It's gone or so it's gone. Welcome to we have ways for making you talk with me Elmari

and James Holland. I don't know this is episode X of our damn busters or is it wine z or

is it J a G George I don't know anyway or P for popsy or P for popsy it's P for popsy

so what we thought we'd do in this episode is basically by the way any regular listen

or I strap yourself in we're going to make a promise at the start of this episode that

we may fail to keep. What we're going to try and do is the week is the week running

up to the damns rate basically. So we're going to go up to take off the point take off.

So let's set the scene. So in very brief 617 Squadron has been glued together with super

experienced leadership but the crews don't necessarily aren't necessarily all as super experienced

as people like Gibson. So Guy Gibson is the exception not necessarily the rule really

isn't he in terms of his he's absolutely the exception. Yeah he's got he's got I think

he's got 72 at this point operational sorties on his list not including the kind of 100

plus he did as a night fighter and from between sort of back end of 1914 to 1941 he's just

left in beginning March he leaves 101 or 6 Squadron which he's been commanding since

the previous year and you know he's absolutely washed out he's expecting to be given some

leave. He's got very odd relationship with a wife who's sort of basically 10 years

is senior not quite 10 years in like eight years of senior who's a dancer and he doesn't

really know if he's brutally honest and and he just sort of married her because he did

he's got a he's got in a strange it's got a relationship with mother who I think by this

stage has died she sort of set herself on fire she's an alcoholic.

Oh yeah.

Harvard was in the colonial service in India and he doesn't have no relationship with him

...