NO. 617 SQUADRON RAF

''For the video game see The Dam Busters (video game)''
'No. 617 Squadron' of the Royal Air Force is better known as the '"Dambusters"' squadron. It currently operates the Tornado GR4 from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland.

Contents

History

Second World War

Post war

Previous aircraft operated

References

See also

Further reading

History

Second World War

The squadron was formed at RAF Scampton during World War II on March 21, 1943 with the purpose of attacking three major dams on the Ruhr in Germany: the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation ''Chastise'' and was carried out on 17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy Barnes Wallis's "Bouncing bomb".
The commander of 617 Squadron, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the raid. The Squadron's badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam, in commemoration of Operation ''Chastise''.
After the raid, Gibson was banned from flying and went on a publicity tour. G.W. Holden became Commanding Officer (CO) in July, but he was shot down and killed on his fourth mission with the squadron in September 1943, an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal; he had four of Gibson's crew with him. "Mick" Martin took command temporarily, before Leonard Cheshire took over as CO of the Squadron. Cheshire personally took part in the special target marking techniques required which went far beyond the precision delivered by the standard Pathfinder units - by the end he was marking the targets from a Mustang fighter. He was awarded the VC.
Throughout the rest of the war, the Squadron continued the specialist and precision bombing role, including the use of the enormous Tallboy and Grand Slam ground-penetrating earthquake bombs, on targets such as concrete U-boat shelters and bridges, and the Dortmund-Ems Canal was finally breached with Tallboys in September 1944.
A particularly notable attack was the sinking of the ''Tirpitz'' by IX(B) Sqn. ''Tirpitz'' had been moved into a fjord in northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already been damaged by an attack by Royal Navy midget submarines and a series of attacks from carrier-borne aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, but both attacks had failed to sink her. The task was given to No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons, who operated from a staging base in Russia to attack ''Tirpitz'' with Tallboy bombs. They damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to Tromsø fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland, and from there, in October, she was attacked again, but cloud cover thwarted the attack. Finally on 12 November 1944, the two squadrons attacked ''Tirpitz'', with bombs from IX(B) Sqn aircraft capsizing her. All three RAF attacks on ''Tirpitz'' were led by Wing Commander JB "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Wing Commander Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944. He was said to be disappointed that his Sqn failed to deliver the decisive blow.
The World War II exploits of the squadron, and Operation ''Chastise'' in particular, were described in ''The Dam Busters'' book and in a subsequent film.

Post war

After the end of World War II, the squadron was given the Avro Lincoln, following those in 1952 with the English Electric Canberra jet bomber. The squadron was deployed to Malaya for four months in 1955, returning to RAF Binbrook to be disbanded on 15 December 1955.
The squadron operated the Avro Vulcan upon reforming at Scampton on 1 May 1958 as part of the "V-Force". At first nuclear equipped, they reverted to conventional bombing after 1968 until disbanded on 31 December 1981
It was then reformed at RAF Marham, Norfolk on 1 January 1983 with the Panavia Tornado GR1.
In 1993 it began the changeover to anti-shipping and by 1994 was operating from RAF Lossiemouth with Tornado GR1B with the Sea Eagle missile.
617 Sqn continued its pioneering heritage by becoming the first RAF squadron to fire the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise-missile during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Previous aircraft operated

★ Avro Lancaster - 1943

★ Avro Lincoln - 1946

★ English Electric Canberra - 1952

★ Avro Vulcan - 1958

★ Panavia Tornado - 1983

References

★ RAFweb.org Accessed 17 May 2007.

See also

★ List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons

Further reading

★ 617 Squadron site

★ Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary: No. 617 Squadron

★ 617 Squadron - The Operational Record Book 1943 - 1945 (PDF) with additional information by Tobin Jones; Binx Publishing, Pevensey House, Sheep Street, Bicester. OX26 6JF. Acknowledgement is given to HMSO as holders of the copyright on the Operational Record Book