大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by CSV Storygatherer Robin.D.Bailey on behalf of the author Roy. S. Bushell. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

It was in the summer of 1943 that the A.A. Battery, in which I was a Troop Sergeant, received orders to pack up all our equipment and prepare to move to a 鈥渟ecret鈥� destination. We were stationed in North Wales and the equipment consisted of light A.A. Guns - Bofors, and 150cm Searchlights.

In May of that year, we had all read of the successful raids by 617 Squadron RAF, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, on the Mohne and Eder Dams in the industrial Ruhr. This had, by all accounts, been very successful and the released waters had set back German arms production for some considerable time. In those days the details of the raid, which had been costly in lives and aircraft, could only be reported in minimal detail. Consequently, when the orders came through in July 1943 that our 鈥渟ecret鈥� destination was to be in Yorkshire, we had no real knowledge as to what our role was to be.

In the early hours of the morning, in order that nobody would be aware of our movements, we left our site outside Denbigh in a convoy of lorries - Not very secret, as the local people were awake to wave us goodbye!

When we arrived, I found that my particular responsibility was the Ewden Dam to the north of Sheffield. This had been chosen as being in a similar situation to the dams on the Ruhr. The powers in Whitehall had decided that the Germans might carry out reprisal attacks. The system was to put the light A.A. Guns on the top of the dam and around the perimeter of the reservoir, hoping to cover the narrow approaches. The Searchlights were to provide illumination at low level - to assist the guns and to blind the pilots.

My position was to set up a control post in the centre of the dam. I quickly realised that, if a raid did take place and the dam broke, I would be the first person to arrive in Sheffield!

We settled in and waited. A few days later, a number of us were summoned to a local pub where we were addressed by Guy Gibson himself. He described how they came in at almost zero degrees, released their 鈥渂ouncing bombs鈥� and turned the Lancasters to make a speedy exit. I remember that he was very calm and made it sound as if it had been a routine operation.

We realised a few days later, when two of the Lancasters gave us a demonstration, it was impossible to imagine how they did the attack.

They came straight across the water, only feet above the surface and then peeled off across the surrounding hills. One of the pilots told us later that a number of the crew were physically sick. The worrying factor from our point of view was that with the guns depressed almost to zero, we could not traverse quickly enough to be effective.

We waited expectantly for nearly two months and then again had orders to move. Apparently, it had been realised that the all important difference between the RAF and the Luftwaffe was our having the Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb. It gave us the means to do the job.

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