Without the input of the Avro designer, the dams raid would not — as acknowledged by Barnes Wallis — have been such a success
Much is known about the part Barnes Wallis played in development of the weapon that destroyed the Möhne and Eder dams in May 1943, but the pivotal role of the designer of the Avro Lancaster, which carried Upkeep, is seldom mentioned.
Wallis, though, recognised the critical contribution of Roy Chadwick, writing to him after the operation, “To you personally, in a special degree, was given the making or breaking of this enterprise”. This occurred at a “fateful meeting” in London on 26 February 1943 in the office of the Controller of Research and Development (CRD) at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, AVM Francis Linnell.
Barnes Wallis’s first proposal to destroy the west German dams, the contents of whose adjacent reservoirs were crucial to enemy war industries, had originally been submitted in 1941: a 10-ton ‘earthquake’ bomb dropped from 40,000ft. It would penetrate the associated reservoir, burrow into the ground beneath, explode and cause the collapse of the dam wall. Although extensive model experiments were conducted into 1942, perfection of the weapon proved elusive, as …
