# 'Dam Busters: Building The Bouncing Bomb' upcoming TV show



## jollyjacktar (28 Apr 2011)

Shared with the usual caveats.  Looks like an interesting program to watch out for, especially if you're a fan of Ice Pilots.  Full story and photos, video at link below.

The daring Dambusters raid was one of the most audacious in World War II. But can a team of engineers recreate it 70 years on?

The daring 'Dambusters' night-time raid when the RAF bombed three heavily defended dams deep in Nazi Germany is the stuff of legend.  The attack in the country's industrial heartland was immortalised in the 1955 film and starred Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis the inventor of the 'bouncing bomb' which was used to such devastating effect.  The bravery of the 19 Lancaster bomber crews that fateful night on May 16, 1943, is well documented but the science behind the mission has never been fully understood as research papers were for decades shrouded in secrecy.

But now Dr Hugh Hunt, an engineer from Cambridge, has for a Channel 4 documentary attempted to show just how skilled Barnes Wallis was to engineer such a devastating device by  bouncing a bomb across water in Canada in an attempt to blow up a make-shift dam. 

Dr Hunt told the Daily Telegraph: 'Nothing describes accurately what happened, because it was so shrouded in secrecy during the war that none of the information was available for 30 years afterwards, and since then a lot of the information has been lost.'   'So we thought the best way to figure out how it was done was just to do it.' 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1381486/Dambusters-documentary-recreates-science-WW2s-audacious-bombing-raid.html#ixzz1KrXTTdsZ


----------



## Dissident (28 Apr 2011)

You have my attention.


----------



## Old Sweat (28 Apr 2011)

As mentioned in the first post, the details of the bomb were classified. The "bomb" in the fifties movie (and in the model of Guy Gibson's Lancaster I built as a kid) bore no resemblence to the actual weapon. A few of us, well Edward and I, served a few kilometres from the Mohne See in the sixties and one could see where the dam was patched after the raid. For whatever it is worth, Wing Commander Gibson certainly earned his VC for flying his Lancaster back at the dam a second time in a mock attack with landing lights on and machine-guns blaszing to distract the German AA from the aircraft making the actual attack. 

Per Ardua Ad Astra


----------



## mariomike (28 Apr 2011)

The raid was a major achievement. Albert Speer seemed astonished that Harris did not attack the vital Sorpe dam ( with the bombs used on the much less important, but easier to destroy, Eder dam ), whatever the cost. The effect upon the Ruhr's industrial production would have been extremely serious. The Dams seemed to be a genuine Achilles' Heel for Germany. As were Schweinfurt and Hamburg. But, they were allowed to recover. Harris seemed obsessed with Berlin*, which impressed Stalin, but where the odds were impossible. 
* 16 major raids between 19 Nov 1943 to 31 Mar 1944
My  :2c:


Edit ( )


----------



## Haletown (28 Apr 2011)

Any idea if/when this will air on this side of the pond ?


----------



## Red Devil (28 Apr 2011)

A few years ago Carling(the beer people) ran the following advert in England based on the exploits of the famous Dambusters - enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWZVDiVvKsg


----------



## jollyjacktar (29 Apr 2011)

mariomike said:
			
		

> The raid was a major achievement. Albert Speer seemed astonished that Harris did not attack the vital Sorpe dam ( with the bombs used on the much less important, but easier to destroy, Eder dam ), whatever the cost. The effect upon the Ruhr's industrial production would have been extremely serious. The Dams seemed to be a genuine Achilles' Heel for Germany. As were Schweinfurt and Hamburg. But, they were allowed to recover. Harris seemed obsessed with Berlin*, which impressed Stalin, but where the odds were impossible.
> * 16 major raids between 19 Nov 1943 to 31 Mar 1944
> My  :2c:
> 
> ...



I did read somewhere that the cost of the raid to Bomber Command in terms of veteran crews lost and aircraft was too high for the end results.  Germany did lose some of their production capability but they recovered faster than expected.  The author of the article said it was a Pyrrhic victory for Harris.  Nevertheless, I am in awe of their bravery in facing what they did.


----------



## mariomike (29 Apr 2011)

jollyjacktar said:
			
		

> The author of the article said it was a Pyrrhic victory for Harris.



Privately, Harris expressed little enthusiasm for the raid:

"For years we have been told that the destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams alone would be a vital blow to Germany. I have seen nothing in the present circumstances or in the Ministry of Economic Warfare reports to show that the effort was worthwhile." 

"The destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams was to achieve wonders. It achieved nothing compared with the effort and the loss. The material damage was negligible compared with one small area attack." 

"tripe beyond the wildest description. There are so many ifs and buts that there is not the smallest chance of it working."

"putting aside Lancasters and reducing our effort on this wild goose chase". The war, he warned, "will be over before it works and it never will". 

"just about the maddest proposition as a weapon we have yet to come across".

"any diversion of Lancasters at this critical moment",  "I am prepared to bet my shirt" that the bomb could not be produced within six months and "will not work when we have got it".

He hoped that the new weapon's enthusiasts would be "given one aeroplane to go away and play while we get on with the war". 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6033603/Bomber-Harris-thought-the-Dambusters-attacks-on-Germany-achieved-nothing.html

Berlin was his focus: "We can wreck Berlin from end to end if the USAAF will come in on it. It will cost between 400 - 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war."


----------



## Colin Parkinson (29 Apr 2011)

They built a working full scale model and attached it to a DC-6 which they were dropping on the Willistion Reservoir for the filming of this. I have the plans, (We had to approve portions of the project) asked if I could share them, but they said not until the show is out. I will ask them again once the show has aired for a bit.


----------

