Dinghy Young

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Squadron Leader Henry Melvin "Dinghy" Young, DFC & Bar (20 May 1915 – 17 May 1943) was a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Born in Belgravia, London, to Henry George Melvin Young and Fannie Rowan Young, he was educated at Amesbury School, Westminster School, Kent School in Connecticut, and Trinity College, Oxford. He helped Oxford win the 1938 Boat Race. He earned the nickname "Dinghy" after twice landing at sea in inflatable dinghies.

Young joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1938 and began operational training after the war began. In June 1940 he joined No. 102 Squadron RAF, flying Whitley bombers. He had to ditch his aircraft twice in dinghies during missions: once over the Atlantic on 7 October 1940 after engine trouble, spending 22 hours in a dinghy before rescue; and a second time in the English Channel south of Plymouth.

He completed his first operational tour in February 1941 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). After a period in a training unit, he was promoted to squadron leader and joined 104 Squadron in September 1941, flying Vickers Wellingtons in Egypt and Malta, earning a Bar to his DFC on completion of that tour.

In 1942 he served in Washington, D.C. with the RAF Delegation, then returned to the UK to train as a Lancaster pilot with a new crew. In March 1943 he joined 57 Squadron as a flight commander and soon afterward transferred to 617 Squadron, formed for Operation Chastise, the raid on German dams in the Ruhr.

On the night of 16/17 May 1943, Young flew Lancaster ED877 / AJ-A, "A-Apple," as second in command in the first wave against the Möhne Dam. The raid was led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. A-Apple hit the dam, but on the return journey the aircraft was shot down near Castricum-aan-Zee. All seven crew members died and were buried in the Bergen General Cemetery, North Holland.

Young had married Priscilla Rawson in 1942 while he was in Washington; she remained in the United States after he returned to the UK. In the 1955 film The Dam Busters, he was portrayed by Richard Leech.