On this day in Yorkshire 1943 Dams Raid

Full details of the R.A.F.’s attacks on the dams of Western Germany reveal that a great new blow has been struck against the enemy’s war production.

Reconnaissance flights made in daylight yesterday showed that the released waters were sweeping down the Ruhr valley. Railway and road bridges were seen to be broken down and hydro-electric power stations destroyed or damaged.

A railway marshalling yard was under water. Three great dams —the Mohne, Sorpe and Ederwere attacked.

A breach 100 yards long was torn in the Mohne dam. The floods from the breached Eder dam are already as great in volume as the floods in the Ruhr valley, but the country there is flatter and the water likely to spread over a wider area.

It is revealed that picked Lancaster crews have been in secret training for this attack.

Wing Commander G. P. Gibson, D.S.O. and Bar, and D.F.C. and Bar, who led the raid, has returned safely.

American bombers, out in force over the French Atlantic coast in daylight yesterday, made heavy attacks on Lorient harbour and the docks at Bordeaux. Many enemy ‘planes were destroyed.

The R.A.F., in one of their most spectacular raids of the war have blasted open Germany’s two greatest dams and dealt the Ruhr, nerve centre of the Nazi armaments industry, a formidable blow.

This result was achieved by a force of Lancasters led by Wing Commander G. P. Gibson, one of Britain’s leading operational pilots, which dropped mines at the Mohne and Sorpe reservoirs, controlling two-thirds of the water storage of the Ruhr.

A breach a hundred yards long was torn in the Mohne dam. Great floods swept down the valleys. So heavy was the initial rush of water that it swept away the vital power station Just below.

A railway marshalling yard is under water.

The Lancasters also attacked and breached the huge Eder dam controlling the headwaters of the Wester and Fulda valleys, along which the river is now reported to be sweeping in full flood.

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