CLASSIC WAR HERO GUY GIBSON

Guy Gibson

Guy Gibson was a British war hero.

He won a Victoria Cross for leading the 'Dam Buster' raid on dams on the Ruhr Valley in Germany in 1943.

Two dams were breached.

An estimated 1,650 men, women and children were drowned when the dams burst.

War heroes sometimes kill women and children.

Mohne Dam was burst

A large number of those drowned were not Germans.

The majority of the dead were prisoners of war and forced labourers.

So, British heroes sometimes kill their friends and allies.



And war heroes often die in strange ways.

In 1944, Guy Gibson, aged 26, was killed by his own side.

During a flight, Sgt Bernard McCormack, of Britain's Royal Air Force, fired at what he thought was a German plane.

The 'German' plane crashed, killingt those on board.

The 'German' plane turned out to be a British plane crewed by Wing Comander Gibson and his navigator Jim Warwick.

Dambusters legend Guy Gibson was shot down by BRITISH airman

Richard Todd, as Guy Gibson, in the film 'The Dambusters'.

"In terms of deaths: according to the latest sources, at least 1,650 people were killed: around 70 in the Eder Valley, and at least 1,579 bodies were found along the Möhne and Ruhr rivers, with hundreds missing.

"1,026 of the bodies found downriver of the Möhne Dam were foreign prisoners of war and forced-labourers in different camps.

"Worst hit was the city of Neheim (now part of Neheim-Hüsten) at the confluence of the Möhne and Ruhr rivers, where over 800 people perished, among them at least 493 female forced-labourers from the Soviet Union."

(Operation Chastise - Wikipedia)

Air Vice-Marshal Ralph Cochrane, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, King George VI and Group Captain John Whitworth discussing the Dambuster Raid in May 1943.

In his book Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer expressed puzzlement that the British should only send a few bombers and do relatively little damage.

The British did not follow up with additional raids when the dams were being repaired.

(Operation Chastise - Wikipedia)

It looks as if the people in charge did not really want a swift end to the war.

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