Flygirl,
Why ? in my youth in the sixties we did not have much but we had a certain amount of stability in life ,achievable goals be it education,career,finances. today it is too opressive,too P.C. and anything aeronautical is fast disappearing just look at the defence cuts today !

= Postmodernist free-for-all.

One thing that never seems to be mentioned in the extensive coverage of the raid is the vast differences in success and losses between the different waves of the attack. Off the top of my head it seems that the dam breeches were mainly down to the first wave of the attack and the majority of the losses were down to the back-up waves; losses that were added for very little, if any, gain.

Does this highlight differences in proficiency of the various waves, bad planning over some of the targets (and weapons used on unsuitable targets) or was it just a case of luck (or bad luck) on the night?

Before the internet existed, there were some excellent documentaries on TV. One expert questioned the choice of the Sorpe for the same bomb because of its earthen banked construction could absorb the explosive force.

Also the Lister and Schwelme dams rarely get a mention.

I hope one of the digital channels gets access to these documentaries, some included interviews with Barnes Wallis, though I remember the article about him in the Radio Times much clearer.

Wings from Orbis Publishing. It began January 1977 at a cost of 40p each weekly edition. I gave up at the end of the 10th Volume.

Yes, I know it’s not a book, but it gave me the broadest knowledge of aviation I could ever hope for.

Aircraft produced after this time, began to look ugly. My enthusiasm waned thereupon after.

Sadly, this comes as the fall-out from that cheerful chubby chappy John Prescott classifying airfields as brownfield sites for purposes of redevelopment.

And where did Prescott get that idea from?

Why Labour led Ipswich Borough Council no less!

Note past tense in both sentences;)

I have just had a check of John Ray’s The Night Blitz 1940-1941. He does not mention the nature of attacks after the last big raid on London in May 1941.

So I can only add my own question to your query and that is would they still have utilised Knickebein or X-Geraet for single raiders?

For anyone researching this further, you might find this interesting and the TV report in German:

http://countusout.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/video-gottingen-germany-world-war-ii-bomb-kills-3-disposal-experts-video/