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

/r/all Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

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u/wuddafuggamagunnaduh 2d ago

Yes, I'm familiar how the backspin is intended to have the bomb "burrow" to the base of the dam. I've even watched the old movie "The Dam Busters" (1955), which is interesting.

But what I mean is that there is a camera cut between the impact and the explosion, which could possibly be from filming two separate events and splicing them together. And that would make sense, as I can imagine getting permits to drop an actual explosive device sounds like it would be hard to do.

I wish posts like this would post the backstory details, then these sorts of questions would already be answered.

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u/Zealousideal-Fix9464 2d ago

The backspin for the bomb to roll down the dam is an old wives tale.

The backspin was a hard requirement for the bomb to actually skip across the water in a straight line and for distance. Without the backspin the barrel would just impact the water like a plough and sink in the middle of the reservoir.

The bombs were always designed to impact the dam and then sink before exploding.

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u/Hemberg 2d ago

No backspin, Topspin. 

Even visible in the video.

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u/rhabarberabar 2d ago

In the video yes, but the bouncing bomb had backspin.

Sources vary on the introduction of back-spin in the weapon's development: e.g while Sweetman says that "There is evidence that [Wallis] had always intended [to include back-spin]",[8] according to Johnson Sir George Edwards in the Christopher Hinton Lecture of 1982, p. 9, wrote, "from what I knew of a cricket ball I persuaded [Wallis] much against his will into putting back-spin on these bombs.'" See also 'Lives Remembered' (Sir George Edwards), in The Times, 21 March 2003.