Dam Busters

<p>James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian writer and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently <i>Brothers In Arms</i> and <i>Normandy '44</i> he is also the author of nine works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts.<br><br>He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year and he has presented - and written - many television programmes and series for the BBC Channel 4 National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels. <br><br>With Al Murray he has a successful Second World War podcast <i>We Have Ways of Making You Talk</i> which also has its own festival and is a research fellow at St Andrew's University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He can be found on Twitter as @James1940 and on Instagram as @jamesholland1940.</p> <p>The night of May 16th 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire each with a huge 9000lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.<br><br>From the outset it was an almost impossible task a suicide mission: to fly low and at night in formationover many miles of enemy-occupied territory at the very limit of the Lancasters' capacity and drop a new weapon that had never been tried operationally before from a precise height of just sixty feet from the water at some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany.<br><br>More than that the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks. When visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis's concept of the bouncing bomb was green lighted he hadn't even drawn up his plans for the weapon that was to smash the dams. What followed was an incredible race against time which despite numerous setbacks and against huge odds became one of the most successful and game-changing bombing raids of all time.</p> In his previous books... Holland combined a lively style with fresh insights based on deep historical research. Those qualities shine through this new account Though it is such a well-known story it has never been told in such depth before. James Holland has mastered every detail Holland tells the story with gusto and pace... he has truly and brilliantly plugged an enormous gap <p>The night of May 16th 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire each with a huge 9000lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.<br><br>From the outset it was an almost impossible task a suicide mission: to fly low and at night in formationover many miles of enemy-occupied territory at the very limit of the Lancasters' capacity and drop a new weapon that had never been tried operationally before from a precise height of just sixty feet from the water at some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany.<br><br>More than that the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks. When visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis's concept of the bouncing bomb was green lighted he hadn't even drawn up his plans for the weapon that was to smash the dams. What followed was an incredible race against time which despite numerous setbacks and against huge odds became one of the most successful and game-changing bombing raids of all time.</p>