Australian edition of the book. None were interested so Brickhill was forced to decline Nerney's offer. At the same time Brickhill had been approached by John Pudney who had recently joined London based publisher Evans Brothers as an editor with a proposal to write a book on the Stalag Luft 3 mass escape. This was eventually to be published as The Great Escape. With the advance that Evans Brothers offered Brickhill he left his job and sailed to England in May 1949. Once in England he a wrote to Air Chief Marshall Sir Ralph Cochrane of the RAF who had been responsible for 617 Squadron during World War II and inquiring about the status of the proposed history offered his services if they were still required. His offer was accepted. Brickhill approached Evans Brothers about an advance for the Dam Busters book, but they were not interested in any advance until they had seen a manuscript. Already working on The Great Escape Brickhill also commenced simultaneous work on The Dam Busters. While visiting Germany as part of his research for The Great Escape, Brickhill took the opportunity to visit the Ruhr valley to see the dams attacked during Operation Chastise. While he was obliged to write a history of the squadron, Brickhill looked for a common factor throughout its wartime service that would make it more attractive to the general public. As the squadron had had a number of commanding officers including Guy Gibson, Harold Martin and Leonard Cheshire this was not helpful in maintaining the continuity of the narrative. Eventually he discovered that not only was Barnes Wallis involved with the squadron in developing the bouncing bombs used during Operation Chastise but he had also designed the Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs used by the squadron later in the war. After meeting with Wallis in the summer of 1950 he decided that here was the book's central figure, a driven man who overcame great odds set against the tragedy of the heavy losses that the squadron endured. He delivered the draft manuscript to Evans Brothers at the end of 1950. Publication The first (September 1951) edition did not include some of the details of the dam-raids, as these were still classified at the time, most significantly that the weapons bounced on the water surface before reaching the target. Later editions included these details. The book has remained continuously in