On the night of May 16th 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers took off from RAF Scampton in England and roared into the night to attack the great dams of Germany’s Ruhr Valley. Together they held back billions of gallons of water vital to the production of hydroelectric power that turned the cogs of the Axis war machine.

Onboard the planes were the men of 617 Squadron, handpicked from the Top Gun of RAF Bomber Command. They would be forever immortalised as the Dambusters. Operation Chastise was the culmination of years of work by Barnes Wallis, a man who never fired a shot in battle but arguably played a crucial role in shortening WW2.

 He was a brilliant engineer and a man with a deep Christian conviction who believed science and faith were not separate but intertwined. Wallis was the designer the revolutionary ‘bouncing bomb’ an ingenious weapon that could skim across the water and then detonate at base of the dams at their weakest point.

The burden of his invention weighed heavily upon him. Whilst he believed in the necessity of the raid, Barnes Wallis feared the loss of life it would potentially bring. Not just to the men of Bomber Command, but the civilians on the ground who would be caught up in the apocalyptical floods as the dams were broken.

 The operation was shrouded in secrecy, not even the crews were told why they were being asked to rehearse day and night flying 60 feet above the water here at the Derwent Reservoir in the north of England.

Rumours circulated that they were destined to attack the formidable German battleship, Tirpitz. Some had other ideas but everyone was certain of one thing. Operation Chastise would be one if those missions where airmen received medals, but far too often they were given to their relatives.

Wing Command Guy Gibson was at the controls of the first of three Lancasters to attack the Mohne Dam, a 2,000 foot long wall of granite near Dortmund. Experienced pilots, Micky Martin and John Hopgood flanked Gibson at 200mph in a tight formation. After several direct hits, the mighty Mohne was breached but Hopgood’s plane was ripped apart by anti-aircraft fire. 

He’d told one of the other pilots back in England that he didn’t think he was going to make it back. A premonition that was tragically and violently fulfilled. 24 year Guy Gibson, who led the mission had lost many close friends in action but Hopgood’s death would hit him very hard.

Sixty miles south-east of the Mohne stood the imposing Eder Dam, the second target for the first wave. Henry Maudsley led the way and was killed along with his crew. The Eder was later destroyed by the bouncing bomb dropped from the plane flown by Pilot Officer Les Knight. Like Barnes Wallis, he was a deeply spiritual man caught up in the brutality of war. 

One of his crew said of him “Les kept himself away from the courser side of RAF life, but he could fly the arse off a Lancaster” Third on the list that night was the Sorpe Dam which was hit twice but remained intact. Civilian losses were low, relatively speaking, but the cost to infrastructure was immense. Every bridge within thirty miles of the Mohne and Eder was swept away.

Vital transport links were severed and the factories and power stations of the Industrial Ruhr Valley were flooded. Minister of War, Albert Speer, relocated a workforce of tens of thousands from the Atlantic Wall construction sites in Northern France to carry out the gargantuan rebuild. 

One year later, the D-Day Landings benefitted directly from the incomplete defenses on the beaches of Normandy. Of all the men who took part in Operation Chastise, 22 year old Les Knight who breached the Eder Dam and 52 year old inventor Barnes Wallis who designed the weapon that destroyed it are two I often think about.

Christians are supposed to be all about peace aren’t they, so how come they volunteered? Maybe these words from that brilliant scientist go some way to explain the dreadful dilemma. “The greatest war crime” Wallis said “would be to allow this war to continue any longer than is absolutely necessary”

We all know that life is not in straight lines, but full of complex moral choices. Those two men of faith certainly faced their fair share that night. When Barnes Wallis was told of the loss of so many lives, he was inconsolable and the grief would stay with him for the rest of his life.

Les Knight was decorated for his part in Operation Chastise but like so many who flew with the Dambusters, he didn’t survive the final two years of war in Europe. Within weeks he was back in the pilot’s seat of a 617 Lancaster for the mission to attack the Dortmund-Ems Canal. It was a disaster. Over half of the bombers and their crews would fail to make it back, his was among them. 

Flying low over occupied Holland on the way home, his plane hit treetops and all four Merlin engines burst into flames. He’s buried in the Dutch village where he came down in a deadly fireball. At the private memorial service, his wireless operator delivered this gut-wrenching eulogy “Les kept that damaged aircraft flying straight and level allowing us, his crew, to parachute out. In  doing so he gave his life for us”

Wing Commander Gibson received the Victoria Cross from King George VI for his outstanding leadership and bravery in the planning and execution of the mission. He was killed in action in January 1944. As dawn broke, the blackened wrecks of downed Lancasters littered the countryside across occupied Europe. Only eleven of the nineteen that took off the night before had returned to RAF Scampton. 

53 aircrew, many barely out of their teens, had lost their lives and in Germany around 1,500 people had been killed. Half of them were prisoners of war or forced labourers from occupied nations. Operation Chastise is remembered for the immeasurable contribution of the individuals involved, including an engineer who struggled with the burden of his invention and a pilot who later gave his life so others could live.

Pilot Officer Les Knight would have known these famous words from the Bible very well “Greater love has no man than the one who lays down his life for his friends” A timeless reference to the life and death of Jesus but words that could also have been written about a pilot who remained at the controls of a stricken plane even to the peril of his own life.