A couple of photo's from 2005

I found this whilst rooting through a box under the stairs. You can see the paler bit in the centre where it was repaired. Not quite so visible as it was 36 years ago

Paul

Hi! they have come out well I have a couple myself of the water gushing out of the breach and after it had emptied, taken by the Germans just after the attack.

According to their sources the only fatalities were a few Germans a few hundred cattle grazing in the valley and a few [hundred Russian prisoners of war] being used as forced labour. The earth built main dam held if that had of gone so would have most of the industy in the Rhur.

Please note correction on above fatalitiy figures in my following post.

Slim.

No problem Slim, there are lots of things about computers (or should that be confusers ) that beat amateur users like us.

Paul.

Nice shots, especially the one looking out from the dam itself towards Delecke (the town on the right of the photo if I am not mistaken).

This town is totally post-war, btw, rebuilt after the devastation visited upon it by the flooding of the valley. The only thing, or one of the few things, in town that pre-date WWII is the church steeple which was apparently found several kilometres downstream.

As for the propaganda that only a few head of cattle and Russian POWs were killed and a handful of Germans...yeah, well, what else was the Nazi regime going to say? Certainly not that the bursting of the dam devastated this entire region.

Although the damage to the actual Ruhr Valley and its industry was not as profound as the Allies had hoped it did put a bit of a crimp in things.

Stephen Lock wrote:

Nice shots, especially the one looking out from the dam itself towards Delecke (the town on the right of the photo if I am not mistaken).

This town is totally post-war, btw, rebuilt after the devastation visited upon it by the flooding of the valley. The only thing, or one of the few things, in town that pre-date WWII is the church steeple which was apparently found several kilometres downstream.

As for the propaganda that only a few head of cattle and Russian POWs were killed and a handful of Germans...yeah, well, what else was the Nazi regime going to say? Certainly not that the bursting of the dam devastated this entire region.

Although the damage to the actual Ruhr Valley and its industry was not as profound as the Allies had hoped it did put a bit of a crimp in things.

IIRC wasn't there also another POW camp housing a couple of hundred French, that got caught up in the path of the deluge?

Hi Paul! I feel I must correct my fatalitiy count I quoted in the Mohnesee raid it was based on a conversation I had with a local many years ago who was living near the dam at the time of the raid.

I've since dug out stuff out of my archives [the loft] and have three pics I copied from the local museum display at Mohnesee one of them of them puts the death role at about 1.600[correction] many of them Russian Prisoners being employed as slave labour at farms in the area many buildings swept away and many more badly damagedl.


The 70 fatalities I refered to in my original post which I have now amended I refers to the raid on the Eder dam.

Another picture of the aftermath of the raid

Hi there,

I spent many summers messing about on the Mohne Dam.

We lived in a private hiring just up the road at Korbecke.

My Father was stationed out there with 16AD Regt.

Used to do a lot of exercises around the Dams in the early 1950's and can remember the large repairs were very evident then. On my second visit to BAOR in the 1960's, a lot of the damage repairs had by then weathered. Visited again in the 1980's when my son was stationed in Herford and the repairs were harder to view.
On another tac I knew a rep from a container company who was a Sgt Electrician in 617 Sqn and amongst his recollections he reckoned that W/C Gibson was a right B!!!!!!! and didn't like the non-commisioned types. Don't know how true that was from others who served with him.

Going way, way back, when I spent weekends wandering in the Peak District I remember seeing Lancs doing low-level stuff over the local reservoirs. Knew later what it was all about and, some time after, wire barriers were erected on our dams to stop similar raids here.

And later still, around the time of the Bosnia nastiness, C 130s used to fly through the valleys below our hilltop viewpoints.

Last saw the Mohne in 2003 you could make out the damaged area (faintly) as it wasn't as weathered as the rest. In 64 it was easy to pick out. Got some pic's some where.

Hardrations wrote:

Last saw the Mohne in 2003 you could make out the damaged area (faintly) as it wasn't as weathered as the rest. In 64 it was easy to pick out. Got some pic's some where.

That's what I was saying Hardrations !!

[quote="cartav"]Going way, way back, when I spent weekends wandering in the Peak District I remember seeing Lancs doing low-level stuff over the local reservoirs. Knew later what it was all about and, some time after, wire barriers were erected on our dams to stop similar raids here.

Ladybower reservoir wasn't it ?

brum wrote:

Ladybower reservoir wasn't it ?

Spot on Brum, though the pylons & dangling wires I remember were over smaller
reservoirs at Loxley.

Don't know about the pictures of the Mohne Dam after the raid but here is a picture of the Eder Dam (which is the largest dam raided) after the raid. and in COLOUR

Stephen Lock wrote:

As for the propaganda that only a few head of cattle and Russian POWs were killed and a handful of Germans...yeah, well, what else was the Nazi regime going to say? Certainly not that the bursting of the dam devastated this entire region.

I studied Economic History at Uni (late in life) and the bombing campaign didn't much affect German output, in fact it went up very slightly. This area, the Ruhr valley was vital for iron and steel production and the Germans even started producing more modern panzers such as the Jagdpanther .

Our side weren't averse to using propaganda during WW2.