Hopgood's last run black and white version #1
by Gary Eason
Title
Hopgood's last run black and white version #1
Artist
Gary Eason
Medium
Photograph - Digital Picture
Description
Doomed 617 Squadron Lancaster "M for Mother" releases its Upkeep "bouncing bomb" too late as it staggers under the defending flak on the Mohne Dam on 17 May 1943.
The Type 464 (Provisioning) aircraft, specially adapted for the precision bombing operation against the German dams, had already been damaged on the way to the target. Its front gunner was probably dead. The pilot, 21-year-old John Hopgood, was wounded. He made the second attack on the Mohne. The German flak 38 gunners, alerted by Guy Gibson's first run, hammered AJ-M during its low-level approach, setting fire to the port engines and a starboard wing fuel tank.
The weapon skipped over the dam and landed by the power station below, demolishing it in a huge fireball. Unable to gain height, the Lancaster crashed some three miles away. Incredibly three of the crew managed to get out but only two survived as prisoners of war. The other four went down with the plane.
My picture reconstructs the dam as it appeared at the time, with anti-aircraft guns atop the two towers, on the eastern overlook and in the fields beyond.
Uploaded
November 14th, 2018
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