Mick Martin's Lancaster is shown
as the 'Upkeep' bouncing bomb is released, during Martin's successful
attack on
the Möhne dam during Operation Chastise.
On the night of 16/17
May 1943 nineteen specially modified Lancasters of 617 Squadron
departed from RAF Scampton on one of the most secret and daring
bombing operations undertaken during World War II The ultra-secret
operation to destroy the huge hydro-electric dams that powered
a significant part of Germany’s industrial war machine in
the Ruhr valley, codenamed Operation Chastise, had been planned
in stealth for months. Using a revolutionary 5-ton ‘bouncing
bomb’ designed by the brilliant designer Barnes Wallis,
a special squadron comprised of the most talented crews that
RAF Bomber Command could muster would be formed to attack primarily
the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe Dams. Using highly modified Lancaster
bombers to carry the secret bomb, Operation Chastise was to become
one of the most dangerous precision bombing raids ever undertaken,
and Robert Taylor astutely captures all the atmosphere in his
new drawing Bomb Away!, the latest addition to his highly acclaimed
Graphite Collection. At 00.38 hrs the attack on the Möhne
Dam is already well underway. The commander of 617 Squadron and
leader of the raid, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, had made the first
successful attack, but the dam wall had held. And then tragedy
had struck as Flight Lieutenant Hopgood’s Lancaster, hit
by flak during his attack, had exploded in a ball of flame. Gibson
called in Flight Lieutenant Mick Martin to make the third assault
and Robert Taylor captures this moment with graphic precision.
As enemy flak and tracer illuminate the night sky, Guy Gibson
boldly attempts to draw the enemy’s fire as Martin holds
Lancaster AJ-P steady at 60ft above the waters of the Möhne
Dam to release the cylindrical, bouncing bomb and send it spinning
towards the dam wall. In a few moments a huge explosion will
erupt up in to the night sky as the hydrostatic bomb detonates
against the mighty granite walls. Once again, though, the Möhne
dam held, but not for long. |