Synopsis

Dambusters Away is the almost unbelievable, never-before-told, account of how Bomber Command was prepared to sacrifice 617 Squadron's safety to prevent unexploded weapons falling into German hands. The deception, danger and obsessive secrecy which nearly cost every Dambuster's life, began in March 1943 with the desperate, all-night search for an expert to resolve problems threatening Barnes Wallis's brilliant concept. Jack Holsgrove tells how, as a 21-year-old technician, he was snatched from top-secret work on a Scottish airfield and virtually imprisoned for two months whilst he designed fail-safe weapon release systems so sensitive they were activated only seconds before each Lancaster lifted from Scampton's runway. Aircrews were quite deliberately deceived so that they did not realize they were embarking on the most dangerous take-off in RAF history. Incredibly, Jack was put in charge of sending the Dambusters away on their historic mission because only he was qualified to fuse his mechanisms. Total secrecy almost led to total disaster when one heart-stopping blunder nearly caused Jack to destroy the squadron on the ground; another turned the security cloak into a discredited threadbare futility. A compelling story.

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