Gibson felt like scening the scale model : the same basin filled with water, the same fields around, the same massive wall crowned with two towers closing the end of the lake.
Faintly lighted, the rampart looked like a hideous floating fortress, a battleship fastened between two moorings.
"Good Lord", somebody murmured. "Do you think we can demolish that one ?". Suddenly the dam livened up. Beams of tracer bullets spouted from the towers sweeping across the sky in all directions.
"Rather agressive, those Fritz !" Trevor Roper remarked. The three pilots skillfully cleared off and started to round the lake, making sure they stayed out of reach of the flak. Gibson tried to count the guns. There were at least one at each side of the lake close to the dam and at least four in each tower. He called the machines of the next wave and they answered one after another except for Astell. Gibson repeated his call again and again

but Astell was dead since an hour. Finally, seeing that insisting was useless, Gibson told his crew, "let's go !". Then switching to the radio, he called the others saying :
- "Take care everybody, I'm attacking, be ready for charging. Hello Mother, take command if something happens to me.
- OK chief, good luck !" went the calm voice of Hopgood. Gibson flew away as far as the hills at the east end of the lake. Then, turning gradually, he rushed with the full power of his four engines. Slowly the machine lined up till, straight ahead, at some 5 km, the dam with its towers suddenly appeared. Emerging over the water at 400 kph, Gibson bellowed his last order : "Check altitude ! Control speed ! Ready machine guns, lights on !"
The navigator turned on the searchlight under the belly of the machine and waiting for the light beams to cross at the water surface, started his refrain : "lower, lower, a bit higher, good, perfect..."
When the Lancaster stabilized at exactly 20 meters above the lake, the German gunners saw the lights. Immediately, beams of tracers focused the target previously invisible. The bullets seemed slow at first, but increasingly faster while the machine closed in on the dam.
Gibson, perfectly calm, piloted the Lancaster straight between the two towers. Spafford, looking through the hole in the plywood visor, waited with his hand on the launching button.
Suddenly, a terrible noise bursted from the nose when the front gun opened fire on the two towers. Gibson felt like the dam, giant wall with scattered will'-o'-the-wisp, was going to crush him. The smell of powder and overheated metal got in his throat and he thought : "in a minute we're all dead".
Then Spafford cried out "Bomb launched", the machine entered between the two towers and Hutchinson launched a red flare signaling the others they were safe.

A moment later, Trevor Roper, from the back-turret sprayed the German gunners with fourfold bursts. They regained self-control while the Lancaster dived staggering along the valley, skimming the floor for dodging the Flak. When out of its reach, Gibson pulled up over the hills, turned sharply and looked at the dam. At first he didn't see anything. Then, suddenly, the water surface, cut by the towers outline, lifted. An enormous white cone broke the surface and spouted skywards. The lake bubbled and while the column reached its highest point and hovered like a ghost over three hundred meters high the rumbling of the explosion catched up with the plane. Terror stricken, the men saw a waterfall spill over the dam. A moment they thought the wall had burst. Little by little the water quietened and they noticed that the dam was still in place. Had it been shaken only ?

Some minutes later, while the Lancaster was circling over the hills, Gibson thought the water sufficiently calm to give it a second try.
-"Hello Mother, your turn and good luck.
-Ok chief, here we go" sounded the always nonchalant voice of Hopgood.
Emerging from a gap in the hills, he piloted straight to the dam. The other creaws observed him anxiously. The searchlights under the machine belly went on, and two light circles slided over the water till they united. Hence, Hopgood had reached the right height but at the same time, the Flak started firing. Unruffled, he continued the charge. At 500 meters from the wall, the machine got into a swirl of tracers ; a red glow appeared around the tank of the interior starboard engine, and next the tail emited a long flame. The bomb was launched a split second too late and fell over the parapet on the power station at the base of the dam.
"Mother" got over the dam and immediately nosed up. Hopgood tried to pull up so the crew could parachute. Suddenly the tanks exploded, a wing broke off and the condemned Lancaster spinned down in a rain of white-hot debris. While it crashed, the powerstation blew up in a profusion of lights. 10 seconds later it was all over. "Poor Hoppy !" murmured some voice. Gibson, his face rigid like a mask, called Martin :
"- Hello, Popsie, you're ready ?
- Fully ready chief, I'm going".
- While you attack, I'll fly over the dam to lure away the Flak.
- Ok Chief, thanks a lot !"
When Martin appeared from over the hills Gibson rushed over the lake parallelly aligned with the dam but outside Flak's range. The six beams of tracers that focused the towers distracted the Germans who didn't remark Martin's machine before it was at 800 meters from the dam. Nevertheless, three guns managed to draw an iron curtain between the towers, a deadly curtain that Martin inevitably had to clear. Exactly when Bob Hay pronounced "bomb launched !", the machine gave a sudden jolt. Two shells had hit the port side wing, and one had exploded in the interior tank.

The machine cleared the dam and dived down the valley. The crew anxiously observed the damaged wing. Suddenly, noting the absence of flames, the navigator started to scream : "That was a lucky strike, the tank was empty !". Martin smiling, rubbed his chin before crying into the mike : "bomb launched, chief ! ".
-"Well done, Popsie. hello "Apple", are you ready ?
- Yes sir.
- So go ahead ! Warn me when you're in position so I can divert these Flak people. Hello Popsie, are you hurt ?
- Yes, two holes in the port side wing, but everybody unscathed. We'll make it back I think".

The victorious attack of Maltby