Operation Chastise The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II

Max Hastings

eBook - 2020

Best Nonfiction of 2020 — Kirkus ReviewsOne 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 t...akes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most... more