Film shows what happened after the Dambusters raid

Rare footage highlighting a little-known aspect of the Dambusters raid has gone on show.

While many people are familiar with the outline of the World War Two mission – when the RAF used "bouncing bombs" to destroy German dams – historians say the story of what happened next is not widely understood.

After Me, The Flood, an exhibition at the International Bomber Command Centre, Lincoln, highlights the casualties on both sides of the attack on the Mohne Dam, including at least 1,300 people killed in flooding.

German archivist Lena Lewald said: "The bombing of the dam has been a very successful feat of engineering, but there's so much more that needs to be added to have the full story."

The black and white footage, which is being shown in the UK for the first time, shows the damaged Mohne Dam, flooding in villages downstream and the destruction in other communities nearby.

Lewald helped curate the exhibition using documents and footage in the archive she runs in the German municipality of Mohnesee, which includes the dam.

She said the intention was not to undermine the narrative of the Dambusters as heroes, but "add to it".

"Usually, the narrative ends with the successful bombing of the dam and there's so much more that happened afterwards that isn't widely known here in England," she added.

Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron, based at RAF Scampton, near Lincoln, attacked three dams on the night of 16-17 May 1943.

Officially known as Operation Chastise, the raid breached the Möhne and Edersee dams, while the Sorpe Dam sustained minor damage.

Eight aircraft were lost and 53 out of 133 aircrew members died, with three others captured.

The exhibition is due to run until 28 February 2027 and includes letters by Barnes Wallis, who designed the bouncing bomb, and the diary of a Dutch prisoner forced to work on the Mohne dam's reconstruction.

Nicky van der Drift, chief executive of the International Bomber Command Centre, said: "There's a lasting legacy that we're addressing here.

"With the current world situation, it's vital that we remember and that we educate about the output of war, the devastation that it brings to average people."

Air Marshall Mark Flewin, the RAF's air and space commander, said the exhibition would "shine a light on the suffering on both sides".

"We do not want to be in a war for national survival," he added. "There's huge sacrifice and cost as a result of that and I think the material we're seeing absolutely reflects that."

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