George “Johnny” Johnson was the last survivor of the British Royal Air Force “Dambusters” who used specially designed bouncing bombs to breach German dams and flood German weapons factories during World War II.
In a heavy Lancaster bomber flown by the American pilot Joseph C. McCarthy, and flying only 60 feet above reservoirs in the Ruhr Basin, Mr. Johnson was what the RAF called the “bomb-aimer,” or bombardier, on one of the most daring military actions of the war, a major morale booster for British and Allied forces.
A total of 19 bombers took part, using cylindrical 8,500-pound bombs that would hop along the surface of the reservoirs the way children skip flat stones McCarthy was in charge of the bomber, but when to release the bomb was Mr. Johnson’s call. And it had to be at the perfect moment — the perfect height, angle and speed.
McCarthy got the Lancaster back to an RAF base at Scampton, Lincolnshire, not far from Mr. Johnson’s birthplace, despite a wing and a wheel having been shot up. “I felt the raid was successful,” the Times of London quoted him as saying. “It proved to Hitler and the Nazi hierarchy that what they thought was indestructible the RAF could get through and destroy.”Furthermore, he said, “it did delay, not as long as we would have liked it to do, but it did delay some of his armament production. … He had to bring in skilled workmen from other war work elsewhere to repair those dams.
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