Seventy years since the Lancasters of 617 squadron attacked three dams in the Ruhr Valley with Barnes Wallis' bouncing bombs, and whilst on one level I know it's wrong to glory in war and death, and a lot of people died 70 years ago on both sides, it's hard not to be amazed at the audacity of the mission. Luke skimming down the Death Star trench has nothing on those guys... I'm biased 'cos I'm British, and because I grew up watching war films and reading war comic books (as I suspect most boys of my age did) but still, hearing the Dambusters March played earlier whilst one of the last remaining Lancs taxied to a halt really did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I wonder if Peter Jackson ever will remake the film?
I had considered starting apost on this very topic, but I stpped myself, for the reasons you mentioned amongest others. Yes it was a great technical achievment, flying at 60ft with nothing but a couple of spotlights to tell them they were at 60ft, a bouncing bomb. Though do we really glorify war when we mark these days? Or is it a way of commerating those who fought for our freedoms? Perhaps in this case it is because it's the 70th anniverdsary of the raid it is getting attention, will the 71st anniversary garner as much attention? Think about it the 68th Anniversarry of VE day passed by just over a week ago, and I don't recall seeing a thread about it. In many respects perhaps the one day in the UK outside of Remembrance Day and/or Remberance Sunday that perhaps gets a bit of attention would be the 15th September Battle of Britain Day.
No we don't glorify war - we remember the sacrifice that was made by those who served. Also have to remember that aim of the raid was to shorten the war. Unfortunately history has shown it didn't. Had they breached the 3rd dam (The Sorpe?) I think would have been very different. People tend to look at the big anniversary rather than the the in-between. People will remember a 60 and 70th and but something like a 68th tends to pass people by unless it's something commemorated annually with something special. But people tend to remember the special instances of "daring-do" sometimes over the big events such as VE day. As for the Dambusters, I have a Dambusters t-shirt but wore it yesterday not today. T-shirt was a present from the wife though more from liking the Lancasters (had two great uncles who flew them, one of who's ashes were scattered at Scampton). Would have loved to see one flying but the one the flew in to CFB Trenton wasn't able to fly on the day because of technical problems but did get to go aboard. And any stories you heard about the wing spare being difficult to climb over at true.
There was an episode of Ice Pilots where they tried to recreate the effect of the bomb bouncing across the water. It was rather interesting. It's up on Youtube if you search for it.
I think it is just a case of it being a big number. And it isn't just war. They're celebrating 50 years of Dr Who this year, just as they celebrated 50 years of Bond in 2012. Like you say, no one really cares about the 49th or the 51st. Well this still seems to be up for debate. Dan Snow's written a very interesting article here and I think he talks a lot of sense. Yes the Germans rebuilt the dams very quickly, but they had to retask an awful lot of resourses from other areas to do it, notably diverting men and material from the defence of France. And like he says, the propaganda impact can't be underestimated. If they had breached the third dam though, well who knows...
I live in a small village in the Midlands. I guess because of it's location it's often used as a waypoint for military aircraft getting from one place to another. Yesterday afternoon I was astonished and delighted when the Lancaster went over head.
Somebody is going to, let's face it. It's a great film and a great story that would engage with modern audiences and make a really good basis for a remake.
Pictures of the majority of aircrew that took part. It's interesting how the film skews your understanding of the men involved. Because of Richard Todd I'd always seen Guy Gibson as a man in his mid thirties, he was just 24 in reality, which practically made him an old man in bomber crew terms.
The Dambusters is one of my favourite WWII films, along with Sink the Bismark. Some time ago I read that Peter Jackson wanted to remake it and I wondered at the time, if he did, would he ever make his money back? Older farts like me, who grew up on WWII films would certainly go but I don't know if it would hold any interest for many people 40 or younger.
We'll I've enjoyed some of the older WWII films The Dambusters Sink The Bismark Battle of Britain Tora! Tora! Tora! Patton Battle of the Bulge Battle of the River Plate The Longest Day. To name a few. And yes I'm under 40, but only by a few years.
No The Compass Rose/The Cruel Sea?. there was a documentary series on the Dambusters raid made a few years back - anyone else see it? Finally wasn't till much later after reading it that I found out that even with the talking with 617 survivors that Paul Brickhill's book wasn't that accurate because of there was still a lot of secrecy surrounding it.
I can never watch Battle of the Bulge without wondering how the Panzer divisions managed to push so deep toward Phoenix or Tucson, or wherever they filmed the European desert scenes. Someone should make a remastered version and use CGI to at least add snow, and trees, and roads, and some houses.
^ Unless they remake it for a modern audience (which would either be pretty pathetic or so altered into a "Saving Private Ryan" that it would be an entirely different movie that just happened to be set in the same historical battle), it would probably fail badly at the box office despite costing a very large sum to make, since such a movie requires a pretty big cast and expensive sets. It would probably be very inexpensive to make CGI alterations so the existing movie version of "Battle of the Bulge" isn't so historically inaccurate (American tanks battling newer American tanks in Arizona or something), which might work well financially because it would be going direct to cable anyway. Sometimes you have to ask yourself "What Would George Lucas Do?" Then ask yourself "What Would Quentin Tarantino Do?" Then ask yourself "What Would Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay Do?" Then ask yourself "What Would Steven Spielberg Do?" Then don't do any of those things because you have too much taste and too small a budget and just update the scenery and the tanks in the original movie.
Great for moral but intact had little effect against the nazis industrial heartland. Watch the classic 'world at war' which states this. Undoubtably a remarkable technical achievement and a great movie. I have to say to say it gets a little tiring to read stories about WWII and hitler at least once a week in the papers 70 years later.