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Polo DamBuster "Après moi le déluge"
100% cotton polo - Military Green - embroidery, weaving.
Design, knitting, embroidery, assembly, box... entirely made by us.
Polo Dam Buster
$138.26
Polo DamBuster "Après moi le déluge"
100% cotton polo - Military Green - embroidery, weaving.
Design, knitting, embroidery, assembly, box... entirely made by us.
On the night of May 17, 1943, Wing Commander Guy Gibson led a formation of 19 Lancasters from the specially-trained 617 Squadron into the air from Scampton Air Force Base, with the aim of bringing down industrial production by destroying 6 dams in the Ruhr Valley in the heart of Germany.
For this mission, they were equipped with a special ricochet bomb called "Upkeep". This bomb takes the form of a 1.5m-long cylinder weighing over 4 tonnes. Installed in the Lancaster's cargo bay, with its hatches removed, it rotates at over 500rpm, bouncing off the surface of the water for several hundred meters as it is released, hitting the dam and sinking to the foot of the wall before exploding.
The mission, carried out at night, is extremely dangerous, as it involves infiltrating deep into enemy territory at low altitude and dropping the bomb just a few metres from the reservoir, avoiding the dense flak, the dam balloons and the power lines.
Of the 6 targets, 4 were damaged and 2 destroyed: the Edersee dam and the Möhne reservoir. Casualties were high, with 8 of the 19 bombers shot down, resulting in the death of 53 crew members, 3 of whom parachuted and were taken prisoner. 34 were decorated on June 22 at Buckingham Palace. Guy Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross, 5 the DSO, 10 the Distinguished Flying Medal and 2 the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.
The polo shirt presented here is in the colors of the Lancaster KC-W flown by Flight Ltn T Tommy McCarthy, leader of the 2nd wave over the Sorpe Dam, and features McCarthy's personal insignia, which was affixed to his aircraft after the May 17, 1943 mission.
