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Dam Busters

The Race to Smash the Dams, 1943

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Dam Busters

By: James Holland
Narrated by: James Holland
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The night of May 16th, 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, each with a huge 9,000lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath them. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.

From the outset, it was an almost impossible task, a suicide mission: to fly low and at night in formationover many miles of enemy occupied territory at the very limit of the Lancasters' capacity, and drop a new weapon which had never been tried operationally before at a precise height of just sixty feet from the water at some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany.

More than that, the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks. When visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis' concept of the bouncing bomb was green lighted, he hadn't even drawn up his plans for the weapon that was the smash the dams. What followed was an incredible race against time, which, despite numerous set-backs and against huge odds, became one of the most successful and game-changing bombing raids of all time.

 Military World Thought-Provoking Inspiring War Aviation Air Force
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Really great story well-written, but I was driven mad by the author narrating it, as he has a tendency to say 'wiv' instead of with and many other 'th's end up as either v or ff. I listened, gripped even through my gritted teeth, as the story was so good. I'm sure he's a great historian, but Mr Holland is not my favourite reader.

Great book

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What an amazing record of heroism for these selected men of bomber command would recommend to all

Amazing read

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As an avid aviation history buff I have always loved the Dam Busters film. This book went above and beyond what I was expecting and made me realise the film does now where near enough to credit all involve in the actual raid and designing of the bomb. I recommend this to anyone who has seen the film even if they thought the film was only ok as this will blow you away!!

Fantastic!!

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Excellent details and research throughout. The full story is told in this book. Impossible to imagine what the twenty ish generation of today would do in that situation, I fear the outcome would be quite different.

A great insight into the full story

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A truly wonderful book. One of the best I have read so far. We have so much to thank these young men for. It breaks my heart to think how really young they actually were and what they did, were expected to do, just got on with it and did what they had to .

So much more than the film!!

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