Britain Remembers Wasteful, But Superficially Impressive Military Escapade

A flypast and remembrance service will be held today to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the legendary Dambusters raid in 1943.

The ceremony will be held at Derwent reservoir, and will feature a flypast by a Lancaster – the type of bomber used in the raid – a Tornado from 617 Squadron and, for no readily apparent reason, a Spitfire which had nothing to do with it whatsoever, but looks pretty.

The Derwent reservoir and dam were used for training by the original 617 Sqn aircrews. The Mohne and Eder dams actually breached during the raid - which was supposed to knock six months off the war – were not being used for the ceremony of remembrance because Britain prefers to focus on the shocking but heroic sacrifice of 40% of the brave crews, while Germans tend to be more aware that the majority of deaths caused on the ground were actually Russian women slave-workers drowned in their dormitories by the unleashed wall of water.

“Still, at least British Airways didn’t organise the mission,” said one aviation historian. “They’d have kept the planes sitting on the runway and posted the bombs to Rome, asking Mussolini to tell them where they should be delivered.”