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From Volume 2 of "Remembering The Canadian Yanks" due out later this year.
JOE MCCARTHY - THE AMERICAN DAM BUSTER
In the early morning hours of Monday, May 17, 1943, nineteen modified Avro Lancaster Mk. III Bombers from Royal Air Force (RAF) 617 Squadron attacked the Moehne, Eder and Sorpe hydroelectric dams in Germany's Ruhr industrial valley. The cost of the raid was exceedingly high, eight aircraft failed to return to RAF Scampton and of the 133 aircrew who participated, 53 were killed and 3 others captured. 617's Commanding Officer, Wing Commander (WC) Guy Penrose Gibson, had personally hand picked the crews from RAF Bomber Command's 5 Group two months earlier. After that singular historic raid, code named "Operation Chastise", the airmen from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a sole American were immortalized as "The Dam Busters".
The American, Joseph Charles "Big Joe" McCarthy, was a burly twenty-three year old, two hundred and twenty-five pound, six foot three inch, tall Irishman from New York City who was fascinated by all things aeronautical.
Born at St. James, Long Island on August 31, 1919, Joe, was raised in Brooklyn. His father was a New York City fireman and one of his grandfathers was a deputy sheriff. McCarthy's family had a summer home on Long Island where one of Joe's summer jobs was as a lifeguard at Coney Island. Money from this endeavour and other employments helped to pay for private flying lessons at nearby Roosevelt Field where, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh had taken off on his epic solo New York-to-Paris flight.
McCarthy made three separate attempts in 1940-41 to join the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Each time they told him he would hear back from them, but he never did. The War was entering its second year and it bothered "Big Joe" the United States was taking a neutral position in the conflict.
One of Joe's neighborhood lifelong friends was fellow civilian pilot, Donald Joseph Curtin. It was Curtin who suggested that they should head North to Canada and join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Because of the War, Don had been laid off from his job as a cruise director with the Holland America Steamship Company.
"Within two days", McCarthy recalled, "Don and I boarded a bus and headed for Ottawa, Ontario. We crossed the St. Lawrence river by ferry and the Canada Customs people helped us get a connecting bus to Ottawa. We spent the night at the YMCA and the following morning, May 5, 1941, we proceeded to RCAF No. 12 Recruiting Centre. There we were told we would have to come back in six weeks. Don and I responded we didn't have the money to return again so if the Air Force wanted us they had better decide that day!"
The Warrant Officer in charge took a second look at the two American volunteers, changed his mind and had them sign enlistment papers. That was fine with both as all they wanted to do was fly.
Later that day, as Aircraftsmen Second Class (AC2) Airmen, they, along with thirteen other new recruits, were on a Westbound train headed to No. 1 Manning Depot (MD) in Toronto, Ontario.
After MD training, they attended No. 1 Initial Training School (ITS) also in Toronto from where they graduated on August 11.
Promoted from AC2 to Leading Aircraftsmen (LAC), McCarthy and Curtin reported to No. 12 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) located at Sky Harbour Airport in Goderich, Ontario. There they flew Fleet Finch Biplanes, easily passing out of the course on September 26.
Next the two friends were sent to No. 5 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) in Brantford, Ontario where they learned to fly the twin-engined Avro Anson.
Once, during his training at No. 5, "Big Joe", low on fuel and hopelessly lost, landed in a farmer's field to ask directions after his navigation map flew out the open window of the cockpit. That slight blemish on his training record did not preclude him from winning his Wings.
McCarthy and Curtin graduated near the top of their class on December 18, 1941 as Sergeant Pilots (SP's) and, within hours, both were commissioned from the ranks as Pilot Officers (PO's).
Their Officer Service Numbers were only six digits apart - Curtin's was J.9340 and McCarthy's was J.9346. Taking their two week pre-embarkation leave, they returned to the New York area where they spent time with their families over the Christmas/New Year holidays.
Don Curtin headed overseas before Joe and, after training at two Operational Training Units (OTU's), went on to fly Avro Manchesters and Lancasters with RAF No. 106 Squadron from Syerston in Nottinghamshire. PO Curtin was awarded a British Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on his first sortie in July, 1942 and a further award of a Bar to his DFC was approved in January, 1943. During the eight month period Curtin flew with No. 106, his Commanding Officer, was twenty-three year old WC Guy P. Gibson.
Joe McCarthy left "Y" Depot, Halifax, Nova Scotia on a banana boat which had been converted into a troop ship. Not long into the voyage, bad weather separated the ship from the rest of the convoy and they had to proceed on their own all the way to England without a Naval escort. Upon docking, they were surprised to learn they had arrived ahead of everyone else.
April, 1942 found Joe at No. 12 Pilot (P) Advanced Flying Unit (AFU) at RAF Grantham flying Airspeed Oxfords. The next month he was at No. 14 OTU, RAF Cottesmore where he flew the Handley Page Hampden Bomber. In August, he was posted to RAF Woodhall Spa flying Manchesters and Lancasters with No. 97 Conversion Flight. On September 21, "Big Joe" began his first operational tour with RAF No. 97 Squadron where he flew 29 Lancaster sorties up until March 11, 1943.
Curtin and McCarthy socially visited each other and it was at Syerston where Joe, through Don, first met Guy Gibson. McCarthy remembered Gibson as one of those men to whom leadership came as naturally as breathing; autocratic and impatient at times, yet commanding instant respect.
McCarthy was a favourite of his fellow pilots and was known around the RAF Bomber Squadrons as "The big blonde American". Outwardly he had a personality that matched his physique. His colourful American expletives were freely lavished on all who crossed his path. This was in marked contrast to the more austere profanity of the British pilots. Near the end of the War, he adapted to the British way, being seen with a pipe, a walking stick and a dog on a leash. "If I'm going to be an Officer and a Gentleman", he said, "I'm going to have a crack at looking the part".
In March, 1943, Joe received a telephone call from Gibson who told him, "I'm forming a new Squadron. I can't tell you much about it except to say that we may be only doing one trip. I'd like you and your crew to join us". Joe was excited about the opportunity, but his crew was initially cool to the idea. They had just beaten the odds by completing their first tour. However, all but one of the crew of seven eventually decided to follow their aircraft captain to the new unit originally designated "X" Squadron then later changed No. 617.
It is a foregone certainty that McCarthy's good friend, Flight Lieutenant (FL) Donald J. Curtin DFC & Bar, would have been a part of 617, had he and his entire crew not been tragically lost in Lancaster W4886 over Nuremburg on February 25/26, 1943. They are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery (CWGC) in Durnbach, Germany.
WC Gibson who had survived 173 operational sorties, had been tasked by Sir Ralph Cochrane, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of No. 5 Group, to set up the new Squadron for a mysterious "special operation". Gibson, who at that stage knew nothing about the target, was given carte blanche by Cochrane to comb Bomber Command for its best aircrews.
McCarthy and his crew made their first flight with 617 on March 31, 1943. For the next several weeks the Squadron trained intensively for their dangerous mission using the English Eyebrook and Derwent Reservoirs. Days before the "Dams Raids", Flying Officer (FO) McCarthy was notified he was to receive a DFC for the sterling work he had performed while at 97 Squadron. Within days of this notification, he was promoted from FO to FL.
The Dams Raids and the ingenious bouncing bomb used were conceived in the brilliant mind of Dr. (later Sir) Barnes Neville Wallis. Wallis, a British Engineer, also had a hand in designing the Vickers R-100 Airship, the Wellesley and Wellington Bombers and later in the War, two earthquake bombs - the 12,000 pound "Tallboy" in 1944 and the 22,000 pound "Grandslam" in 1945.
When War broke out in 1939, Wallis searched for weaknesses in the enemy's industrial infrastructure. He finally settled on a plan to destroy Germany's great hydroelectric dams. The bouncing bomb, weighing 9,250 pounds, was packed with TNT, RDX and other materials to enhance the efficiency of the explosion. Cylindrical in shape, it measured five feet in length and four feet in diameter. The Germans called Wallis' creation the "spinning depth charge". Each bomb was fitted with three pre-set hydrostatic pistols designed to detonate when the water pressure was equal to a depth of 30 feet. As back-up, each bomb was fitted with a 90 second detonation fuse. The attacking Lancasters were to fly precisely 60 feet above the water, releasing the bomb 450 yards from the target and at an exact airspeed of 240 miles per hour! Prior to release, an onboard hydraulic motor drive and belt system spun the bomb backwards to a speed of 500 revolutions per minute. Skipping like a stone across a lake's surface, the backward spinning bomb struck the dam's wall, crawled down its concrete face and exploded at the prescribed depth.
On the clear moonlit evening of Sunday, May 16, 1943, McCarthy and his crew, anxious to go, climbed into their Lancaster "Q For Queenie" only to have the aircraft go unserviceable on the ramp. Undeterred, they rushed over to a spare aircraft "T For Tom" only to find the navigation card giving them precise compass deviations vital for accurately flying the carefully charted route was not in the cockpit! The chances of bringing the aircraft at low level (between 75' and 120') through the myriad of flak emplacements and around night fighter bases, which lay between them and their target, were zero without it. "Big Joe" climbed down from the cockpit for the second time that evening and with his "Irish Temper" near the boiling point, headed for the hangar where he ran into Flight Sergeant (FS) "Chiefy" Powell, 617's Senior Non Commissioned Officer (NCO). After a short, expletive-filled, one-sided conversation, Powell took off on the double to the Squadron's instrument section where, unsure of what exactly it was he was looking for, managed somehow to locate the missing route card.
McCarthy finally got airborne in Lancaster ED825 - twenty minutes behind his section. He was the Commander of the Squadron's third wave assigned to attack the most difficult of the three dams - the Sorpe. Unlike the Moehne and Eder, the Sorpe's concrete core was surrounded by an earthen wall. The planned bouncing bomb attack for the other two dams would be ineffectual against this target so a conventional bomb drop was briefed. During the outbound leg, the crew reported seeing several enemy night-fighters flying above them. Joe's front and rear gunners exchanged fire with some flak positions after their aircraft was coned several times by searchlights. At one point, Sergeant Baston, the front gunner, asked for permission to open fire on a train only to discover it was an armoured flak train. Return fire hit the aircraft in the port undercarriage nacelle and burst the tire.
FL McCarthy was the only member of his five plane formation to reach the target. Of the others, one was shot down; another was so badly damaged by flak the crew aborted; another crashed into an electrical pylon supporting power cables and the fourth lost its bomb in the water when the plane bounced off the surface while flying too low!
Arriving over the valley, McCarthy initiated a diving attack as the dam was nestled at the bottom of two steep hills. Coming over the top of one hill, Joe, using full flaps to keep the speed of his 30 ton Lancaster under control, dove down the slope toward the 765 yard long dam. To escape, he had to apply full power to his four American built Packard Rolls-Royce Merlin Engines and climb at a steep angle up the side of the second hill. And if that wasn't difficult enough, a thick mist was filling the valley as he arrived. The blinding moonlight turned the mist into a writhing phosphorescent pall which made it extremely difficult to judge the bomber's height above the lake. On the third attempt lo locate the target, Joe almost flew "T For Tom" into the water. It was not until the tenth run that bomb-aimer, Sergeant George "Johnny" Johnson, was satisfied and released the bomb from a height of just 90 feet! It exploded squarely on top of the parapet, damaging and crumbling for more than 50 yards the crown of the earthen wall.
Shortly thereafter a spare aircraft, flown by Canadian Sergeant Pilot (SP) Ken Brown, dropped its bomb on the sixth attempt causing further damage to the crest of the dam with a second direct hit. The Germans, unsure of the dam's integrity, were forced to drain off over 50% of the reservoir's capacity until the structure could be inspected and repaired.
The breaching of the Moehne and Eder, coupled with the damage done to the Sorpe, was a tremendous propaganda victory for Britain, and for Germany, a colossal demoralizing blow.
Joe McCarthy received a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) award for his part in the raids. He was presented with this medal along with his previously gazetted DFC by King George VI on June 22, 1943 at Buckingham Palace. The King's wife, Queen Elizabeth, followed her husband along the presentation line and stopped to chat with several recipients, one of them being McCarthy. "Big Joe", normally voluble, was reduced to shyness as the Queen took his massive hand in hers and asked him about his home life in Brooklyn. He could only mutter a few syllables in response to her questions.
After the dams' raids, Joe continued to fly with 617 and one of Guy Gibson's successors, Leonard Cheshire, thought so highly of McCarthy's piloting abilities, he promoted him from FL to Squadron Leader (SL).
On April 28, 1944, Joe was awarded a Bar to his DFC with the following citation - "Since being awarded the Distinguished Service Order, this Officer has completed numerous sorties as Captain of Aircraft in which he has taken part in difficult and hazardous operations at low level. Squadron Leader McCarthy has displayed exemplary skill and courage which, combined with his unfailing devotion to duty, have contributed much to the success achieved".
At 617, Joe was involved in testing a new high altitude bomb sight. He flew a number of operations utilizing the new device against selected small targets in France resulting in little or no collateral damage being done to nearby residential areas.
617 Squadron also flew operations as "Pathfinders", dropping Target Indicators (TI's) at low level. TI's marked the precise area the main bomber force was to bomb on. On one occasion, "Big Joe's" reference point was a small building. Somehow his TI went right inside the structure and, as no one could see it, he had to come around again to place another marker.
Joe McCarthy began his third operational tour with a raid to Toulouse, France on April 5, 1944.
On the evening prior to D-Day, the entire Squadron flew racetrack circuits at 800' off Calais dropping aluminum foil every three minutes. This tactic duped the German Coastal Radar Operators into thinking a large surface fleet was approaching Pas de Calais when in fact the real force was approaching Normandy far to the West.
Joe was also involved in dropping the first 12,000 pound "Tallboy" Bomb on the Saumar Railway Tunnel. He released the weapon from 10,500 feet and it struck less than one hundred yards from the target causing the tunnel to collapse. He dropped other Tallboys on submarine pens and V-1 factories.
His 67th and last bomber sortie took place on July 4, 1944 when he placed a Tallboy on a target near Criel, France.
J. C. McCarthy hated bureaucracy and had little patience and no time for ground staff who failed to appreciate the risks aircrew faced almost every night. On the occasion of the second desperate attempt by 617 to breach the Dortmund-EMS Canal - the first loosing five Lancasters out of eight dispatched - Joe overheard a female officer remark, "My God, I hope they get there tonight. The trouble the AOC's gone to over this". McCarthy silenced her with a snarled, "The hell with you and all the AOC's. What about the seven lives in every kite!" and stormed out! Only three of the nine aircraft sent on the raid that evening returned!!
Leaving 617, Joe spent a brief period as a Staff Officer with No. 6 Group Headquarters then as the Commanding Officer of a fighter affiliation unit where he flew Hurricanes and Spitfires.
In November, 1944, he was posted to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough.
When the European War ended, he remained at Farnborough where he served with the "Foreign Aircraft Flight". This group had the task of locating and gathering a wide range of Luftwaffe aircraft for evaluation and flight testing. Some 75 German aircraft where flown directly to the RAE and another 50 were delivered by sea. SL McCarthy personally flew the Fw 200, Arado 232, Fw 190, He 219 and the Do 335. Joe also flew his first jet, the Meteor EE-360. By the time his duties at Farnborough came to an end in December, 1945, he had flown over 50 different aircraft types.
McCarthy returned to Canada early in 1946. He decided to remain in the RCAF and applied for and was granted Canadian Citizenship. He did not, however, have to relinquish his American birthright in the process of becoming a Canadian Citizen.
Promoted from SL to WC, Joe McCarthy had a varied and interesting post-war career covering the period 1946 to 1968:
Test and Development Establishment, Rockcliffe, Ontario;
RCAF Staff College, Toronto, Ontario;
No. 6 Repair Depot, Trenton, Ontario;
RCAF Station, Chatham, New Brunswick;
No. 2 RCAF Fighter Wing, France;
RCAF Station, Trenton;
No. 4 Flying Training School, Penhold, Alberta;
407 Maritime Patrol Squadron, Comox, British Columbia;
UN Belgian-Congo;
RCAF Staff Officer attached to the Commander's Office; U.S. Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet, Norfolk, Virginia.
McCarthy's last Canadian military flight was on April 9, 1968 as pilot in command of a Canadair CP-107 Argus Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
Earlier that same year the Canadian Federal Government destroyed the rich histories and traditions of Canada's Army, Navy and Air Force when it unified the three separate Military Branches into an all encompassing "one size fits all" Service.
Joe McCarthy, unwilling to participate in the tortuous demise of his beloved Royal Canadian Air Force, retired after 27 years of faithful service.
For a few years he sold real estate then later in life lectured at the United States Air Force (USAF), Air Warfare College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
Seventy-nine year old (Retired) WC Joseph Charles "Big Joe" McCarthy DSO, DFC and Bar - The American Dam Buster - died of emphysema at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia on September 6, 1998. He was survived by his wife Alice, two children, Joseph B. McCarthy and Karen Westergaard both of Virginia Beach, five grandchildren and a brother, Frank, of Glendale New York.
***
The author gratefully thanks the following who provided information for this article: Britain's Sunday Times Newspaper and The Nanton, Alberta Lancaster Society.
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