Page 41 - August 2019

Book of the Month

The Dam Busters is a non-fiction book by
Paul Brickhill about Royal Air Force Squadron 617
Originally commanded by Wing Commander Guy
Gibson V.C. during World War II. The squadron
became known as the "Dam Busters" because of
Operation Chastise, a mission using highly
specialised bombs to destroy Ruhr dams in
Germany.
The book also covers the subsequent history of
617 Squadron, as an elite squadron specializing in
attacking difficult targets with outsize weapons
and precision techniques. Among Gibson's
successors as commander was Group Captain
Leonard Cheshire V.C., and the book describes
Cheshire's unorthodox leadership style and
innovative target marking techniques.

The book was published in September 1951 and
has remained continuously in print since then,
selling over one million in its first 50 years. It was
included in Volume 10 of the Reader's Digest
Condensed Books in 1952. It was first released as
a paperback by Pan in 1954. To coincide with the
release of the film version it was serialized in the
London Evening News. A simplified version for
children was issued in 1958 and in 1972 a version
for teenage boys with reading difficulties was

issued. Richard Todd narrated an audio version
of the book in 1982.
The original 1951 edition of the book did not
include some of the details of the dam-raids, as
these were still classified at the time, most
significantly that the weapons bounced on the
water surface before reaching the target.
Later editions included these details.