Guy Gibson

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Guy Penrose Gibson, 1944

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC , DFC and bar , DSO and bar (born August 12, 1918 in Simla , India , † September 19, 1944 in Steenbergen , Netherlands ) was the first commander of No. 617 Squadron (617th Squadron) of the Royal Air Force . Under his command, two dams in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse were destroyed during Operation Chastise ( Möhnetalsperre , Edertalsperre ). In the further course of the war he died on a mission over the Netherlands.

Life

Childhood and youth

Guy Gibson was born in Simla , in what was then the British Crown Colony of India , to Alexander and Leonora Gibson, where his father worked for the Forestry Service. He was the youngest of three children. When he was six years old, the parents separated, and moved with him to Porthleven in the county of Cornwall , where his grandparents lived paternal line. He completed his education at St. Georges School in Folkestone and at St. Edward's School in Oxford . His mother became addicted to alcohol and was sentenced to three months in prison. She died on Christmas Eve 1939 when her clothes caught fire on an electric stove while she was drunk.

Military career

In 1936, Gibson joined the Royal Air Force . His service as a pilot with the No. 83 Squadron , where he flew Handley Page Hampden , was due to end in April 1941. After that, Gibson wanted to become a civilian test pilot. However, the outbreak of World War II prevented this. In July 1940 Gibson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross . After Gibson had completed 27 enemy flights, he reported to the Fighter Command in August 1940 and thus prevented his remaining service time from "wasting" training young fighter pilots. In his current career as a night combat pilot with No. 29 Squadron on the Bristol Beaufighter model , he had four kills from enemy machines in 99 sorties. In December 1941, Gibson retired from Fighter Command as Squadron Leader and returned as Commander of No. 106 Squadron back to Bomber Command . There he completed 46 enemy flights on Avro Lancaster bombers over the next few months .

Operation Chastise

On March 21, 1943 Gibson took the rank of Wing Commander (equals: Lieutenant Colonel ) command of the newly formed No. 617 Squadron at RAF Scampton Air Force Base . This unit was supposed to destroy dams in Germany with the roll bomb developed by Barnes Wallis in order to considerably weaken the German war industry.

After the Dams Raid

Gibson's tombstone in Steenbergen

Because of its success, Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross . In his book Enemy Coast Ahead , he reported on his experiences and experiences on his missions in the previous war . He then went to the United States on behalf of the Royal Air Force and gave lectures there to student pilots of the American armed forces and to civilians. He was asked by a young lady: "Wing Commander Gibson, how many missions have you flown against Nazi Germany?" "One hundred and seventy-four" (174), Gibson answered, whereupon the rest of the audience fell silent. The reason for this was that at that time the first American bomber pilots were returning from Europe after completing their 25 mandatory minimum enemy flights. So the British Wing Commander Guy Gibson seemed like the real hero these days.

In August 1944 Gibson returned to active service with Bomber Command . Presumably neither Ralph Cochrane , commander of 5 Group, nor Arthur Harris , commander in chief of the Bomber Command, had approved this, but rather Gibson had acted unauthorized. On September 19 of the same year he flew with a de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito of No. 627 Squadron (relay) as scouts for the following bomber fleet to Rheydt , near Mönchengladbach . Its navigator was Squadron Leader Jim Warwick. At around 10 p.m. he reported on the radio “Nice work chaps, now beat it home!” (German: “Good work, guys. Now off home!”). 45 minutes later, the plane crashed near the Dutch town of Steenbergen after circling over the town for a few minutes with sputtering engines. Both inmates died in the crash. For many years, Gibson's Mosquito was believed to have been shot down. However, an examination of the wreckage found revealed that the selector switch for the various fuel tanks was defective. So the plane lost fuel and eventually crashed. Gibson had ignored advice to head west first and then fly to England via Allied territory. Instead, he decided to take the shorter route over enemy territory when flying low.

Awards

Others

  • He left behind his wife Eve Mary Gibson, née Moore, who was married on November 10, 1940.
  • Gibson's body could only be identified by a sock with his name on it and Squadron Leader Warwick by his gold wedding ring. The corpses were buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Steenbergen . Only after the war did the residents of Steenbergen realize what a celebrity rests in their cemetery. Today there is a memorial plaque at the entrance.
  • Today in Steenbergen there are numerous street names in memory of the famous British: Gibsonstraat, Warwickstraat, Dam Bustersstraat, Mosquitostraat, Lancasterstraat
Monument in Steenbergen
Wing Commander Gibson, whose personal courage knew no bounds, was quickly recognized to be an outstanding operational pilot and leader. He served with conspicuously successful results as a night bomber pilot and also as a night fighter pilot, on operational tours. In addition, on his "rest" nights he made single-handed attacks on highly defended objectives such as the German battleship Tirpitz. Wing Commander Gibson was then selected to command a squadron formed for special tasks. Under his inspiring leadership this squadron executed one of the most devastating attacks of the war - the breaching of the Moehne and Eder dams. Wing Commander Gibson personally made the initial attack on the Moehne dam. Descending to within a few feet of the water, he delivered his attack with great accuracy. He then circled very low for thirty minutes, drawing the enemy fire and permitting as free a run as possible to the following aircraft. He repeated these tactics in the attack on the Eder dam. Throughout his operational career, extended exceptionally at his own request, he has shown leadership, determination and valor of the highest order.

literature

  • Guy Gibson: Enemy Coast Ahead Uncensored , Crecy, Manchester 2006, ISBN 978-0-85979-118-2 .
  • Max Hastings: Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II. HarperCollins, New York, 2020, ISBN 978-0-06-295363-6 (Ebook: 978-0-06-295362-9).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Hastings: Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II. HarperCollins, New York, 2020, ISBN 978-0-06-295363-6 , pp. 67f
  2. ↑ Guy Gibson: Enemy Coast Ahead Uncensored , Crecy, Manchester 2006, ISBN 978-0-85979-118-2 , p. 28
  3. ↑ Max Hastings: Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II. HarperCollins, New York, 2020, ISBN 978-0-06-295363-6 , p. 301
  4. ↑ Max Hastings: Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II. HarperCollins, New York, 2020, ISBN 978-0-06-295363-6 , p. 301
personal data
SURNAME Gibson, Guy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gibson, Guy Penrose (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer, commander of the 617th Squadron of the Royal Air Force
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Simla , India
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1944
Place of death Steenbergen , Netherlands