Search Results: Operation Chastise

Operation Chastise, the 'Dambusters' raid, was an attack by a squadron of RAF Lancaster bombers on the dams of the Ruhr basin in Germany in May 1943. Led by Squadron Leader Guy Gibson, the bombers breached two dams causing enormous flooding...

Operation Gomorrah (aka the Battle of Hamburg or Hamburg Air Offensive) was a sustained area bombing campaign of the German port of Hamburg in four night attacks by the Royal Air Force and two daytime attacks by the United States Air Force...

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), leader of Nazi Germany, attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941 with the largest army ever assembled. The Axis offensive of June-December 1941 was code-named Operation Barbarossa ('Redbeard') after Frederick Barbarossa...

Operation Torch (aka the North Africa landings) landed Allied troops in French Morocco and Algeria on 8 November 1942 with the aim of removing German and Italian forces from North Africa. The first jointly-planned Allied operation of the...

Operation Compass (9 Dec 1940 to 7 Feb 1941) was an Allied offensive in North Africa, which pushed Italian forces out of Egypt and then Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya). The Allied Western Desert Force, led by Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor...

The Avro 683 Lancaster bomber was a four-engine heavy bomber flown by the Royal Air Force and allies during the Second World War (1939-45). Lancasters were particularly used in nighttime bombing raids and could carry the heaviest bombs ever...

This map illustrates the scale and impact of Allied strategic bombing operations against Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1945. Conducted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), the campaign aimed to weaken Germany's...

The Allied strategic bombing of Germany during World War II (1939-45) involved British and U.S. bomber planes attacking industrial cities, factories, railways, airfields, and dams. Over 600,000 civilians died as a consequence. The campaign...

A photograph of an Avro Lancaster bomber loaded with a 'bouncing bomb' used on the 'Dam Buster' raid. Also known as Operation Chastise, the raid of May 1943 aimed to destroy several Ruhr Valley dams. (National Archives, London)

This map illustrates the unfolding of Operation Barbarossa, the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on June 22, 1941 during the Second World War (1939-45). It was the largest military operation in history...