The Dougout

Gibson had only two months to whip his crews into shape. By some reports he was a "hardass" as a commander. However, there is no arguing with success. On May 16, 1943 nineteen Avro Lancasters took off for their targets. All their tough training would payoff on this raid. The mission required the highest of flying skills from pilots and crew.

The bombers made their approach to the target at night. They came in over the lakes formed by the dams at 60 feet and had to time the release of their bombs just right. The specially designed bombs were cylindrical in shape. The bombs were mounted on a special frame in the bomber that rotated the bombs that helped them skip across the water and into the side of the dams. The results were spectacular.



Of the nineteen Lancasters which particiapated in the raid eight did not return. Fifty-six men were lost. More on the 617 squadron is availble here. Of course, never wanting to be left out of a good scrap the Australians were represented in the aircraft crews.

Peter Jackson has now announced plans to film a remake of the classic The Dam Busters made in 1954:

New Zealand film director Peter Jackson is set to film a remake of the World War 2 film The Dam Busters, with a budget of almost $300 million dollars, according to a British Sunday newspaper.

Jackson recently spent a day filming one of the last surviving Lancaster bombers in preparation for the remake of the much-loved 1954 black-and-white film, which starred Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson and Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis, who invented the bouncing bomb.

The new report should have mentioned, but didn't, that the original was based on Paul Brickhill's book of the same title. Brickhill also wrote The Great Escape. Brickhill was a POW during World War II and was at Stalag Luft III.

Brickhill also wrote the classic (notice how I have to describe most of Brickhill's work as "classic") Reach For the Sky. This book is a biography of Douglas Bader, Britain's legendary legless fighter pilot:

After triumphing over adversity and regaining his destined place, the legless pilot then excelled as leader, fighter, and innovator. Bader rebuilt a demoralized squadron, devised new fighter tactics and formations, and fought gallantly in the Battle of Britain. After colliding with a German Me-109, he sat out the remaining three years as a prisoner of war at Colditz Castle, near Leipzig, Germany, repeatedly testing the reputation of the fortress as an escape proof prison. At the conclusion of World War II, Bader returned to Shell (the downsized RAF had lost the clubby atmosphere) and spent time with other people without one or more limbs, motivating them not to let a handicap become a disability. Brickhill’s book became a movie, and Bader wrote his autobiography in 1973.

You read that right, the guy with two artificial legs was such an escape artist that the Germans had to send him to Colditz.

Bader, fourth from right.

# posted by Grant Jones @ 1:27 PM