Ted Coningsby @[email protected]
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On the 21st March 1943 at RAF Scampton, a squadron that was top secret of its formation and formed for a particular top secret mission that they took initiated just two months later. 617 "Dambusters" Squadron (before official designation was possibly known as Squadron "X"), commanded by Wing Commander Guy Gibson.
Their mission was to attack the dams at Möhne and Edersee in the Ruhr Valley. It is famously known as the Dambusters Raid but officially it was "Operation Chastise". From reconnaissance missions the in industrialised Ruhr Valley with its dams, were deemed as highly important strategic targets by the air ministry. The dams provided hydroelectric power and pure water for steel-making, drinking water and water for the canal transport system. But the dams were heavily guarded along with torpedo netting. The heavily guarding of the dams potentially highlighted even more importance as a strategic target but with so much defence, how could the dams be destroyed? A usual heavy bomb required precision and accuracy and although torpedos would have most likely been the easy option were compromised by the special defensive netting.
This mission led Barnes Wallis, who was the assistant chief designer at Vickers who designed the geodetic airframe for the Wellington Bomber. On a side note, Barnes Wallis also designed the Highball bouncing bomb for another secret squadron and mission for 618 Squadron, who were originally tasked to sink the Tirpitz. Wallis had a few ideas for a bomb to destroy the dams including a 10-long-ton (22,000 lb; 10,000 kg) bomb from an altitude of about 40,000 ft (12,000 m), part of the earthquake bomb concept but there wasn't a bomber in the inventory to carry such bomb with that criteria. But Wallis ingeniously created a 9,000 lb (4,100 kg) bomb in a barrel like wooden cylinder charged with hydrostatic fuse. The idea for the backspin could have come from a childhood memory when skimming pebbles on beaches or ponds? These "bouncing bombs" would have a mechanism to backspin at 500rpm in the aircraft. However, these had to be dropped at as low as 60ft and at 240 mph from their release and skip across the surface of the water and hitting the dam. The bouncing bomb also had a codename "Upkeep".
The aircraft of choice was the Avro Lancaster but this had to be modified. You may notice that you have a Lancaster model with squadron code AJ (these are the letters for 617 Squadron) with the upper turret missing. Roy Chadwick and Avro got to work modifying the Lancasters to be equipped with Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb including the mechanism. We often speak about thrust to weight ratio on our shows and adding more weight affects performance. So weight reduction was the key for modifications; the upper turret was removed along with the internal armour and the bomb bay doors too.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, as highlighted on our streams had a glowing record including his career with 29F with four aerial victories and was recognised for his great leadership with 106 Squadron at RAF Coningsby 1942-1943. He was promoted to WC at RAF Coningsby and got himself into flying with sortie after sortie consecutively.
Aircrews also had to be specially selected as flying as low as 60ft at 240mph called for good crew and good equipment. Barometric altimeters were not always accurate or at least on this type of mission their could be not room for the slightest error. So another modification to the Lancasters were to have two spotlights mounted with one under the Lancaster's nose pointing straight down and the other under the fuselage about 1/3 of the way down pointing at an angle. So a little Pythagorus theorem was even added and thus the correct altitude would be indicated with the two beams of light from the two spotlight converged on the surface of the water.
On the night of the 16/17th May 1943, 19 modified Lancasters departed RAF Scampton and headed for the Ruhr Valley to bomb the dams.
WAVE 1
AJ-G (GIBSON) - Raid leader. Mine exploded short of dam. Used aircraft to draw anti-aircraft fire away from other crews.
AJ-M (MOTHER) - Hit by anti-aircraft fire outbound. Mine bounced over dam. Shot down over the target while attacking. (P/O Fraser and P/O Burcher survived)
AJ-P (POPSIE) - Mine missed the target.
AJ-A (APPLE) - Mine hit dam and caused small breach. On the homeward flight Lancaster AJ-A was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed along the shoreline 2 km south of the Dutch coastal resort of Castricum aan Zee. All seven crew members lost their lives and are buried at the Bergen General Cemetery.
AJ-J (JOHNNY) - Mine hit dam and caused a large breach.
AJ-L (LEATHER) - Mine hit target—no effect.
AJ-Z (ZEBRA) - Mine overshot target and damaged the bomber, which was shot down over Germany while trying to return.
AJ-N (NANCY) - Mine hit the dam and caused a large breach.
AJ- B (BAKER) - Crashed after hitting large-scale power lines outbound.
WAVE 2
AJ-T (TOMMY) - Mine hit the target – no apparent effect.
AJ-E (EASY) - Crashed after hitting power lines outbound.
AJ-K (KING) - Shot down over the Dutch coast outbound.
AJ-H (HARRY) - Lost the mine after clipping the sea outbound. Returned without attacking a target.
AJ-W (WILLIE) - Damaged by anti-aircraft fire over the Dutch coast. Returned without attacking a target.
WAVE 3
AJ-Y (YORK) - Could not find the target due to mist. Landed at Scampton with an armed mine.
AJ-F (FREDDY) - Mine hit the target – no apparent effect.
AJ-O (ORANGE) - Mine hit the target – no apparent effect.
AJ-S (SUGAR) - Shot down over the Netherlands outbound.
AJ-C (CHARLIE) - Shot down over Germany outbound. Frederick Tees was the sole survivor
19 AIRCRAFT, 11 attacked target, 8 Lancasters did not return, 3 POW, 53 men killed.
LEST WE FORGET
70 - 8
What aircraft is this?
It's time for another round of GTA, Guess the Aircraft, so let’s see if you can identify this legendary much loved aircraft. Have fun
#guesstheaircraft #quiz #identifying #aviation #tedconingsby
186 - 68
WHATASHOT
This sums up a great week of myself and Nikos at work. We all need a helping hand at times and Mark Suffield captured us at work at RAF Coningsby today for a BBMF special.
#whatshot #atwork #tedconingsby #photography
451 - 20
"God bless you all. This is your victory. In our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best" - Winston Churchill
80 years ago today...
We must remember what happened and why freedom must continue to have a future...
LEST WE FORGET
674 - 37
What aircraft is this?
It's time for another round of GTA, Guess the Aircraft, so let’s see if you can identify this legendary much loved aircraft. Have fun
#guesstheaircraft #quiz #identifying #aviation #tedconingsby
191 - 67
Today’s location was a calm the mind, to charge it back to green, to energise the soul and take in the spectacular views surrounding Thirlmere. The stream today was challenging and after a 0300L start with a 4hr journey, it wasn’t going to be easy. But after setting up and being lost in these beautiful views, we had forgotten what we were doing here. There were challenges out of our control but we thought we’d put a little note up pinned.
And then the planes came…
2x C-17 with 3 passes each
4x Typhoons with 1 pass each
1x Piper P28
But that last pass of ELVIS33… if a C-17 could swing its hips, it certainly did like Elvis.
We hope we enjoyed today’s show:
LIVE SPECIAL LOW FLYING AREA LFA17 THIRLMERE • TED’S CRAG LAKE DISTRICT 06.05.25
youtube.com/live/WZ2I7ay9Q54?feature=share
Seeyah
#lakedistrict #tedscrag #tedconingsby #lfa17
421 - 20
LOST AIRFIELDS RAF WARBOYS
Built in 1940, allocated to number 3 Group Bomber Command, RAF Warboys was one of the first original Pathfinder Force stations, just like nearby RAF Upwood. It was initially a satellite bomber station and the first residence was XV Squadron with Short Stirling bombers, (the RAF's first four-engined bomber) who arrived in 1941. The OC of XV Squadron Wing Commander P. Ogilvie, crashed his Stirling he was piloting W7439 at Warboys due to bad weather.
17 OTU (Operational Training Unit) arrived shortly after XV Squadron with Bristol Blenheims. In 1942 the first fully operational squadron arrived at Warboys, 156 Squadron who arrived with their Vickers Wellington bombers. Warboys were never far away from combat and raids of WW2. Ten Wellingtons set off for their first raid on the 11th August 1942, three failed to return. Of the sixteen airmen, only three survived. This was their first raid at Warboys, their first losses. Just a few days later, on the 15th August 1942 eight more Wellingtons took off from RAF Warboys for a raid on Dusseldorf and lost another bomber.
RAF Warboys saw a variety of aircraft during WW2 such as the Airspeed Oxford flying with 1507 BAT (Beam Approach Training), and Handley Page Halifax. Then in 1943, the station converted to the RAF's most successful heavy bomber, the Avro Lancaster.
Nearby RAF Upwood, experience many issues with their grass runways, due to water logged and bad drainage from its wet runways. Training was being back logged and it was decided to convert to concrete runways, class-A runways, the triangular 3 runway strip configuration. The legendary 156 Squadron, with their Lancasters, left Warboys for Upwood to fly on Upwood's new runways in 1944.
There were many losses at RAF Warboys...Lest We Forget
#veday80 #rafwarboys #156squadron #lestweforget #lostairfields #tedconingsby
250 - 10
WHATASHOT
Well just look at this!!! ELVIS41 taxiing for departure with the Ted Mobile in the shot. This cracker of a shot captured by Andrew McKelvey during our show at RAF Mildenhall on Wednesday this week.
#whatashot #elvis #mildenhall #tedconingsby #reportage #c17
437 - 22
What aircraft is this?
It's time for another round of GTA, Guess the Aircraft, so let’s see if you can identify this legendary much loved aircraft. Have fun
#guesstheaircraft #quiz #identifying #aviation #tedconingsby
184 - 59
What aircraft is this?
It's time for another round of GTA, Guess the Aircraft, so let’s see if you can identify this legendary much loved aircraft. Have fun
#guesstheaircraft #quiz #identifying #aviation #tedconingsby
173 - 48
Oii oii! Ladies, gents and teddy bears, welcome to the Ted Coningsby channel, the fun but serious military aviation channel. This is not your usual aviation channel. We stream the present and remember the past. With live shows every week at military areas around the Country, our presenter Nikos will bring you the action, knowledge and history of each station or area. From fighter jets to historic aircraft, from active bases to lost airfields, we bring you military aviation.
Our channel is family friendly and our live streams have a moderator team called the Spanner Flight. They keep things Sweet ‘n Neat to make it a wonderful experience no matter your age or background. We take things seriously when it comes to safety of our air force, so we have a “no faces, no places” ethos.
You can check out our filming schedule by checking out our noTEDS on the YouTube Community page.
SQN LDR TED CONINGSBY
tedconingsby.co.uk
#sendit #oohyeah #tedconingsby #usaf #raf #lookatthis