Posted on 05/18/2014 12:59:26 AM PDT by Rummyfan
In the years since the night of May 16-17, 1943 – the night of Operation Chastise – the events that transpired on that moonlit spring night have been made into feature films, documentaries, novels, non-fiction books, magazine articles, dramatic paintings, computer games, marches and comic books. It was a stunning attack deep inside Germany on targets long thought to be unassailable.
On that dark night, lit only by the moon, 133 very young men of 617 Squadron took off in 19 specially-modified Avro Lancaster bombers, formed up and flew extremely low over the English Channel across the Dutch coast.
Having trained for months to deliver a very special weapon, the young men were headed for a date with destiny. The aircraft were to fly low, beneath radar coverage, navigate deep into Germany, locate and attack a series of massive dams on tributaries of the Ruhr River. Behind each of these dams – the Möhne, the Sorpe, the Eder and the Ennepe – were massive reservoirs of water that, it was hoped, would flood factory sites downstream and bring much of Germany's industrial production to a standstill.
(Excerpt) Read more at rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca ...
The inventor of the skipping bombs used in the dam busters raid, Barnes Wallis, also invented the first bunker busting bombs, designed to take out heavily fortified targets like the U-boat pens on the Bay of Biscay.
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/miscellaneous/tallboy/tallboy.html
The wing commander who led the mission was only 24 years old. My father returned from WWII a 24 year old Army major. War makes young men old. May God bless our armed forces and those of our allies.
OH, CANADA! We stand guard for you....
Hand Salute!
My Dad was also 24 and a major in 1945. In photos he & his soldiers all look like they were in their thirties already.
Actors depicting them in modern films about WWII look like babyfaced kids. No comparison at all.
Make-up artists, and actors, have yet to perfect the “thousand yard stare”
Actors depicting them in modern films about WWII look like babyfaced kids. No comparison at all.
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Maybe true when they first hit the ‘area’. But after a couple of firefights etc and observing the quick demise of their comrades, that ‘Thousand Mile Stare’ takes over quickly.
Don’t remember if it was a recent show or movie but one of the Detectives was going undercover as a ‘Hoe’...a veteran ‘Hoe’ was brought in to quickly give her some tips on handling herself and the first thing she did was look in the SYT’s eyes.
The ‘old timer’ explained that NO one in that business for more than a month has ‘bright sparkling eyes’ and the gangster they were trying to set up would spot her immediately.
Well worth watching...suggest you all bookmark it for when you have the time.
OOPS...change that thousand mile state to thousand yard stare...
Same diff but, clarity counts...<:
correct if the actor doesn’t already ‘have it’ makeup has a problem with it.
The one I cited, they did something with her eyes to take the ‘sparkle’ out, after all that was a ‘movie’ depicting ‘real life’ so ‘they’ can do anything....<:
For those who remember the movie...the score is wonderful
My Dad got that thousand yard stare whenever I asked him to tell me about his WWII experiences which included D-Day plus 2, the Bulge, Huertgen Forest, St. Vith, liberating Dachau & walking back sixty miles as the Russians took over their sector. He told me some `Big Picture’ stuff but none of the details.
“Those who have seen the most talk the least.” It’s true.
Read the book and watched the movie years ago. As I recall, the basic idea of getting the altitude right was discovered when the guy was at a play and spied two spotlights on opposing sides of the theater trained on the lead actor. Viola!
You know, I actually got to see a real C-46 close up. In Taipei in 1970 while I was there for a few days trying to hop a ride out space-A.
Really something to see. The rounded nose with segmented glass. Really neat. Exactly like a C-47 as near as I could tell except for the B-29-like nose.
Borderline war crime.
I think that is one of the things about that generation that makes me shiver. These and so many other heroes were just kids.
The American B17 crews of the 8th AF which included my step-dad, had an average age of something like 23-25. Look at the ages of The Tokyo Raiders.
Audie Murphy was awarded EVERY medal for combat bravery in the US arsenal plus a battlefield commission BY AGE 19. Hell, George H. W. Bush was flying torpedo bombers off of carriers at age 18.
The first C-46 dad flew had Nationalist China stars on the wings. It was replaced later with a silver C-46 with Army stars.
He was one of more than a dozen civilian pilots in the CBI. They wore officer’s uniform and jacket with the CBI patch but without rank insignia.
Yes the C-46 looks similar to the C-47, but does not have the graceful lines nor longevity of the latter.
I was with a company called Southern Air Transport operating out of Miami International back in the early 70s and we had a few C-46s. They were an interesting g contrast to our other aircraft, a “civilian” version of the C-130.
Ah! The good old days! Well at least from my perspective of today.
Yes, they truly were the Greatest Generation.
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