Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who led the raid on the German dams in 1943, the raid pictured in the feature film "The Dambusters," was twenty-four years old. Our host, the relaxed but earnest Jonathan Martin, a pilot himself, visits the now-derelict room that was Gibson's office and tries to put himself in the place of a young man who was about to lead nineteen Lancaster bombers on a mission from which only eleven would return. Musing on his own tension before a flight, he tries to imagine Gibson's anxiety. "It doesn't compute," he concludes.
The raid was probably the most popular RAF operation of the war, an intricate and dangerous business. The participants became justly celebrated. It's not necessary to describe the mission in detail.
This documentary serves as a kind of "erratum" to the feature film, correcting a number of inaccuracies that resulted from the strictures of dramatizing the story or from the fact that some of the details, like the size and shape of the bomb, were still classified in 1953.
The corrections are mostly minor. For instance, the bombardiers didn't all use the cheap wooden triangles as they do in the film. Guy Gibson isn't struck by lightning while watching a stage show featuring dual spotlight and come up with the idea of using such a set-up as a rough altimeter. Barnes Wallace didn't come up with the plan to bomb the dams. Such plans had been in the works before war broke out. And the commander, Guy Gibson, wasn't the affable Richard Todd we see in the movie. Gibson himself was distant and authoritarian, demanding salutes and smart uniforms.
Jonathan Martin serves as navigator on a twin engined airplane that retraces the route of one of the Dambuster flights. The breach of the Mohne Dam caused roughly 1,600 death, more than half of them forced foreign laborers. The damage was repaired and the raid didn't materially affect German war production.
The raid was probably the most popular RAF operation of the war, an intricate and dangerous business. The participants became justly celebrated. It's not necessary to describe the mission in detail.
This documentary serves as a kind of "erratum" to the feature film, correcting a number of inaccuracies that resulted from the strictures of dramatizing the story or from the fact that some of the details, like the size and shape of the bomb, were still classified in 1953.
The corrections are mostly minor. For instance, the bombardiers didn't all use the cheap wooden triangles as they do in the film. Guy Gibson isn't struck by lightning while watching a stage show featuring dual spotlight and come up with the idea of using such a set-up as a rough altimeter. Barnes Wallace didn't come up with the plan to bomb the dams. Such plans had been in the works before war broke out. And the commander, Guy Gibson, wasn't the affable Richard Todd we see in the movie. Gibson himself was distant and authoritarian, demanding salutes and smart uniforms.
Jonathan Martin serves as navigator on a twin engined airplane that retraces the route of one of the Dambuster flights. The breach of the Mohne Dam caused roughly 1,600 death, more than half of them forced foreign laborers. The damage was repaired and the raid didn't materially affect German war production.
