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Post by Steve on Jun 9, 2011 22:54:15 GMT -6
Some side fun.... If there was one secret project it's seems even more secret than 'Operation Chastise' itself, it is the remake of the classic 1954 war film 'the Dambusters' dramatizing the famous aviation wartime exploit, produced and possibly being directed too by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings). Filming has begun, and a release date of the film was announced some time ago for 2011 (?). Like his Lord of the Rings trilogy, it is being filmed in New Zealand. The Dambusters (1954) is admittedly my all time favorite war film. Seen it...what? 70? 80 times since I was a kid? Recently even a new Canadian documentary film about the creation of the famous spinning 'Upkeep' bomb and Cambridge university senior lecturer/ professor Dr. Hugh Hunt reproducing the Barnes Wallis experiment. The Firebomber pilot on the first time pass hits the practice Dam target 1/25th the size of the original Möhne Dam dead center. Amazing watching the skipping concrete bomb once again. It really works! "Right on Saigon!" ;D www.firstshowing.net/2009/stephen-fry-is-writing-peter-jacksons-dambusters-remake/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dam_Busters_(film)Beer commercial inspired by the classic film ;D
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Post by skywalker on Jun 10, 2011 0:07:33 GMT -6
I don't believe I have ever seen The Dambusters. It sounds interesting though. Is it based on a true story?
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Post by Steve on Jun 10, 2011 18:36:20 GMT -6
I don't believe I have ever seen The Dambusters. It sounds interesting though. Is it based on a true story? The DVD movie is available to buy or rent. Oh Yes, it did happen. Now the stuff of legend. Probably one of the most extraordinary flying exploits of the Second World War. They knocked down two of the three dams they had gone for to attack. The third dam was only damaged, (an earth dam), the special bomb not designed for such a dam...Upkeep was designed to destroy only concrete and masonary structures. The unique feature was the bombs spin.... which when striking the wall of the dam, because of it's spin, hugged the dam wall. This way, a smaller explosive charge could be used, positioning the explosion directly against the dam wall - using the sheer weight of the water behind it then to work in the bombs favor. A very clever and unique means of weapon delivery by Barnes Wallis. As actor Michael Rennie as Barnes Wallis explains, the bomb was a question of gravity and mathematics. The bomb delivered with great coolness under fire at night low over water had to be dropped at a exact speed, height, and distance from the dam wall. The feature film explains well how this was done. This link explains better in great detail the famous raid.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_ChastiseThe movie explains very well about the whole thing. There are a few historical inaccuracies, but on the whole, the 1955 feature film tells the story remarkably accurately... When the 1955 film was made, the size and shape of the Upkeep bomb was still secret with the Ministry of Defense. In the film, a spherical shape to the bomb was implied. In reality, years later after the bombs shape was declassified, it was a simple oil drum shape device. Each of the enormous Lancaster bombers could carry only one bomb each. Of the 21 bomber crews that took part in the raid, 8 crews did not return. (56 men). Initial German casualty estimates from the floods when the dams broke were about 1,294 killed, which included 749 French, Belgian, Dutch and Ukrainian prisoners of war and labourers. The disruption to Nazi industry in the Ruhr Valley was tremendous, but only temporary. Steve
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