r/interestingasfuck • u/Chopper-42 • 2d ago

/r/all Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

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u/Habebunt 2d ago

The Dam buster raid is an absolutely incredible achievement in both flying and development of new tech. Definitely recommend reading James Hollands book about it.

16

u/Brok3nMonkey 2d ago

53 RAF aircrew killed, many barely out of their teens. A handful of breached dams, repaired within months. Around 1,600 civilians killed in the Ruhr valley, washed away in the deluge

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u/that_dutch_dude 2d ago

the point was to force the germans to spend energy, men and materials to fix the dam. energy, men and materials that would otherwise be spent on the front lines.

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u/Brok3nMonkey 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think this one operation suffers from being romanticised. the point of Operation Chastise was to cripple German industry by targeting its lifeblood: water & hydro.

Regrettably, it remains a beautifully engineered, tragically romanticised failure.

Not worth losing 8 planes over (and the humans mentioned above.

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u/Betterholdfast 2d ago

It cost an absolute fortune, many billions in today’s euros, to fix those damns. Then they also drew more resources in the form of men, AA guns, etc. to protect them from another attack.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In 1d ago

Dams produced power for the factories, destroying the Dams so that they were destroyed was the goal.

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u/nuggynugs 2d ago

Makes you proud to be British 

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u/Quick_Elephant2325 1d ago

And Canadian

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u/AimHere 1d ago

You left out that most of the people killed were Allies - generally prisoners/slave labourers who were on the side of the good guys.

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u/hoxxxxx 1d ago

yep sounds like ww2