Posted on 05/17/2013 10:35:46 AM PDT by the scotsman
'Two of the surviving Dambuster airmen have attended a ceremony after a flypast to mark the 70th anniversary of the World War II raid on German dams.
Hundreds of onlookers gathered as a Lancaster bomber flew over Derwent reservoir - one of the practice sites used ahead of the top-secret mission.
More than a third of the men never returned from the raids, when they had to fly just 60ft above ground.
RAF Scampton later hosted a sunset service.
The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and 617 Squadron flew over the dam in Derbyshire's Hope Valley on Thursday lunchtime.
The ceremony, service and second flypast took place at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire where, 70 years ago, 19 Lancaster bombers took off for their daring mission.
Only three of the original 133-strong squadron are still alive. Two of them, 94-year-old John "Les" Munro and 91-year-old George "Johnny" Johnson attended the Lincoln service on Thursday evening.
Squadron leader Munro had travelled from New Zealand for the event.
He said he made the 12,000-mile trip "just to renew old acquaintances".
More than 1,300 people were killed in the Dambuster raids when bombs were dropped on German dams and flooded the Ruhr valley.
There were a number of events taking place around the country on Thursday to mark the raids of 16-17 May 1943.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Lots of great documentaries about the dambusters on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dambusters&filters=long&lclk=long
Somebody had to say it. ;)
Back in the days when the military understood their role was to kill the enemy and break their things, and not be a “global force for good.”
Everyone needs to watch this Un-Poltically correct movie. Some people may be in for a big shock.
Chippy Ho! I was attached to VFA-195 Dambusters on USS Midway. We had a lot of fun in those crazy days
...
The lights came from the designer after a trip to a theater.
When they merged they were at the precise height.
When Britain had balls.
How many Germans died in the flood of water from the busted dams? If the Nazi’s had won—would this have been a war crime?
Un-PC because the CO’s Black Lab’s name is “nigger”?
Less Germans than died in Dresden.
Article says "more than 1300" died.
I don’t think the raids hampered the German war effort much. They had a rather remarkable way of recovering fairly quickly from most of these kinds of raids.
What about Dresden? Do you consider that a ‘’war crime’’? I don’t.
To the Nazis, feeding a Jew a slice of bread was considered a “war crime.”
In the context of your question, you asked if “more than 1300” dying in the Dambuster raids would have been considered a war crime by Germany if they had won the war.
I merely pointed out that 1300 is a blip compared to what happened in Dresden.
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