Dam heroes! Countless words have been written about the Dambusters （警察の）手入れ，急襲, but a new 調書をとる／予約する by historian MAX HASTINGS brings it to life as never before... hour by 神経-jangling hour

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At 正確に／まさに 9am on May 15, the 空気／公表する 省 sent a 'most 即座の, most secret' order to High Wycombe: 'Op. CHASTISE. 即座の attack of 的s 'X', 'Y', 'Z' 認可するd. 遂行する／発効させる at first suitable 適切な時期.'

It was the go-ahead for one of the most audacious （警察の）手入れ，急襲s of World War II.

X, Y and Z were the M?hne, Eder and Sorpe dams, 持つ／拘留するing 支援する millions of gallons of water. If 違反d, it would 注ぐ through the Ruhr valley, Nazi Germany's 産業の 中心地域, and 廃虚 Hitler's war machine.

From High Wycombe, 爆撃機 命令（する） 派遣（する）d the order to 617 騎兵大隊 at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

There the 乗組員s of 19 Lancaster 爆撃機s - 133 men in all - were let in on the 'Big Thing' as their 船長／主将 called it, the 使節団 behind the past eight weeks of training.

操作／手術 Chastise was an attack on German dams carried out in May 1943 by the 王室の 空気／公表する 軍隊's No. 617 騎兵大隊. Pictured: Lancaster 爆撃機 絵

They'd carried out hours of gruelling low-level 飛行機で行くing, skimming the countryside at a death-反抗するing 100ft, under the 批判的な 注目する，もくろむ of 24-year-old Wing 指揮官 Guy Gibson, 退役軍人 of 72 爆撃機 操作／手術s and 99 sorties as 操縦する of a night-闘士，戦闘機.?

Small in stature, he was 堅い, 需要・要求するing and peremptory in manner. As one gunner said sourly, he was the sort of 'little bugger always jumping out from behind a hut and telling you your buttons were undone'.

When the 的s were finally 明らかにする／漏らすd to the 乗組員s, some sighed with 救済. They'd 恐れるd having to attack ひどく defended 潜水艦 pens.

The dams seemed easier ― until they heard about the 法外な wooded 地形 保護するing them, the anti-torpedo 逮捕するs strung across the surface and the 近づく impossible approach run. In a thrilling 抽出する from his 調書をとる／予約する, Max Hastings recounts the 緊張 of those （警察の）手入れ，急襲s in 1943 in amazing 詳細（に述べる）.?

In the smoke-filled 要点説明 room, 前線 gunner Fred Sutherland, 20, gazed in 狼狽 at the model of the M?hne, took in the fact that they would be 飛行機で行くing at night by just the light of the moon and 結論するd: 'We didn't have a hope.'

The next evening - May 16 - the 乗組員s 組み立てる／集結するd at 1800 hours, seated on lines of （法廷の）裁判s.

On a 演壇 was a large 地図／計画する of Europe on which their 大勝するs to the Ruhr valley were 示すd with red tapes.?

The hum of chatter was stilled, and the men rose to their feet as Gibson and a group of high-最高位の officers marched in to give them their final 要点説明.

Reich’s 大臣 Speer visits the M?hne-Dam in the Ruhr 地区, which was destroyed on 17 May by the British 617th RAF 騎兵大隊. Speer is pictured with members of the Organisation Todt (OT)

Gibson gazed at his men with a pride that was wholly 正当と認められる, 反映するing upon what he had made them in a few short weeks.

They had been 'rather tousled and a little scruffy. But now they were 専門家s, beautifully trained, and each one knew his 職業 同様に as any man had ever known any 職業 he was to do'.

His 信用／信任 was an overstatement: some would struggle, and indeed die, that night, because Chastise 需要・要求するd from them more than they were 有能な of giving.

It is a 深く，強烈に moving 面 of the 操作／手術 that, in an age when the 概念 of 義務 meant much to many people, the aircrew of 617 would 努力する／競う to the 限界s of their 力／強力にするs, and beyond, to do what was now to be asked of them.

Gibson began by introducing his 主要な／長／主犯 guest, the white-haired, studious-looking engineer Barnes Wallis.

This 自然に gentle man assumed the fervour and 有罪の判決 of a missionary priest as, with the 援助（する） of blackboard and chalk, he explained the 進化 and workings of his 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 武器 - the cylindrical bouncing 爆弾 (codename Upkeep) that could be dropped on the water, spinning as it went, and skip like a 石／投石する across the surface to 衝突，墜落 into the dam 塀で囲む and 爆発する.

The 操縦するs and 航海士s were 審理，公聴会 of something so remarkable, so far beyond their experience and ― for almost all those 現在の ― a literal 事柄 of life and death, that Wallis was never in danger of losing his audience.

爆弾-aimer Jim Clay later 観察するd he thought it incongruous that such a gentle, kindly-looking 人物／姿／数字 'should be 伴う／関わるd with 荒廃'.

Then it was Gibson's turn to rehearse the 操作の 詳細（に述べる）s for the three 連続する waves of 爆撃機s that would do the 職業.

They would 飛行機で行く 500 miles to the 的 area at a low level of 100ft to escape the attentions of enemy レーダ. 正確な 地図／計画する-reading was 決定的な; so too was sticking tightly to 大勝するs and turning points painstakingly plotted to sidestep known enemy 集中s of anti-航空機 guns.?

But light flak would 提起する／ポーズをとる a 脅し throughout, he 警告するd.

When - and if - they reached the dams, the really dangerous work would begin.

The 要点説明 broke up, leaving every man thoughtful, some more bullish than others. At 1930 the fliers 延期，休会するd either to officers' or sergeants' messes for the usual pre-flight meal.

安全 had 法案d that evening's activity as 単に another 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of training, but those with 注目する，もくろむs to see noticed that bacon and eggs were 存在 served, 高級なs in 戦時 Bri tain which were readily accessible only to men not ありそうもない to be dead before morning in their country's service.?

At 2000, ninety minutes before the first take-offs, they drifted に向かって the 乗組員 rooms to （土地などの）細長い一片 themselves of personal 所有／入手s, don 飛行機で行くing 道具, collect パラシュート（で降下する）s, flight 捕らえる、獲得するs and 飛行機で行くing rations ?― chocolate, 挟むs, fruit juice, an orange, chewing gum ― and escape 器具／備品, consisting of Dutch and German 通貨, miniature compass and silk 地図／計画するs.

Then they lay on the grass chatting, smoking, in the beauty of a 罰金 summer's evening. Men solemnly shook the 手渡すs of friends and said goodbye.

Gibson later 述べるd his own sensations at such moments, when almost every flier's 予期 was at its most 激烈な／緊急の: 'Your stomach feels as though it wants to 攻撃する，衝突する your backbone. You can't stand still. You laugh at small jokes, loudly, stupidly. You smoke far too many cigarettes, usually only half-way through, then throw them away. いつかs you feel sick and want to go to the lavatory.

'The smallest 出来事/事件s annoy you and you ゆらめく up on the slightest 誘発 . . . All this because you're 脅すd, 脅すd stiff.'

He had learned how to 征服する／打ち勝つ it, however, and いつかs showed himself 厳しく unforgiving に向かって others who were いっそう少なく fortunate.

For all the breezy 信用／信任 that most men exuded when の中で a （人が）群がる, Flt Sgt 法案 Townsend, a 退役軍人 of 26 操作／手術s, was 納得させるd that they were all 'for the chop'.

John Hopgood told Dave Shannon: 'I don't think I'm coming 支援する.'

吊りくさび Burpee, whose wife was 推定する／予想するing their first baby, shook the 手渡す of fellow-Canadian Ken Brown, 説 'Goodbye Ken' with undisguised finality.?

'One 後部-gunner spoke confidently about the occupants of other 航空機 who s hared their bus to the dispersals: 'You know those two 乗組員s aren't coming 支援する, don't you?'

Thirty minutes later, Gibson gave the word: time to go. Buses and トラックで運ぶs bore the airmen to their 計画（する）s, and they clambered 船内に. At 2100 a red light 急に上がるd from the Very ゆらめく ピストル of Gibson's Lancaster, G-George, to signal them to start engines.

An 飛行士 on the ground gave a thumbs-up, signalling that the 木造の wheel stops had been dragged （疑いを）晴らす, followed by a hiss of 空気／公表する as ブレーキs were 解放（する）d.

One by one the big 航空機 began to bump across the field.

The Reserve Wave 乗組員s watched almost in 不信 as the first 計画（する）s 解除するd off 'with this enormous thing, almost like a garden roller, hanging underneath'.

For me, the いわゆる Dambusters 代表する an emotional 旅行 from my own childhood, from the day at 搭乗 school when I first thrilled to Richard Todd's 描写 of Gibson in the most popular British war film of all time, with its stirring march composed by Eric Coates.

Both the 1955 film and the 調書をとる／予約する which に先行するd it made a 深遠な impression on me. I memorised the 指名するs of 617's 操縦するs; 組み立てる／集結するd and painted plastic models of the Avro Lancasters they flew; became intimately familiar with Enemy Coast Ahead, Gibson's posthumously published memoir.

I perceived - as did millions of other Britons - a nobility about the bravery 陳列する，発揮するd that night as these young men, almost all of an age with modern gap-year adolescents, or students at university, 解除するd their big, clumsy 爆撃機s into the 空気／公表する, barely four １０年間s after the Wright brothers 始めるd heavier-than-空気／公表する flight, and 乗る，着手するd in 冷淡な 血 on a 使節団 that would 要求する exceptional courage, 技術 and luck to 後継する, and which many recognised was likely to kill them.

For two and a half hours they raced through the moonlit sky に向かって Germany, at a 高さ that made 力／強力にする cables as deadly a menace as anti-航空機 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

They then attacked Hitler's dams, 飛行機で行くing straight and level at 220mph, much lower than the treetops and いっそう少なく than a cricket pitch length from the lakes below, to 抑えるのをやめる those 革命の 武器s created by the brilliance and persistence of Barnes Wallis.?

Half of 617's 航空機 which got as far as Germany failed to return, but two of the biggest man-made structures in the world 崩壊（する）d into mud and がれき.

The fliers contrived a feat that 原因（となる）d all the world to wonder ― the 連合した nations with pride, the German people and their leaders with horror and 逮捕.

But I now blush to remember how I embraced The Dam Busters with special enthusiasm because the （警察の）手入れ，急襲 seemed victimless, save for the 53 dead の中で the gallant young men who carried it out.

In truth, however, as we will see in more 詳細（に述べる） later, something approaching 1,400 非軍事のs 死なせる／死ぬd, more than half of them foreign 女性（の） slaves of Hitler.

The 乗組員 of 617 騎兵大隊's G for George board the Lancaster 爆撃機 (left to 権利): Trevor-Roper, Pulford, Deering, Spafford, Hutchison, Guy Gibson, Taerum

と一緒に our continuing awe for the fliers who 違反d the dams, the enormity of the horror that they unthinkingly 抑えるのをやめるd upon a host of innocents has to be 直面するd.

There was never an 平易な 大勝する from Lincolnshire to the M?hne. Gibson's 航空機 were 強いるd to 小衝突 the Ruhr, the most ひどく defended 地域 of Nazi Germany, ーするために reach its water 供給（する）s in the 田舎の Sauerland beyond.

The received 知恵 of 爆破 操作／手術s was that 高さ conferred 改善するd prospects of 生き残り, yet for this one 使節団, the 騎兵大隊 was 飛行機で行くing all the way to the 的 below the threshold at which German レーダ would 選ぶ them up and send in the night-闘士，戦闘機s to 虐殺（する） them.

This, though, put them at the mercy of anti-航空機 guns, which were clustered in belts between the Dutch coast and the dams.

Gibson's three lead 航空機 - G-George, P-Popsie and M-Mother - approached Holland but the ground defences, surprised, stayed mute at first as they swept 総計費, navigating by 地図／計画する, compass and 目印s: a windmill here, a communications mast there.

(n)艦隊／(a)素早いing glimpses of houses, factories, 鉄道 lines were punctuated at intervals by an intercom yell of 'Pull up!' from the nose, signalling a 力／強力にする line in 前線.?

They were 飛行機で行くing so low that M-Mother - 操縦するd by 'Hoppy' Hopgood, a 21-year-old who still began his letters home 'Dear Mummy' - passed beneath one 始める，決める of 力／強力にする lines.

They spotted the Wilhelmina Canal, and followed it eastwards until they turne d north-east and passed over the German frontier.

The flight to the dams was a remarkable 事件／事情／状勢 in its own 権利, 需要・要求するing the highest 技術, courage and luck, even before the Lancasters 開始する，打ち上げるd their attacks.

Already for five 乗組員s, 運命／宿命 had run against them and they had either 衝突，墜落d (one into a 力／強力にする line) or returned home.

The 緊張する for the remaining 14 was 巨大な, dodging flak, becoming 簡潔に lost, 飛行機で行くing 30 トンs of metal, Perspex, 燃料, 軍備 and human flesh as if the Lancasters were stunt 計画（する）s.

But they 殺到するd onwards, fields and villages flashing beneath them, until the Rhine （機の）カム into 見解（をとる） and they knew that the 産業の conglomeration of the Ruhr lay beyond. The sky 爆発するd as サーチライトs and light flak raked the 不明瞭 around them.

Identifying their last turning point just 19 miles from the M?hne, they swung south-east for the last - mercifully uneventful - six minutes of the flight.

Just after midnight, Micky ツバメ in P-Popsie was first to glimpse the M?hne dam, followed seconds later by Gibson, to whom it looked 'squat and 激しい and unconquerable'.

He was relieved to see no 調印する of サーチライトs, from which the dazzle could have been 致命的な to 攻撃者s making low-level 爆弾 runs.

Instead, there were only angry を刺すs of light flak, green, yellow and red, streaking up from six German gun positions, the gunners puzzled by the 外見 of enemy 航空機.

Surely they weren't hoping to 違反 the 広大な M?hne? 'Bit 積極的な, aren't they?' muttered one of Gibson's 乗組員.

Over the VHF 無線で通信する link, Gibson ordered Hopgood and ツバメ to 軌道 the valley while he 診察するd the approach to the dam. Then he joined them as they circled 総計費, with three more Lancasters t hat had just arrived.

Of the three 的 dams, the M?hne 申し込む／申し出d by far the most open approach, but to 飛行機で行く a 激しい 爆撃機 長，率いる-on に向かって the guns on the dam 塀で囲むs nonetheless 代表するd an immensely daunting challenge.

Gibson told his 乗組員, '井戸／弁護士席, boys, I suppose we'd better start the ball rolling.' Since much about 爆撃機 命令（する）'s fliers echoed the mood of students 試みる／企てるing some 最高の 運動競技の challenge, it does not seem frivolous to compare Gibson's predicament with that of a cricket captain.

Under the 注目する，もくろむs of his team, he was 開始 the bowling. It would betray everything that he 代表するd if he let them 負かす／撃墜する, muffed the moment, made a hash of his run.

A 戦時 photograph showing the 損失 （打撃，刑罰などを）与えるd by the 'Dambusters' （警察の）手入れ，急襲 on the Eder dam. The RAF's 617 騎兵大隊 used bouncing 爆弾s to 違反 two dams within Germany during a night attack in May 1943

The hydraulic モーターs were started on the 爆弾s to spin them at the 要求するd 速度(を上げる） of 500rpm. Gibson 発表するd: 'I am going to attack. Stand by to come in to attack in your order when I tell you.'?

Then he dived G-George に向かって the lake, the airframe vibrating as the four-and-a-half トン cylinder packed with 爆発性の spun beneath the 爆弾 bay.

As G-George lost 高さ the 乗組員 could 明確に see everything under the brilliant moonlight ― the dam 塀で囲む, twin towers, sluices.?

One called from the nose: 'Good show. This is wizard', before 苦しむing a moment's panic about the proximity of モミ trees a few feet beneath him.

Then （機の）カム the 決定的な 45 seconds as they raced at 230mph above the surface of the lake.

The 航海士 switched on the スポットライトs, 説 '負かす／撃墜する ― 負かす／撃墜する ― 負かす／撃墜する', then '安定した ― 安定した.' 後継の 追跡者 from the dam 塀で囲む whipped past and each man を締めるd for a 残虐な 衝突／不一致 between German 爆撃するs and the thin alloy of the Lancaster.

At the wheel, Gibson felt almost 圧倒するd by the vastness of the dam ぼんやり現れるing, his Lancaster suddenly so small.

'Left ― little more left,' called out the 航海士. '安定した 安定した ― 安定した ― coming up.' Then: '地雷's gone!' The first of Barnes Wallis's 'bouncing 爆弾s' was on its way.

G-George 殺到するd はっきりと 上向きs with the loss of 負わせる, then Gibson heaved 支援する on the yoke and climbed away.

A 発言する／表明する over the 無線で通信する called from another 航空機: 'Good show, leader. Nice work.' But it wasn't. The 爆弾 bounced once . . . twice . . . three times ― then 消えるd beneath the surface.

A 抱擁する 爆発 sent a column of water 狙撃 high into the night sky and the lake surface boiled, yet as minutes passed and the lake 静めるd, the dam still stood.

失望 was 鎮圧するing for Gibson. The 証拠 示唆するs that his 爆弾 was dropped 早期に, 原因（となる）ing it to 沈む before striking the dam 塀で囲む.?

After his 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の exertions, not least to 打ち勝つ exhaustion, his personal 成果／努力 had failed. But it now became his 仕事 to 決起大会／結集させる and support the other attacking 乗組員s.

Hopgood was next in M-Mother but his attack went disastrously awry. 大砲 爆撃するs thrashed the 航空機 and it 爆発するd into 炎上s.

The dropped 爆弾 sprang over the 最高の，を越す of the dam as the 燃やすing Lancaster struggled to 伸び（る） 高さ and hurtled 200ft downwards, to 爆発する on the 力／強力にする 駅／配置する below.

Hopgood somehow （疑いを）晴らすd the forested 山の尾根 behind the dam but then ordered his 乗組員: 'Fo r Christ's sake, get out of here!'

In those terrible seconds 船内に the 炎ing M-Mother, three were able to escape before it ploughed into the ground and 解散させるd into 炎上s, 殺人，大当り the four men still 船内に.

'Poor old Hoppy,' said an 身元不明の 発言する／表明する の中で the 乗組員s still circling the 的, stunned by the horror of the spectacle they had 証言，証人／目撃するd.

It was now Mickey ツバメ's turn in P-Popsie. 'Come in number three, you can go in now,' called Gibson, who had decided to 飛行機で行く と一緒に P-Popsie as he approached, to コースを変える German 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

He would 招待する his own 破壊, the 運命／宿命 that had just befallen John Hopgood and his men, to 改善する another 乗組員's chance of success.

Gibson had been an exhausted man even before he took off. Only アイロンをかける strength of will could be keeping him 空輸の.

The ruse didn't work. As the two Lancasters roared up the lake, P-Popsie was 攻撃する，衝突する in the starboard wing, 揺さぶるing the 航空機 just as its 爆弾 fell away, bounced across the water and 爆発するd a 批判的な 50 yards off the central 目的（とする）ing point.

As ツバメ banked away, his 後部-gunner saw a gigantic waterspout as the 爆弾 爆発するd ― and left the dam standing. The three 優れた fliers of 617 騎兵大隊 had now failed in 試みる／企てるs to 違反 the M?hne.

From the pack circling 総計費, Melvin Young ― 愛称d 'Dinghy' because he'd twice been 発射 負かす／撃墜する over the sea and 生き残るd ―in A-Apple was called in next.

P-Popsie took 駅／配置する on his port wing, matching his approach as A-Apple flew in low, low, lower, up the lake. Then their 負担 was gone, skipping over the water while the two 爆撃機s banked and climbed steeply away.

The 爆弾 bounced three times, struck the dam 塀で囲む and 消えるd. The positioning was perf ect.

Three seconds later, 6,600lb of Torpex 爆発するd, （打撃，刑罰などを）与えるing upon the M?hne a pulverising 地震 shock.

As a new column of water 急に上がるd 上向きs, Young cried exultantly over the VHF: 'I think I've done it!' Yet as the lake 静めるd, still the 塀で囲む appeared 無傷の.

So at 0049, it was the turn of J-Johnny, 操縦するd by David Maltby, who had celebrated his 23rd birthday a week earlier and had a wife 支援する in Lincolnshire 推定する／予想するing a baby any day.

He made a perfect run, dropped his 爆弾 and even as his 航空機 crossed the dam 塀で囲む, he saw its 栄冠を与える already 崩壊するing.

Water 急に上がるd into the sky, this time …を伴ってd by mud and fragments of masonry, then gently fell 支援する to 明らかにする／漏らす a colossal 違反 開始 in the 中央 of the dam.?

Gibson banked に向かって the 塀で囲む and saw the lake surface looking 'like stirred porridge . . . 噴出するing out and rolling into the Ruhr Valley に向かって the 産業の centres of Germany's Third Reich'.

There was a thrilled yell over the VHF: 'It's gone! It's gone!' The desperation that had overtaken the fliers, the sense of humiliating 失敗, was 取って代わるd by exhilaration, wonder, 救済, 勝利.

In every watching 操縦室 there were 元気づけるs and roars across the intercoms as these very young men succumbed to a schoolboy joy. 'I can hardly 述べる the atmosphere in the 計画（する）,' said Maltby. 'The yelling, the pure excitement.'

There has since been 審議 about whose 爆弾 違反d the dam. It seems almost 確かな that Young's had 達成するd a 決定的な fracture, which became 明らかな even as Maltby's 爆発するd.

Now Gibson watched the 高潮，津波 広範囲にわたる 負かす／撃墜する the valley, the clouds of spray that became a 霧, the irresistible 負わせる of water racing through the 違反 in the d am.

'負かす／撃墜する in the 霧がかかった valley we saw cars スピード違反 along the roads in 前線 of the 広大な／多数の／重要な wave of water which was chasing them and going faster than they could ever hope to.?

'I saw their headlights 燃やすing and . . . water 追いつく them, then the colour of the headlights underneath the water changing from light blue to green, from green to dark purple, until there was no longer anything except the water, bouncing 負かす／撃墜する in 広大な／多数の／重要な waves.'

The codeword 示すing success was received at 操作／手術s HQ 支援する in England at 0056. There, Barnes Wallis had been burying his 長，率いる in his 手渡すs at the earlier news of 死傷者s and of 失敗.

The young men, the fliers, were doing their parts with wondrous courage. The old ones, like him, who had sent them, appeared to have got it wretchedly, tragically wrong. And now despair was 取って代わるd by success. He jumped up, pumping his 武器 like a 勝利を得た 競技者. Every 直面する in the 操作／手術s room broke into beams of 救済 and congratulation.

支援する at the M?hne, Gibson ordered home those Lancasters whose 爆弾s had gone, while he turned に向かって the Eder dam, 45 miles away, to 操る the next 段階 of 操作／手術 Chastise.

He stood off in G-George 問題／発行するing 指示／教授／教育s as, one by one, four Lancasters took a 攻撃する at what was an even more terrifying 客観的な than the Mohne. Surrounded by wooded hills, attacking it 要求するd a sudden dog-脚 turn at the last minute, 解放（する） of the 爆弾 and then an instantaneous violent climbing turn, to 伸び（る） 高さ over the 非常に高い dam.

The first dozen passes were 不成功の, the Lancasters failing to 減少（する） their 爆弾s or 行方不明の the 的. One 爆発するd in 中央の-flight and was lost. The last hope now 残り／休憩（する）d on N-Nuts, 操縦するd by Les Knight.

On his second 試みる／企てる, the 爆弾-aimer made a perfect dro p at 240mph, 450 yards from the dam. The 爆弾 bounced three times, 攻撃する，衝突する the 塀で囲む, sank and 爆発するd.?

For a moment the dam remained 損なわれていない but then, as one of the 乗組員 報告（する）／憶測d, 'as if some 抱擁する 握りこぶし had been jabbed at the 塀で囲む, a large, almost 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 黒人／ボイコット 穴を開ける appeared and water 噴出するd as if from a large 靴下／だます.'

'We could see the water 噴出するing out,' said N-Nuts's 航海士 Sid Hobday, 'and all the masonry coming 負かす／撃墜する. It really was fantastic, a sight I shall never forget.'

A 類似の attack on the third 的, the Sorpe dam, was made by a 単独の Lancaster ― all that remained of the five-計画（する） third wave ― but failed to 違反 it. A second 計画（する） later had a go but with the same result.

However, the main 目的（とする） of the 使節団 had been 達成するd. Gibson called up his 乗組員s and told them: 'Good show, boys. Now let's all go home and get pie,' ―though the last word may in truth have been more vulgar.

And so they 長，率いるd 支援する to Scampton, the first arriving at 0319, the last at 0615, many of the Lancasters 穴を開けるd and limping. Eight out of the 19 did not return at all. Fifty-six of the 133 men who had 始める，決める out on 操作／手術 Chastise were dead.

Barnes Wallis ぐずぐず残るd in the debriefing room, 荒廃させるd by 617 騎兵大隊's losses, a price for the fulfilment of his 見通し such as he had na?vely never 熟視する／熟考するd.

Those who made it, however, were ecstatic. '絶対 marvellous,' was the 判決 of one 操縦する. 'Water, water everywhere ― wonderful, wonderful. A terrific show.'

A few of the exhausted young men went to bed, but many partied for hours, with beer and whisky 自由に 利用できる in the officers' mess.?

Some Waafs were dragged from their beds to join a conga. Around the piano, remembered one 飛行士, 'stubble-chinned, bleary-注目する，もくろむd aircre w types croaked out dirty songs about the Germans' before 崩壊（する）ing into unconsciousness.

Their spirits 生き返らせるd after sleep and the 認める of seven days' leave. They were young, and thrilled by the 炎 of publicity and indeed adulation that descended upon them. 'We were 扱う／治療するd like 血まみれの gods,' said wireless 操作者 George Chalmers in wonder.

BUT what Gibson and his men had 達成するd would come to trouble the 'WingCo'. In his memoirs, he wrote: 'We destroyed a 合法的 産業の 客観的な so as to 妨げる the Ruhr Valley 生産（高） of war 軍需品s.

'The fact that people were in the way was incidental.

'The fact that they might 溺死する had not occurred to us. Nobody likes 集まり 虐殺（する）, and we did not like 存在 the authors of it. It brought us in line with Himmler and his boys.'

It was ― and still is ― a fair point, and one often overlooked.

In 1948 a Norwegian 抵抗 hero, Knut Lier-Hansen, wrote words that ぐずぐず残る in my mind whenever I compose narratives of 衝突: 'Though wars can bring adventures which 動かす the heart, the true nature of war is composed of innumerable personal 悲劇s, of grief, waste and sacrifice, wholly evil and not redeemed by glory.'

In tomorrow's 抽出する, I shall consider whether the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の tale of 操作／手術 Chastise ―its 衝撃 upon World War II 始める，決める against its human consequences ― is redeemed by glory.

• 抽出するd from Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943 by Max Hastings, to be published by William Collins on September 5 at £25. ? Max Hastings 2019. To order a copy for £20 (申し込む／申し出 valid to 1/9/19; p&p 解放する／自由な), call 0844 571 0640.