, BOE, if a Mosquito could place a bomb in the exact centre of a factory, of which it was more than capable judging by some of their operations, then it was worth more than a Lancaster destroying a street of houses in Hamburg! Also, of course, if it could be made and crewed for a fraction of the price of a Lancaster then that was even better!