Technology these days allows us to do things that people in 1943 would have thought science fiction. We can watch live sport on TV from anywhere in the world, We can see young boys being saved from a certain death in flooded Thai caves - live on Facebook. We can send and receive money from banks all over the world without entering a real building. In 1943 a new invention was instrumental in destroying German hydro-electric dams that had been identified as important bombing targets even before the outbreak of World War II.

Our last few days in Europe would be spent on another history lesson. Those who follow this blog would know that Greg is our resident historian when travelling. We have visited places that many people have never even heard of - me included - that Greg has included in our itineraries. The Wolf"s Lair near Ketrzyn Poland was on our last trip; this was Hitler's Eastern Front Military Headquarters in World War II. We actually slept in one of the barracks of Hitler's SS guards. We have also visited Ouvrage Hackenberg in France, one of the largest of the Maginot Line fortifications- a huge labrynth of tunnels dug into the mountains. We have visited Anzac Cove, the WWI battlefields, Omaha Beach, Pointe de Hoc, scaled by the US Rangers on D-Day and ... the list goes on.

This time we are visiting three dams in Germany which were the focus of Operation Chastise, an attack on German dams carried out on 16 - 17 May 1943 by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron - later called the Dam Busters. The raid was lead by Wing Commander Guy Gibson who won the Victoria Cross for his actions. The "bouncing bomb" was a purpose-built weapon developed by Barnes Wallis to carry out the task, technology at its best!

Now, if you have been keeping up with our travels, some of this might sound familiar. When travelling through the Peak District in the UK before going to the Isle of Man TT, we visited the Derwent Reservoir to check out where the Lancaster Bombers did some practice runs in preparation for Operation Chastise. So this visit to the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe Dams in Germany completes Greg's need to check off this part of history. These will be followed by a visit to Steenbergen in the Netherlands where Guy Gibson is buried having perished in action in 1944. More on that later.

Our ride from Neukirchen today was only 300km to Bad Emstal, not far from Kassel. We rode on the freeway for part of the day and then through small villages before arriving early at our hotel. It was hot so we were happy to be off the bike by 2pm as it gets hotter as the afternoon goes on. Our stay in Bad Emstal sets us up for the first dam in the morning, only 30 km away.

Edersee Dam was breached by a bouncing bomb dropped by 617 Squadron in the early morning raid on 17th May 1943 which caused a massive 70 metres wide and 22 metres deep breach in the structure. Water emptied into the valley below claiming the lives of many people. The dam was rebuilt within months by forced labour. Today you can see clearly where the dam was breached as the rock wall is a different colour and several of the overflow holes were never rebuilt.

Our second dam of the day was the Mohne about 120km away. The ride was glorious while we stayed off the freeway, beautiful forests and pretty villages. When on the freeway however, the trucks were continuous and the going very slow as we approached roadworks.

The Mohne Dam is 45km east of Dortmund. The Mohnesee looks very similar to the Edersee and was also breached by the bouncing bombs of Operation Chatise. The bouncing bombs skipped over the protective nets that hung in the water. The hole blown in this dam resulted in a huge floodwave killing at least 1579 people. This dam was also quickly rebuilt so there was little disruption to the supply of water to the Ruhr Valley.

Only 45 km further on was our overnight stay in the small town of Sundern, the location of the third dam bombed in Operation Chastise. The Sorpe dam sustained only minor damage as it was a completely different construction from the Eder and Mohne. The Sorpe has an earth mound to hold back the water. Different bombs were used in this attack and the Lancasters approach was along the length of the dam, not at right angles to it. The bombs were eventually dropped on the 10th run but the main body of the dam remained with only a crack in the dam being achieved.

The British achieved temporary disruption to the area but the attacks were not followed up. 53 of the 133 aircrew who participated in the attack were killed. Of the survivors, 34 were decorated at Buckingham Palace in June 1943 with Guy Gibson awarded the Victoria Cross. 617 Squadron was kept together as a specialist unit. The value of the bombing was at best seen as a boost to British morale.

If you would like to know more about Operation Chastise get hold of a copy of the 1955 movie "The Dam Busters" staring Richard Todd - or you ask Greg!