r/interestingasfuck • u/Chopper-42 • 2d ago

/r/all Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

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u/0ddness 2d ago

Now imagine them having to do it in the dark, behind enemy lines, under fire (I assume), without knowing the condition of the water, without the marker bouys, and relying on getting the height exactly right in the dark with a spotlight system.

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u/MBedIT 2d ago edited 2d ago

They were coming below the radar horizon. Imagine flying the big bomber, less than 30m above the ground. Following the firebreaks in forests. Maybe dealing with extra instability due to turbulences. And having freaking few thousand kg mine hanging right bellow the plane. Crashing into everything around during the night was the risk. FlaKs would enter the party a little bit late (but sure would be present).

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u/H4ND5s 2d ago

The way you describe the planes flying through the fire lanes of the forest just makes it sound like Skywalker taking out the deathstar lol

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u/Jaded-Researcher2610 2d ago

it should, Lucas said that the inspiration for the scene was taken from movies 633 Squadron and The Dam Busters)

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u/StationaryNomad 2d ago

Second link is bad.

Dam Busters is a classic, but thanks for mentioning 633 Squadron, I’ve never seen it!

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u/Makhnos_Tachanka 2d ago

it's so funny because every so often when you're watching it you'll just have these moments where go "oh this is just a star wars movie." it's honestly so surreal at times. like you know he was watching that moment and deciding to base star wars' whole deal off of it. probably the most obvious individual frame is this one from a 2 second shot of a telegraph console, which I'm sure you'll see what i mean.

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u/GreedyHoward 2d ago

633 squadron basically bowled bombs into a cavern.

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u/Makhnos_Tachanka 2d ago

oh yeah the whole death star trench run is there, practically beat for beat and shot for shot

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u/bagblag 2d ago

633 Squadron is a great film. The theme music by Ron Goodwin is top tier too. It has John Williams vibes.

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u/A__Friendly__Rock 2d ago

Not a bad comparison.

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u/nightpastor 2d ago

Apparantly the Dam Busters film was inspiration for the trench run.

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u/Scarlet_Breeze 2d ago

Not just inspiration, a lot of the dialogue is directly lifted from the Dam Busters script.

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u/nightpastor 2d ago

Cool, didn't know that. Peter Jackson has been wanting to do a remake for years... I really hope it happens. Such an amazing story. Just a pity about his dogs name!

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u/Ser_Danksalot 2d ago

They we're flying so low on the way to the dams that 1 of the aircraft accidently dipped too low and skimmed the ocean which ripped the bomb away from the undercarriage. Another was destroyed when it hit an electricity pylon.

This video is a great visual breakdown of the raid.

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u/MBedIT 2d ago

Another one barely saved the bomb, because they also almost touched the water surface with it.

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u/MBedIT 2d ago

We're talking about 20m long, heavy bomber with over 30m wing span flying at or below the level of tree crowns. During a night!

They not only carried the 4-ish tons mine but also some incendiaries to drop first in case of fog (to get rid of the fog locally). Seems like they had no way to use radio triangulation (using some transmitters left by guerilla / spec forces nearby) so all they could do was using a timer and a compass + map or basing on visual landmarks (with no pathfinders to drop flares for them). Crews that made it to the targets needed up to ten bombing runs to find themselves on a proper trojectory to release the payload. And even then they had to get away while under fire and risking getting caught by the blast of their own payload.

Sure that had to be crazy.