Chastise

Chastise reconstructs the famous 617 Squadron attack on the Ruhr dams during the night of 16–17 May 1943. Max Hastings follows Barnes Wallis’s development of the bouncing bomb and Guy Gibson’s formation and training of the squadron, then traces the low-level flight into Germany and the attacks on the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams.

The book deliberately separates the courage and technical achievement of the aircrews from the simplified legend that grew around the raid. Hastings examines the eight aircraft lost, the deaths caused by flooding and the disputed strategic value of the destruction, while also explaining why the mission became such a powerful British wartime story. It is nonfiction military history.