When I read the details of the real story my respect and admiration for the crews involved increased dramatically. I was particularly captivated by the heroism of Flt Lt John Vere Hopgood and his crew, of which more shortly.
This, then, is the first dam I'll cover in this thread. The Möhne (or Mohne to help the search engines...) is a mightily impressive piece of construction, nestling in a heavily wooded valley which is a real beauty spot and home to a small but prospering tourist industry - particularly during the summer, with much boating and other watersports on the lake created by the dam's presence.
First, a view from the lake side - the breach was made in the centre section, and it is very difficult to spot any signs of it these days.
From the other side:
Sadly the dam was closed for renovation so we couldn't walk right across it - however we did hop across the "verboten" boundary gate and walk part of the dam just to carry out a "mini dam-bust" before the fumes from the newly laid roadway base drove us back!
You can't see on these pics due to the small size but close examination in person or of the full size pics shows hints of where the damage was repaired - some of the original pre-war brickwork in the arches near the top of the dam is much neater and uses smaller blocks than the 1943/44 repair work. Comparison with photos of this side pre-war and after the raid shows the most dramatic difference, which is the total absence of the neat gardens at the base of the dam and the massive power plant building - which brings us back to Hopgood and his crew.
Shot up by flak whilst flying to their target, their wireless operator very badly wounded in the legs, their front gunner mortally wounded, Hopgood himself wounded in the face, one engine out of action, Hopgood and his crew still carried on regardless.
Attacking the dam in second place behind Guy Gibson, the gunners on the dam and surrounding hills were well prepared and knew exactly what to expect from this second attack. Hopgood's aircraft, Lancaster ED925 AJ-M, was raked by murderous fire from the guns and hit multiple times, being immediately set aflame with fire trailing from one wing right back to the rear of the aircraft and beyond and also along parts of the fuselage. In the chaos their bomb was dropped a little too late, skipping over the dam entirely and rolling into the power plant just the other side. The explosion demolished the power plant - and quite possibly further damaged the Lancaster, which was now down to two engines - from some accounts, possibly just one.
Hopgood struggled to get the Lancaster higher so his crew could bail out. He got almost as far as the village of Ostönnen around 4 miles north-west of the dam, and up to about 500ft, with three of his crew bailing out - though one, the badly wounded wireless operator, did not survive. The tail gunner heard Hopgood's last known words on the intercom before he left - "For Christ's sake get out!". ED925's fuel tanks exploded and the wreckage ploughed into a field... this field in fact:
A motorway has been constructed in more recent years and runs more or less over the exact crash site, but nearby, down a small farm track, you can find a small memorial post:
A drive of an hour or so to the west to the CWGC cemetery at Rheinberg finds Hopgood's final resting place...
...among his crew:
I've seen several CWGC cemeteries before. But never so many flyers - and it is a tiny part of Bomber Command's dead. Very sobering.
