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9b - (concluded from Part One)

Adrian Tallis No I think that covers most of what we did on the Dam Buster Raid you know, but we also looked at the Emms Canal, the Emms/Dortmund Canal, which was a subsequent raid where 9 planes were involved in the particular raid over two nights. The first night they went out the raid was aborted, and Maltby who was the pilot that breeched the Mohne Dam, he …, when they aborted the trip, when turning at low level over the North Sea, touched his wingtip in the sea and cart wheeled into the sea and was killed, so he was killed without actually getting on the raid. The following night, Micky Martin who had been on the Dam Buster raid, he joined the flight and again 8 planes went out to Dortmund/Emms Canal, and they …, only about two of them hit the target, which didn’t do any damage, didn’t breach the canal and only 3 returned, all the others were killed, crashed. One of them was Les Knight - he crashed, he was the one who blew up the Eder Dam, and Les Knight’s plane, he managed to keep his plane in the air to allow all his crew to bale out except for himself, and to land the plane away from the village of Ham, and the villagers then erected a monument at the side of the road to him, in memory of his bravery in avoiding the town and avoiding killing any of their people, so we saw his crash site on the field, and the stone which is commemorating him, and also his grave in that particular cemetery where the locals maintain all these graves in such perfect condition, they look after them very well indeed, much better than graves in this country I am afraid.

Ann Tallis So looking at the booklet again and going back to what you said about the event, the knock on event of the Dam Busters Raid, I had forgotten all this information, but it says that it gave a real boost to civilian and service personnel in the dark days of 1943, which you know was important. And also I think one easily forgets that the 617 Squadron which was founded in a way, is still an operational squadron nowadays, and recently RAF jets of 617 Squadron pounded Iraqi defences with the latest precision weapons, and so you know it is an ongoing story really.
But another interesting point, the photograph which was in Chris Ward’s book, Henry Maudslay is in civilian dress, because apparently they had to carry a photograph of themselves in civilian clothes in case the plane crashed and they were able to, you know, escape more easily rather than, you know, having RAF uniform entirely, and I can’t think of anything else, Adrian, can you?

Adrian Tallis Not really, no.

Neville Usher It’s really nice that you have established a local connexion with this though, beginning with the plaque in the church.

Ann Tallis That was the starting point.

Adrian Tallis That was the starting point, and looking from here you can see the chimneys of the house that he lived in from our own dining room.

Ann Tallis And another interesting point was we went on holiday to Wales, and was it the Vyrnwy lakes we were looking at?

Adrian Tallis No, it was the Rhayader Lakes.

Ann Tallis Rhayader lakes, where the aeroplanes used to practise their low flying over water, and there were two young men there, bikers, very modern young men.

Adrian Tallis All in black leather?

Ann Tallis All in black leather, and I heard them chatting, this is where the Dam Busters used to train you see. So I said to them, oh excuse me I said, in our village that was where one of the Dam Busters used to live. Oh was it they said.

Adrian Tallis We were there for a half hour lecture!

Ann Tallis No, no, no I was just chatting, and my husband said there she is, off again, but I just felt that it was fascinating to find that two modern young men, still, you know, very interested in this story behind the Dam Busters

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