Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine,

Britain's best-selling history magazine. I'm a Lake Hawthorne. Today we're broadcasting another of our lectures from our

2019 History Weekend event in Winchester. In this episode you'll be hearing

from the best-selling military historian, author and journalist Max Hastings about the

1943 Dambusters raid, which is the subject of his latest book, Chest Eyes.

Max's talk was preceded by a short clip from the iconic 1955 dambusters film.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

That clip tells the fantastic Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

That clip tells the fantastic story more eloquently

than can any words of mine, but let me try.

There were dams, a dog with an embarrassing name, a march that everybody over 40 can

hum.

These memories of Operation Chastise, the bouncing bomb attack which burst Germany's

Mona and Ada Reservoirs on the night of the 16th, 17th, May, 1943, cling to the consciousness of millions of people who may not know much else

about the Second World War. Guy Gibson's biographer has written, the story of 617 Squadron has joined that group of tales like

King Arthur or Robin Hood which defy all efforts at scholarly revision.

Much that we think we know is wrong.

Among many reasons, the 1955,

Downbusters, became most popular British war movie of all time is that it

portrayed a successful air attack that seemed victimless, save for 53 dead

among the wonderfully courageous young men who carried it out.

It bore none of the moral baggage that's become associated with the offensive against

...