page_title: Joe McCarthy (RCAF officer)
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Joe McCarthy (RCAF officer) / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy (fourth from left) and his crew of No. 617 Squadron (The Dambusters) at RAF Scampton, 22 July 1943. The crew of Lancaster ED285/`AJ-T' sitting on the grass, posed under stormy clouds. Left to right: Sergeant G Johnson; Pilot Officer D A MacLean, navigator; Flight Lieutenant J C McCarthy, pilot; Sergeant L Eaton, gunner. In the rear are Sergeant R Batson, gunner; and Sergeant W G Ratcliffe, engineer.Missing from the photo is Flying Officer Dave Rodger, the rear gunner.
context_page_description: Joseph Charles "Big Joe" McCarthy, DSO, DFC & Bar, CD was an American aviator who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Bomber Command during World War II. He is best known as the commander and pilot of Lancaster AJ-T in Operation Chastise, the "Dambuster" raid of 1943.
context_section_description: McCarthy was most known for flying with No. 617 Squadron RAF, including the Dams Raid in 1943. By the time of the raid he had already taken part in thirty bombing sorties over Germany, including three over Berlin. McCarthy and his crew flew with the second wave of Lancasters, but he had to take a spare aircraft after his failed. T-Tommy was the only aircraft of the second wave to attack a target – the Sorpe Dam, which had to be attacked with an Upkeep bomb directly without it bouncing. Despite the bomb hitting the target, the dam was not breached.
  He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in 1943 for service with No. 97 Squadron RAF, a Distinguished Service Order in the same year for the dams raid, and a Bar to the DFC in 1944.
  He was mentioned but not portrayed in the 1955 film The Dam Busters, which focuses mostly on the first wave that breached the Möhne and Eder dams.
  McCarthy is also fondly mentioned throughout Johnny Johnson's autobiography The Last Dambuster.
caption: Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy (fourth from left) with his crew from Lancaster ED285/'AJ-T' at RAF Scampton, 22 July 1943.
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