Book review: The DamBusters by Max Arthur

I recently completed reading 'The Dambusters' by Max Arthur.  Herewith a few of my thoughts about it.

The approach that Arthur has taken with this book is to provide a facinating, and vivid, oral history of the events surrounding the World War II operation to destroy a number of major dams in the Ruhr district of Germany.  The research and effort that he has expended on this approach has been very worthwhile, providing an account which is both factual and untainted by the author's view or opinion on the events that took place - these matters are left to the reader.

I enjoyed this approach particularly as it gives the story a level of authenticity that would not have been achieved had the author followed the normal approach of re-interpreting events into his own story.  I found that his approach also gave me a far deeper sense of 'oneness' with the people involved and thus a deeper sense of the involvement with the situations in which they found themselves.

My sense of loss, upon reading of the deaths of a number of the crews involved both with the raid and a couple of subsequent raids, was deep.  The sufferings of the inhabitants of the regions affected, which are included, were horrendous.  And, at the end of the book when I understood that the affects of the raids were minimal in the grand scheme of things - that the PR value of the raids was greater than their impact on the course of the war - a deep sense of the futility of the whole effort was what I was left with.

I am not sure if that was the author's intention, and perhaps not everyone would be left with that sense but certainly, I spent some time in contemplation about the events.  And of course, the efforts of the aircrews, and the sacrifices that they made, must never be understated or belittled, nor should the suffering of the people living below the dams be overlooked or forgotten.

However, in closing, I think that if the book gives us pause for thought - to consider the cause-effect of the things that we do in war and in our personal lives, perhaps starting there, then Arthur has achieved much and this book should be a definite read for us all.

I think that Barnes Wallis, inventor of bouncing-bombs that were used to partially destroy the dams, would have agreed!!

Details of the book are as follows:

Author: Max Arthur with foreword by Stephen Fry Publisher: Virgin Books (www.virginbooks.com) Date first published: 2008 ISBN: 978-0-7535-1573-0