RAF hero’s brilliantly under-stated account of Dambusters raid revealed in never-before-seen logbook
Flight Sergeant Leonard Sumpter, who flew 35 missions during the war, was a bomb aimer on night of celebrated attack
A MODEST RAF hero described the Dambusters raid as a “satisfactory attack” in a fascinating logbook that has just come to light.
Flight Sergeant Leonard Sumpter was a bomb aimer on the celebrated World War Two mission over Germany.
His entry for the May 16, 1943, lists the seven crewmen on his plane which took off from RAF Scampton at 9.50pm.
He stated: "Op. No. 14 via Holland to the Hun. Satisfactory attack on Eder Dam 18 miles west of Kassel. Average ht. 100 feet."
The logbook, which was owned by his family covers the period from from October 1941 to September 1945 and sold for nearly £9,000 at auction this week.
The raid involved 19 Lancaster bombers flying at low-level to avoid radar over Germany’s industrial heartland of the Ruhr Valley.
Fl Sgt Sumpter's Lancaster hit their target but their bouncing bomb failed to breach the wall.
Theirs was one of 11 bombers that made it back to Britain after the attack, with eight others shot down resulting in the loss of 53 of the 133 men involved.
The log also lists 617 Squadron's last sortie of the war in April 1945 - an attack on Hitler's Eagles' Nest in the Bavarian Alps, with a 12,000lbs Tallboy bomb.
Also sold was a unique scrapbook kept by Ft Sgt Sumpter which contained never-before-seen images of the men of 617 Squadron.
The snaps include aerial images showing other huge bombs dropped by Flt Sgt Sumpter towards enemy targets during his wartime career.
Two years after the war he did a tour of some of the sites he had bombed in France and Germany and his photos show the wrecked Mohne dam and a viaduct.
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The scrapbook sold for a total of £3,850.
Richard Davie, of Nottingham-based International Autograph Auctions which sold the archive, said: "The logbook gives us an insight into what Bomber Command were concentrating on during the Second World War.
"The highlight was the Dambusters raid which was one of the most famous operations of the war.”
Flt Sgt Sumpter, from Luton, Beds, who died in 1993, flew 35 missions during the war.
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