The last surviving member of the RAF’s Dambusters squadron, which used special “bouncing bombs” against German dams in a series of daring raids during World War II, has died at the age of 101.
George “Johnny” Johnson was the last member of the 617 Squadron, whose 1943 raid became part of British wartime folklore.
He died at a care home in Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, on Dec. 7, surrounded by his family.
“The RAF is saddened to learn of the death of Squadron Leader George Leonard ‘Johnny’ Johnson, the last remaining member of the legendary 617 Squadron ‘Dambusters’ raid on the Eder, Sorpe and Mohne dams during World War II,” The Royal Air Force wrote on its Twitter page.
It also wrote “Per Ardua Ad Astra,” a Latin phrase and the RAF’s motto, which means “through adversity to the stars.”
Operation Chastise—the code name for the raid—was little known during the war, but in 1955, a book about the attack was made into a hugely popular film, “The Dam Busters,” starring Richard Todd as Wing Cmdr. Guy Gibson and Michael Redgrave as bomb engineer Barnes Wallis. The film was regularly shown on British television right up until the 1990s.
The theme tune from the film was picked up by jingoistic England football fans in the 1980s and was sung or hummed at matches up until a few years ago, when it went out of fashion.
On May 16 and 17, 1943, the Mohne, Eder, and Sorpe dams in Germany were attacked by 19 Lancaster bombers with 133 British airmen on board. Of those, 53 died and three were captured by the Germans.
The planes were fitted with bouncing bombs that had been designed by Wallis.
Gibson described them as looking like “glorified dustbins,” but they worked, allowing the planes to drop them on the water some distance from the dam and then gain altitude while the bombs bounced towards their targets and then exploded.
It’s estimated that about 1,600 civilians died, including 1,000 forced labourers from occupied Eastern Europe, when several of the dams broke and flooded the surrounding farmland and villages.
James Holland, author of “Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the Dams,” said, “If the dams weren’t important, why was the Nazi high command in such a hurry to rebuild them?”
Gibson, who won a Victoria Cross for his role in the raid, died in 1944 when his plane crashed in the Netherlands as it returned from bombing Germany.
Johnson was a bomb aimer on the raid on the Sorpe dam, and he became the last survivor of the Dambusters when his colleague Fred Sutherland died in January 2019.
In 2017, Johnson collected an MBE from the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to World War II remembrance and the community in Bristol.
Johnson said the Queen told him, “Glad to see the Dambusters are still here.”
TV presenter Carol Vorderman launched a petition to try to get him a knighthood before he died.
Dambusters Raid ‘Will Live Forever’
In 2017, Johnson said of the Dambusters raid, “That is something which will live forever, as far as I’m concerned.”Johnson and his fiancee, Gwyn Morgan, were due to get married in April 1943, but then he was called up to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire for a “special mission” and told that all leave was cancelled.
Johnson later recalled how his commanding officer took the whole crew up to see Gibson and said, “My bomb aimer is supposed to be getting married, and he is going to get married. We got our leave, and I got my wedding.”
Six weeks after he got married, Johnson was bombing the Sorpe dam.
It wasn’t breached, but the Germans were forced to repair it, causing massive disruption to the war effort.
After retiring from the RAF, Johnson worked as a teacher at Rampton Secure Hospital and later moved with his wife to Devon, where he became a Conservative councillor.
Former RAF navigator John Nichol, who was captured by the Iraqis and shown off by Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War, wrote on Twitter: “Very sad to learn that the ‘Last Dambuster’, Sqn Ldr Johnny Johnson, has died aged 101. His WW2 generation sacrificed so much, yet asked nothing in return. I was privileged to share many a bottle of his much-loved red wine. The nation has lost a true hero. Blue skies Sir.”
