The Dam Busters - the amazing heroics of 617 squadron

I was sitting at home on a raining Sunday afternoon with my laptop computer perched on my knees working on my resume to send out to prospective employers when The Dam Busters showed up on the title menu. I was quickly on the phone to my old man, he wasn't going to miss this even though he had seen the movie on plenty of occasions.

As a young punk I had read Paul Brickhall's book of the same name so I knew exactly what this 1955 movie was based upon. Naturally, Brickhall's book is based on real events, this is a true story complete with photographs of the main players, aircrews and the amazing aircraft. In putting his case forward to procure resources, my favourite scene of the movie played out "What possible argument could I put forward to convince them to loan you a Wellington Bomber? Barnes Wallis replied "What if you told them I designed it, do you think that could help?" Needless to say, Wallis got his aircraft.

The full-throated roar of the four V12 Rolls Royce Merlin 1280 horsepower engines powering the Avro Lancaster is spine tingling, it must have been amazing to witness these aircraft in flight. We have a Lancaster bomber at the Aviation Heritage Museum in Perth, the Lancaster was flown to Australia and then left out in the weather before eventually being moved to the museum, but unfortunately I have never heard the engines roar to life. The scene in the movie with the Lancaster engines firing up as they departed on their mission still gets me excited.

The bouncing bomb, actually a mine as it detonates at depth was required to skip across the water and had to be dropped from an altitude of 60 feet, that's 18 metres - unreal. At that altitude the altimeter wasn't accurate enough so two spotlights mounted at the rear of the bomb bay, the bomb doors had been removed to mount the bouncing bomb. The spotlight beams converged at 60 feet, yep, they were flying over water at night with their lights on under fire from German defensive positions to position the aircraft for the bomb drop.

On the flight over and back, there was anti-aircraft fire, interception from German fighter aircraft and ground based fire. Strategic Bomber Command had horrendous losses during the war, this highly secret mission just multiplied the danger. 617 Squadron was formed in 1943 with highly experienced personnel from the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force with Guy Gibson as Wing Commander.

There are no spoilers here, everyone knows the mission was a success despite heavy losses as eight aircraft were lost each with seven crew members with only three survivors out of fifty six men. The dams were busted, German industry disrupted, military assets diverted to protect and the Second World War was arguably shortened. The aircrews are amazing, they are a bunch of people I have the upmost respect for all or these aircrews and as ANZAC Day approaches, we remember their sacrifice.