Barnes Wallis | WWII Bomb Designer Aiming To Save Lives

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'Operation Chastise'


In May 1943 the most iconic air raid of the Second World War – codenamed ‘Operation Chastise’ – took place when a fleet of Lancasters attacked the dams over the Ruhr Valley in a strike at the heart of the German industrial war machine. The so-called ‘Dam Busters’ raid was subsequently the subject of a book by Paul Brickhill, on which was based one of the greatest war films ever made. The image of the revolutionary ‘bouncing bomb’ skimming the surface of the water before exploding to cause an earthquake of seismic proportions at the base of the dams is now folklore.

The bombs were the brainchild of the brilliant, self-taught engineer, Barnes Wallis. A devout Christian, Wallis was nevertheless a patriot and felt it his duty to apply his skills to help defeat the monstrous evil of Nazism that was threatening his country. To do so he invented weapons that were aimed primarily at destroying the German war machine, hence forcing Germany out of the war and preventing a repeat of the huge loss of life suffered by troops during the First World War.

[swpm_protected for="2-3-4" do_not_show_protected_msg="1"] The ‘Tallboy’ and ‘Grand Slam’ bombs certainly saved Britain [/swpm_protected]

[swpm_protected for="2-3-4" do_not_show_protected_msg="1"]

Among Wallis’ inventions were the ‘Tallboy’ and ‘Grand Slam’ bombs, which certainly saved Britain from, among other things, the menace of Hitler’s V2 rockets. However, it is for the ‘bouncing bomb’ that breached the Mohne and Eder Dams, causing incalculable damage to Germany’s war effort, that Wallis is chiefly remembered. For all the success of the raid, however, Wallis was distraught at the cost in human lives – 53 of the aircrew who took part in the raid were killed – something that haunted the inventor to his dying day.

Hence, when it was suggested to him after the war that he claim financial recognition for his work, Wallis refused, insisting that the credit for destroying the dams was due to the crews that carried out the raids and not him. Later, on being awarded the sum of £10,000 for his war work from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, Wallis donated the entire sum to Christ’s Hospital School in 1951, to allow them to set up the RAF Foundationers’ Trust, allowing the children of RAF personnel killed or injured in action to attend the school.

When asked the reason for such magnanimity, Wallis quoted a passage from 2 Samuel, when King David’s men broke through the Philistine lines to get him a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem. David, however, refused to drink it but rather poured it out before the Lord as an offering saying, “Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this; is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?” [/swpm_protected]

This article was taken from the July - September 2019 issue of Heroes of the Faith.

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