Möhne Reservoir

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The Möhne Reservoir is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund. The dam was built in 1908-1913 to help control floods, regulate water levels on the Ruhr river downstream, and generate hydropower. Today, the lake is also a tourist attraction. The lake is formed by the damming of two rivers, Möhne and Heve, and with its four basins stores as much as 135 million cubic meters of water.

The dam was destroyed by British bombers ("The Dambusters") during Operation Chastise on the night of 16-17 May, 1943, together with the Edersee dam in northern Hesse. Special bouncing bombs had been constructed which were able to roll over the protective nets that hung in the water. A huge hole of 77 m by 22 m was blown into the dam. The resulting huge floodwave killed between 1,200 and 1,600 people. The effect on the German war effort was minimal, as the dam was fully repaired by October 1943.