Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Posted on 05/16/2008 2:03:23 PM PDT by Stoat
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Thanks for the great post, Stoat. The Dambusters raid and the sacrifice of those who participated should be remembered by all who fought the Axis powers.
Cool pics! Wish more of those aircraft were still flying.
Cool...thanks for posting
Can some of you WW2 buffs can tell me the how the Lancaster compared to other WW2 bombers? Both allies and axis.
“Two dams were destroyed, but eight aircraft and 53 men were lost.”
What a massive failure. Better bring the troops home now. Oops, wrong war.
Thanks indcons for the ping, and thanks Stoat for the topic.
‘Two dams were destroyed, but eight aircraft and 53 men were lost.’
“What a massive failure. Better bring the troops home now.”
Dingy Harry - is that you? /just kidding
You’re welcome, Sunken Civ
If the movie was factual, there were some ingenious methods used to allow this. Flying that bird that low at an exact speed and an exact height and releasing the bomb (which was spinning backward in the bomb bay) at the exact instant were needed for the plan to work.
Altimeters were useless at that height and they were stumped - until (in the movie anyway) Gibson was at a stage show and noticed how they used the spotlights to illuminate the actress. So, they mounted an angled spotlight on each wing, calibrated to meet at exactly 65 feet. The movie shows one of the crew talking the pilot down until there was only one light on the water.
The dam had two widely seperated towers, so they came up with the "Two Penny" bombsight. It was a "Y"-shaped stick with a handle. At each end of the "Y" they inserted a nail; the distance being calibrated so that at the exact distance the towers would line up with the nails. The bombardier held it up to his eye during the approach and when the towers lined up, he dropped the bomb.
The speed was the only thing that was determined by "regular" instruments.
The bomb had to be rotated backward so it wouldn't bounce erratically and was something like a depth charge in that it was hydrostatically set off, so it would cause the most damage at the base of the dam.
I think they lost a few planes on the way to the dam and at least one more in the attack. When one of the planes made a successful drop despite the horrific AA fire, he came in again with the next bomber to help draw away the enemy fire.
Gutsy guys. Glad to see Todd still alive and kicking - he always gave a good performance. Sad though, to see the UK in her current Politically Correct state after seeing the caliber of people she could field in a war.
Gibson was killed in 1944 when his Mosquito crashed in Holland. He didn't have to fly again but he was desperate to get back in the air and Bomber Harris finally relented. None of Gibson's bomber crew survived the war - they crashed while trying to bomb the Dortmund Ems Canal in late 1943. Of 19 planes on the original mission, 11 came back. Seventy-seven crewmembers were lost and only one of them survived, which is why the dams, which were quickly repaired, were never bombed again.
Watch the movie for a stirring experience.
Strafe the crowd? Somethin?
;)
;’)
Beautiful photos. The Spitfire is probably the most beautiful fighter of WW II.
The Spitfire and the Mustang were both beautiful aircraft.
It's hard to believe it's been almost five years since we ran this thread! Not all the pics are still there but some really good ones are.
Mine too. He flew the Burma Hump.
Wasn’t it 617 Squadron that sank the TIRPITZ with the 12,000 lb ‘Tall Boy’ bombs?
FYI there was a yank or two on the raid, if I recall.
Durn time flies!
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