Squadron Leader Johnny Johnson,
who has died aged 101, was the last survivor to fly on the Dambusters raid, which attacked the Ruhr Dams in May 1943.
Johnson was the bomb-aimer in the crew of American Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy, DFC, who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force before the USA had entered the war. On May 16 1943, 19 crews of No 617 Squadron were briefed for Operation Chastise, a low-level attack to drop Barnes Wallis’s revolutionary “bouncing bomb” on three major dams in the Ruhr. McCarthy’s crew was one of five assigned to attack the Sorpe Dam.
As the engines of their Lancaster were started, McCarthy’s crew discovered a technical fault and had to switch to the reserve aircraft. Taking off 35 minutes late from RAF Scampton, near Lincoln, they crossed the Dutch island of Vlieland at very low level just before midnight. One aircraft had been forced to return after hitting the sea and losing its bomb, and a second was damaged by German gunners and also had to return. Two more were shot down leaving the McCarthy crew as the only survivors tasked to attack the Sorpe.
A thick mist in the nearby valleys made navigation at 100 feet difficult, but once the crew had found the target, McCarthy set up an attack along its length. Hills either side of the dam made the bombing run particularly difficult and McCarthy had to dive the heavy bomber to 60 feet and level out for a few seconds before climbing out to avoid hills on the other side of the valley. The responsibility for a successful attack then rested with Johnson, the bomb-aimer.
The crew made repeated runs to get the speed and height correct and it was not until the 10th attempt that Johnson was satisfied; he released the bomb accurately alongside the dam. The explosion from the direct hit was insufficient to break the huge earth wall of the dam and McCarthy set heading for base. They retraced their steps across Germany and the Netherlands and landed back at base.
The two primary targets, the Möhne and the Eder dams, were breached, but eight of the 19 Lancasters failed to return, with the loss of 53 aircrew.
There were many gallantry awards for the crews, including the Victoria Cross for the leader, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, a DSO for McCarthy and the DFM for Johnson.
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