Dam Busters raid

[J.D.]

70 years ago tomorrow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22510300" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Listen to the interview with Mickey Martin on the same page. That's Martin on the right of the photo. The others are Maltby and Gibson and I think that might be Bob Hay standing behind Gibson.

For an Australian he sounds awfully British...Nothing like the way he was presented in the movie.

Martin's description echoes the book by Paul Brickhill, which was written in 1951 when things were still a bit sensitive. John Sweetman's book on the subject (published in 1990) presents a slightly different view of the attack.

[smithcorp]

The App!

http://www.thedambusters.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[durbster]

I've read the earlier book but not the latter. Given it was written in 1951 I expected it to be ridiculously jingoistic but it wasn't at all. They've just shown the Lancaster and Spitfires flying over the dams where they practiced on TV and that brought a tear to my eye.

I've got a local radio station on now as they're covering how the raid unfolded in real time from now into the night.

I know I'm a Brit so am skewed on the matter but it must surely be one of the most daring feats of all time. Truly amazing.

[J.D.]

I found the 1951 book a bit too "jolly good show" for me. I think it was the first war book I ever read and I would have been about 10 or 11 at the time.

The 1955 film is virtually the book, word-for-word as I recall.

The 1990 book corrects a lot of minor errors but fundamentally supports the basic story line of the original. I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the crew reports of what they did over the dams; I just found the 1990 version a little more believable. Both books are worth reading and some of the exploits described in the second one are even more hair-raising than the first. One machine returned minus its mine, having clipped a wave on the Dutch coast. Huge amounts of water were scooped up by the back half of the fuselage, flooding the rear turret and soaking the gunner. He also copped the contents of the elsan toilet for his troubles. Somehow, the aircraft stayed airborne and made it home.

I see the raid as a bit of a vignette into the tragedy of the Bomber Command campaign in WWII. The losses of that raid reflect almost exactly those of the war - around 40%, with the vast majority killed. That was exceeded only by the German U-Boat crews who came in at a staggering 75-80% killed. Very few crews who were shot down in the night war survived, mostly due to stupid attitudes on the part of the air staff. Virtually no consideration was given to escaping a crippled machine, so parachutes were little more than extra weight and morale boost. Yet everyone agreed that Germany had to be bombed and time was of the essence.

Must have been a hard thing to do; to climb into a machine you knew was a death trap, to fly off to a destination several hours away, knowing also that you were going to be shot at and that, on average, 5-8% of your comrades would not return. Every night throughout your tour. The mathematics of even surviving 30 missions were pretty poor.

[J.D.]

This is worth a look:

[youtube] [/youtube]

[durbster]

We're not that far from Lincolnshire where the memorial flights are taking place and I've heard a couple of Merlin engines overhead now but haven't seen anything (bit cloudy here). Love it though

You probably know already JD but the remake of the Dambusters film has been in the works for some time now but seems to have been permanently on hold recently. I gather Stephen Fry has written the screenplay (not sure whether thats a good thing or not). One of the issues is the codeword used: "nigger", after Gibson's dog.

[J.D.]

This might interest you Durbs. This is an Upkeep test round which was dropped at Reculver and subsequently recovered. I took the photo at Duxford about 10 years ago. I assume it's still there.

[durbster]

I read the other day that the German's recovered one intact after one of the Lancasters had crashed. Doesn't look much does it, I wonder if they could figure out what it was for and how it worked.

[J.D.]

That would have been the one from Geoff Rice's aircraft, described earlier. He lost it when he got too close to the water but he didn't crash.

It wasn't a complicated device. The Germans were the ones who got the name right. Technically speaking, it wasn't a bomb at all, but a mine or depth charge. Having got that bit right, disarming it was a simpler matter. All they had to do was remove the three hydrostatic pistols (on the other side of the weapon). The would not have found it until after the raid and that would have made identifying it relatively easy.

[J.D.]

You were right Durbs.

The bomb the Germans found came from Barlow's A/C which crashed near Gladbach (according to the doco).

[durbster]

Aye, that's it.

The book I read wasn't just about the dambusters raid and continued documenting the squadron - sinking the Tirpitz and destroying the U-Boat houses after D-Day (edit: after checking, it was more the V3 launch locations). I thought the earthquake bombs Barnes Wallis devised were no less impressive - burrowing into the ground before exploding to wreck the foundations of a building rather than just the structure. I wonder why that technique wasn't developed further.

[J.D.]

The basic concept is still around, with variations. The best known examples are the GBU-28 and the FAE or Fuel/Air Explosive (also known as the "poor man's nuke").

The GBU-28 can penetrate similar amounts of concrete and earth with a smaller and more efficient charge. The FAE can be used against tunnels because it sucks all the air out in such a violent matter that it kills everyone inside instantly. I don't want to go into the details but they were used extensively against Taliban caves in Afghanistan.