There can't be anyone here who hasn't watched the classic film "The Dambusters"
As a result there can't be anyone here who can't remember the scene where BW's kids were helping him shoot marbles, and the scenes of the perceived madman in the ship tanks at Teddington.
Who wouldn't want these!
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11337874/Dambusters-bouncing-bomb-sight-and-marbles-to-be-auctioned.html
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The RAF might want them back :S
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>> Who wouldn't want these!
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Me. What would you do with them?
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"What would you do with them?"
More junk for the garage?
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The whole Dambusters thing was completely over-hyped, both at the time and in the film.
*(Nothing could overstate the insane bravery of the RAF crews who flew in the mission.)*
Understandable then, as a much needed morale booster, but the damage to the dam was repaired very quickly. I visited the Möhne Dam a couple of years ago and there are quite a few photos and descriptions there of the damage and its speedy repair.
There were, I think, about 1200 civilian casualties and obviously some disruption to downstream factories, but not as much as was claimed.
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One of the legacies of the raid was the Protocol added to the Geneva convention in 1949 which
forbids the attacking of amongst other installations, dams, where such an "attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses amongst the civilian population."
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 13 Jan 15 at 11:13
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>> The whole Dambusters thing was completely over-hyped, both at the time and in the film.
Not sure I'd go with over hyped but it was part of a whole range of 'strategic raid' type initiatives that would theoretically cripple Germany's war industry. Another was factories producing ball bearings, Skoda at Pilsen (tanks?) and plants producing oil from coal.
It's also probably true to add that whatever the impact of the Dams raid it set 617 on course as a special operations squadron.
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Whilst the raid might have had a limited strategic impact, its effect on morale at that stage of the war cannot be underestimated.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Tue 13 Jan 15 at 13:37
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...cannot be underestimated.
Don't think that's what you mean, HM; suggests it was trivial. 'Cannot be overstated', perhaps, or 'should not be underestimated '.
};---)
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I did mean the latter of your two suggestions will, thank you.
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It didn't quite have the impact but a little better executed, as in a concentration of force rather than seperation and it would have devestated the Ruhr and it's industry.
The same with ball bearings, just before D-Day, the germans had nearly run out of ball bearings a few more weeks and the factories would have been stopped.
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617 Squadron also went on to sink the Tirpitz near Tromso and destroy the V2 and V3 sites in France.
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>> 617 Squadron also went on to sink the Tirpitz near Tromso and destroy the V2
>> and V3 sites in France.
As I said above they had a life beyond the Dams raid as a 'crack' squadron and using Wallace's later Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs.
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>> 617 Squadron also went on to sink the Tirpitz near Tromso
or IX Sqn.
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A pilot friend of mine visited the dams with friends flying a twin engined plane. They plotted a course to fly the route the Lancs took visiting each dam in order. He was amazed at how hard it was to line the plane up over the water on approach and gives huge credit to the pilots who flew at such low levels in much bigger planes with 100 foot wingspans in some cases only metres from wooded hillsides. IN fact they had to go around a few times to practice so much so the German ATC asked them what they were doing and what their flight plan was. Apparently there was silence for a while when they radioed back with the names of the dams.
Whilst the damage to the dams was quickly repaired, it has been sugested that troops were mobilised to protect the dams from possible future attacks and that this deployment took troops away from other duties elsewhere.
Every little helped.
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low level flying and dead reckoning at night... they showed the way ..moonlight for guidance gets 5 stars in my book
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The Dambusters. - Fullchat
