Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry
Moreover, Cochrane knew Wallis well; had worked with him in the Royal Naval Air Service in World War I, flying his experimental airships and testing the world’s first airship mooring mast, which Wallis had designed. Ever since then Cochrane had had a quick sympathy for the scientific approach. (The Dam Busters, P. Brickhill refers)
‘Recruiting’ Guy Gibson
Guy Gibson records his first meeting with Cochrane in Enemy Coast Ahead (shortly after completing his 173rd sortie and his ‘rush’ posting to No. 5 Group - he had been expecting a rest!):
‘Next day I went to Grantham. Now Group Headquarters in particular, or any headquarters in general, are funny places. There is an air of quiet, cold efficiency about the whole place. Waafs keep running in an out with cups of tea. Tired men walk through the corridors with red files under their arms. The yellow lights over the AOC and SASO’s doors are almost always on, showing that they are engaged. Great decisions are being taken the whole time. There is not much time off and I found it quite difficult to settle down.
I had been there one or two days... when the AOC sent for me... the new Air Vice-Marshal was the Honourable Ralph Cochrane, a man with a lot of brain and organising ability. In one breath he congratulated me on my bar to the D.S.O., in the next he suddenly said: “How would you like the idea of doing one more trip?”
I gulped. More flak, more fighters; but said aloud: “What kind of trip, sir?”
“A pretty important one, perhaps one of the most devastating of all time. I can’t tell you any more now. Do you want to do it?”
I said I thought I did, trying to remember where I had left my flying kit. He seemed to be in such a hurry that I got the idea it was a case of take-off tonight.
But two days went by and nothing happened. On the third he sent for me again. In his office was another man, one of the youngest Base commanders in the Group, Air Commodore Charles Whitworth. The Air Vice-Marshal was very amiable. He told me to sit down, offered me a Chesterfield and began to talk.
“I asked the other day if you would care to do another raid. You said you would, but I have to warn you that this is no ordinary sortie. In fact it can’t be done for at least two months.”
(I thought, hell, it’s the Tirpitz. What on earth did I say “Yes” for?)
“Moreover,” he went on, “the training for the raid is of such importance that the Commander-in-Chief has decided that a special squadron is to be formed for the job. I want you to form that squadron. As you know, I believe in efficiency, so I want you to do it well. I think you had better use Whitworth’s main base at Scampton. As far as air crews are concerned, I want the best - you can choose them. W/C Smith, the SOA, will help you pick ground crews. Each squadron will be forced to cough up men to build your unit up to strength.
“Now there’s a lot of urgency in this, because you haven’t got long to train. Training will be the important thing, so get going right away. Remember you are working to a strict timetable and I want to see your aircraft flying in four days’ time. Now you go upstairs to hand in the names of your crews to Cartwright; he will give you all the help you want.”
“But what sort of training, sir? And the target? I can’t do a thing -”
“I am afraid I can’t tell you any more just for the moment. All you have to do is to pick your crews, get them ready to fly, then I will come and see you and tell you more.” “How about aircraft and equipment?”
“S/L. May, the Group Equipment Officer, will do all that. All right, Gibson.”
He bent down to his work abruptly. This was the signal for me to go. There was a big raid to be organised that night. As I was closing the door, he looked up again. “Let me know when you are ready, and remember, not a word to anyone, this is just an ordinary new squadron. Secrecy is vital.”
As we closed the door, “See you at Scampton,” said Charles. “If you come over in a couple of days I’ll get everything fixed up for you. How many chaps are you going to bring?”
“About seven hundred.”
I was left standing feeling very bewildered. Charles went back to Scampton and I went upstairs to see various men who, though unknown to the general public, are the very life-blood of the Royal Air Force. These men, most of them too old to fly themselves, deal in such things as equipment, bodies, erks, aircrews.’
The fruits and labour of above were to produce Gibson’s ‘X’ Squadron (later 617 Squadron). Cochrane kept Gibson and his men guessing throughout training as to what their eventual target would be. Instructing them to fly at low level, photograph lakes in England and Wales, with Cochrane eventually informing Gibson of the target:
‘Just now I want you to have a look at models of your targets.’ He waved a hand at three packing cases in a corner of his office and Gibson eyed them curiously. ‘You can’t train your men properly unless you know what they are, so I am letting you know now, but you’ll be the only man in the squadron to know. Keep it that way.....’
Gibson gently prised the lids loose and lifted the battens. He stood looking down at the models, and his first reaction was a feeling of tremendous relief. Thank God, it wasn’t the Tirpitz! It took him a couple of seconds after that to realise they were dams. One was the Moehne, and the other two the Eder and the Sorpe, handsome models that showed not only the dams but the countryside in detail for miles around, as though photographs had taken on a third dimension. There were the flat surfaces of the lakes, the hills, winding rivers and the mosaic of fields and hedges. And in the middle the dams. Gibson stood looking for a long time and then Cochrane laid the lids back over them.
“Now you’ve seen what you’ve got to attack,’ he said. ‘Go and see Wallis again and come and see me when you get back.’ (The Dam Busters, P. Brickhill refers)
Waiting with Wallis
Cochrane meticulously continued to plan, maintain secrecy, and problem solve throughout the training process for the raid. On the night of 16 May 1943, he gathered with Harris and Wallis at Grantham to listen to the plan being executed by Gibson and his Squadron:
‘In the ops. room of 5 Group HQ at Grantham, Cochrane was walking with Barnes Wallis up and down, trying to comfort him. Wallis was like an expectant father, fidgety and jittery, and Cochrane was talking of anything but the bomb, trying to get Wallis’s mind off it, but Wallis could think of nothing else.
‘Just think what a wonderful job you made of the Wellington,’ Cochrane said encouragingly. ‘It’s a magnificent machine; been our mainstay for over three years.’
‘Oh dear, no,’ lamented the disconcerting scientist. ‘Do you know, every time I pass one I wonder how I could have designed anything so crude.’
A black Bentley rushed up the gravelled drive outside, pulled up by the door and the sentries snapped rigidly to attention as Harris himself jumped briskly out. He came into the ops. room. ‘How’s it going, Cocky?’
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