David Shannon, DSO, DFC, who flew on the celebrated Dambuster raid of May 1943, died at his home in Sydenham, South London, on April 8 aged 70. He was born at St Umley, Park, South Australia, on May 27, 1922.
A YOUTHFUL figure who could have passed as a 16 year-old, Flight-Lieutenant David Shannon was already a veteran bomber pilot by the time Guy Gibson chose him to join the newly-formed 617 squadron in the spring of 1943. Gibson himself did not know at that stage what the target for the special unit was to be. Secrecy surrounding the raid and its objectives was among the best of the war. Not until she saw his picture in the paper after it was all over, did Gibson's own wife know what he had been up to, and that two of the great Ruhr dams had been destroyed by a lone squadron in a single night. He had told her he was ''resting'' in a training squadron, after a hectic period on operations.
Shannon had already served with Gibson, who knew a lot about this 20-year old Australian's superb qualities as a pilot. These were put to the proof during the raid itself when Shannon's was the first Lancaster to attack the second and largest of the Ruhr dams, the Eder, after the Mohne had already been breached.
This was the most difficult of the squadron's objectives. The Eder dam lay in a fold of hills which meant that the approach over water at 60ft was only possible after the steepest and most hair-raising of dives. To add to the hazard, a thick fog rolled over the surface of the lake. It was a test not only of skill but of heart. Five times Shannon attempted to claw his way down to the lake only to find himself flying too fast and too high at the crucial moment when the ''bouncing bomb'' devised by Dr Barnes Wallis should have been released, at a precise speed and height.
Shannon circled again to take stock of the situation while Maudslay, another of 617's pilots, had a go. He dropped his bomb but failed to get out of the valley afterwards and crashed into the hillside, killing himself and his crew. Steeling himself again, Shannon made a sixth and then a seventh approach and this time placed his bomb exactly where it should have been, snug against the dam wall, underwater. Gibson's formation had only one bomb left, carried in the Lancaster flown by Les Knight, another young Australian. After Knight, too, had made two failed attempts Shannon advised him over the radio: ''Come in down moon and dive for the point, Les''. Taking this cue Knight dropped his bomb perfectly. Suddenly the wall of the dam cracked; 212 million tons of water went racing down the valley at 30ft a second. The pilots, circling above in awed fascination, watched as a car, racing to get clear, was engulfed by the surge.
David Shannon was the son of an Australian farmer and MP. After leaving school he worked in insurance before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1941. He then came to Britain where he joined Guy Gibson's 106 squadron as his first operational posting. After flying on 26 raids he won his first DFC.
When Gibson, then expecting a rest from bombing operations after flying 173 missions, was told to form a new squadron at Scampton, Lincolnshire, for ''something special'', he had no hesitation in taking Shannon with him. In a squadron strong on glamour which started at the top with the dashing Gibson Shannon stood out. Tall, slim and elegant, he was a romantic figure. Very soon he added to this image by falling in love with one of the station's prettiest WAAFs, Anne Fowler. But he could be a venomed-tongued leader, ruthless in his chastisement of professional shortcomings among his aircrew.
Weeks of low level training now followed as 617 squadron accustomed themselves to flying at lower level than any squadron had done before. Finally, when, on the evening of May 16, 1943, Anne Fowler noticed that the crews for that day's ''night flying programme'' were being served with eggs the tell-tale sign of an ''op'' she realised that a raid was on.
Shannon flew with Gibson in the first of three formations which totalled 19 aircraft. Its first aim was to attack the Mohne Dam which it successfully breached, with three of its bombs as yet unexpended. When the codeword ''Nigger'' a tribute to Gibson's black labrador which had been killed by a car the night before had been flashed back to Grantham to signify the success of this first objective, Gibson flew on with Shannon and his remaining crews to attack the Eder. After only two bombs the dam wall broke open and the codeword ''Dinghy'' told headquarters that the second main objective had been achieved. Gibson and Shannon now turned for home leaving a third dam, the Sorpe, to be damaged by the mobile reserve commanded by 617's big American, Joe McCarthy. It was an astonishing success for such a small force. But the price was high: 56 men missing out of the 133 who had flown out on that night.
Back on the ground, breakfast for the survivors soon turned into a very alcoholic party which stretched on through lunch, dinner and beyond. At some point Shannon proposed to Anne and was accepted but only after she had insisted he get rid of the magnificent moustache he had grown to make himself look older.
Shannon was awarded the DSO for his part in the raid. His medal was presented to him by the King on his 21st birthday, the monarch complimenting him on how ''well preserved'' he was for his age.
Gibson was rested from operations at that point, but for Shannon it was the beginning of a long association with 617, under Gibson's successors: George Holden, ''Micky'' Martin and finally Leonard Cheshire. Shannon flew on 617's toughest assignments and most of them were very tough. ''Bomber'' Harris had decided to use 617 as a ''sniper'' squadron, tackling low-level assignments other squadrons would have found impossible. Among these were the costly sorties to try to breach the strategically important Dortmund-Ems canal. From one of these raids only three out of eight aircraft returned.
When Leonard Cheshire took over 617 and perfected low-level marking techniques, Shannon became one of his most trusted pilots. He took part in the accurate surgical operations against the Gnome-Rhone factory at Limoges and the Juvisy marshalling yards. After D-Day he helped Cheshire mark for the devastating raids on the German E-boat pens. These used another Barnes Wallis invention, the 12,000lb Tallboy ''earthquake'' bomb, which created tidal waves in the pens, pulverising the E-boats and eliminating a dangerous threat to Allied shipping supplying the Normandy beachhead.
One operation Shannon was not sorry he could not participate in was Cheshire's humanitarian scheme to drop food parcels to PoWs in Stalag Luft III deep inside Germany on Christmas Day 1943. Cheshire's idea was that he, Martin and Shannon should sneak in over the camp, drop the parcels and nip out again over the Baltic before the flak defences woke up. Shannon and Martin were even less cheerful about the notion when Cheshire told them that the drop would take place in daylight and that the guns would be taken out of the aircraft to enable them to carry more food parcels. It was a recipe for suicide and Cheshire's two flight commanders hinted as much to their optimistic leader. Luckily for them the plan was utterly vetoed at a higher level. It was thought a certainty that the PoWs would be mown down by German guards as they rushed out to pick up the parcels since their captors would assume it was an arms drop. A crestfallen Cheshire simply could not understand Shannon's gasp of relief when this decision was announced.
Shannon ended his war with two DSOs and two DFCs. Thereafter he had a number of jobs: he worked in oil in Colombia and Kenya and farmed in Suffolk. He had been working on preparations for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Dambuster raid, in May. He was senior member of the committee of the 617 Squadron Association.
His first wife predeceased him and he is survived by his second wife, Eyke, and by a daughter of his first marriage
Australia 
David Shannon's DSO on display at AWM
Originally Posted by Antipodean Andy
United Kingdom 
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