At 2128 hrs on May 16, 1943, the first aircraft of the newly-formed 617 Squadron lifted from RAF Scampton's runway and set course for Germany. So started Operation CHASTISE, an attack that had been in planning on and off since October 1937, (1) and that would be recognised as Bomber Command's most spectacular operation of World War II. By dawn the next day two major German dams had been breached, significant areas flooded, more than 1,250 deaths caused, and the Ruhr Valley's industry disrupted. The British force lost eight aircraft and fifty-three aircrew. The British would use post-raid reconnaissance pictures to show their Empire, their American allies and, using leaflet drops, Occupied Europe the damage caused to the dams, the countryside below them and, by implication, the industrial complex of the Ruhr Valley.
