The Dams Raid. Remembrance and Reconciliation
No. 617 Squadron’s attack on the German dams in May 1943, Operation “Chastise”, has been heralded as one of the greatest feats of arms achieved by the Royal Air Force. The attack and the participating crews have become legendary and spawned a multitude of books, films, documentaries and other accounts of the operation, seen largely from a British perspective. Until recently the effects in Germany been given less consideration.
Drawing on British and German examples Robert Owen examines how Dams Raid has been recorded and commemorated on both sides over the past 80 years and reflects on how perceptions have changed. Former adversaries who once viewed the operation from differing perspectives now seek to turn the commemoration of an act of war into one promoting peace and reconciliation to a future generation.
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 18.30.
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Dr Robert Owen is the Official Historian of the No. 617 Squadron Association and a former Chairman of the Barnes Wallis Foundation. He has written and contributed to numerous books magazines and documentaries, including “Breaking the German Dams” and “Henry Maudslay – Dambuster” and acted as an author and advisor on projects for the Royal Air Force, RAF Museum and Leonard Cheshire Foundation.
