Australian pilot Flt Lt. Leslie Gordon Knight DSO and his multi-national crew were members of the elite RAF 617 squadron who became world famous when their successful attack breached the Eder Dam in May 1943 as part of Operation Chastise.
Four months later, they took part in the doomed mission called Operation Garlic. The Lancaster bomber JB144 KC-N was seriously damaged during the attack on the Dortmund-Ems canal at Ladbergen. The aircraft was ablaze, and eyewitnesses saw Knight steer the burning and heavily damaged aircraft away from the village centre of Den Ham. The aircraft crashed in a field on the Janmansweg, just outside Den Ham.
The crew members from Australia, Canada, and England were ordered to bail out, as the young pilot looked for a suitable place to crash-land his aircraft. This heroic and brave sacrifice not only saved Den Ham from certain disaster but also saved the life of his seven-man crew, who all survived the war, thanks to the bravery of local villagers and the Resistance.
All the crew kept in touch with the Knight family following the death of the 22-year-old from Camberwell, Victoria, Australia. The mother of Les Knight sent her son’s christening gown to Canada when she heard the wife of Canadian crew member Harry O’Brien was pregnant with her first child. It arrived just in time for the birth of O’Brien’s daughter, whom he named Leslie after his skipper.