Aviation enthusiasts and military veterans crowded together outside Sheffield, England, to mark the 70th anniversary of one of World War II's most memorable air assaults—Operation Chastise, more popularly known as the "dambusters" mission.
Vintage airplanes, including a Lancaster bomber, recreated a daring run Thursday that combined courageous flying with ingenious military creativity.
On the night of May 16, 1943, a squadron of modified British Lancasters took off for a secret, overnight mission into the heart of Nazi Germany. Their payload was a top-secret bomb designed to target dams.
Germany's Ruhr basin dams held back water above some of Hitler's prime industrial heartland. It was hoped destroying them would cripple the Nazi war machine and bring a speedy conclusion to the war. The problem was, how to do it? Dams are tiny and tough targets for planes carrying regular bombs, and the Germans had installed nets to prevent torpedo attacks.
Sir Barnes Wallis, a scientist, thought he
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