Dambusters followed up.

Speer noted and Barnes-Wallis lamented that the Dambusters raids were not followed up during the reconstruction, which would have lead to a much greater long term benefit.

Was a follow-up possible, what would have been the effects?
 
Because there were serious casualties on the initial try, with surprise. The Germans surely defended their dams better thereafter. Also, that particular manoeuver requires the dam be full, or close, or there won't be the water pressure to help the bomb kill the dam. The Germans might even have built the replacements stronger, I don't know.

A rerun might be close to a suicide mission. IMO.
 
Because there were serious casualties on the initial try, with surprise.
Apparently the high casualty levels affected Wallis quite deeply. That's given as one of the reasons why he was so dead set against the Miles M.52 and lobbied against it, partly he wasn't convinced about whether it would work and in large part due his fears over the life of the pilots. Just one of several factors that turned the whole affair into a complete disaster.


IIRC, Wallis wanted to disrupt the repair work.
So standard bombing then not anything fancy? Makes a certain amount of sense, if the crews are going to be going out bombing targets anyway and you've already spent the lives of 617 Squadron you might as well keep hitting them to get maximum benefits.
 

Cook

Banned
This criticism could be applied to a very large part of Bomber Command missions Riain; factories were often repaired and operational within days of bombings when, had a follow-up raid been conducted, they could have been rendered out of service for months if not indefinitely.
 
No need for another bouncing bomb attack, the Germans reacted against this anyway, just a standard bombing mission. Apparently the wooden scaffolding used in repairing the dams would have been a great target for incendiaries.
 
So standard bombing then not anything fancy? Makes a certain amount of sense, if the crews are going to be going out bombing targets anyway and you've already spent the lives of 617 Squadron you might as well keep hitting them to get maximum benefits.

conventional night bombing of the dams under repair was considered, but dismissed, like oil refineries, as a "Panacea target"

chances are neither day or night bombing the wrecked dams would make a great of difference

later in the war a 12,000lb Wallis Tallboy bomb was dropped on the Sorpe dam - to no great effect....
 
Not the dams themselves, but the scaffolding etc to hinder the repair work and keep the water levels low for longer, since it was all about water levels.
 
This criticism could be applied to a very large part of Bomber Command missions Riain; factories were often repaired and operational within days of bombings when, had a follow-up raid been conducted, they could have been rendered out of service for months if not indefinitely.

Yes Harris had a habit of striking out anywhere Bomber Command had struck as being destroyed forevermore. Something you'd have thought that the experiences of the Battle of Britain might have taught him wasn't true...
 
Yes, and Germany is much more likely to crack under the strain of having cities bombed than us stiff upper-lipped British chaps...

Having said that, being willingly ingnorant of counter-arguements wasn't exactly limited to Bomber Command.
 
Dathi THorfinnsson said:
Because there were serious casualties on the initial try, with surprise. The Germans surely defended their dams better thereafter. Also, that particular manoeuver requires the dam be full, or close, or there won't be the water pressure to help the bomb kill the dam. The Germans might even have built the replacements stronger, I don't know.

A rerun might be close to a suicide mission. IMO.
As I understand the objection, it wasn't intended to be a specialist mission, but more of a "regular" one, & would have bombed the dams under repair. This would actually have been very beneficial, since it would have absorbed the manpower & material to repair them, and left the dams incomplete & not providing power.:cool:
 
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