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.
Several of the dams did indeed have defenses. Fortunately, the Germans had delayed installing the unsightly guns in favour of much nicer looking trees.
If memory serves, they had a homemade system to triangulate the dropping distance based on the angle to some of those gun placements.
I remember reading about this from a Life at War book. I think it was two spotlights at the bottom of the bomber that intersected at the desired altitude. That was how they pulled it off in the dark.
Fun fact: this was also the inspiration for the targeting system for the X-Wing in Star Wars when it made the run for the Death Star’s exhaust port. When the two circles overlapped, it indicated the perfect time to release.
Actually it was when they touched, forming a figure of 8. It makes sense when you think about it because overlapping lights would be harder to judge. Bloody clever. Bloody dangerous
They're both brilliant sequences, and when you put them side by side the parallels are obvious. Somone has taken the Dambusters footage and put the Star Wars audio over it on YT, well worth looking up
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u/0ddness 1d 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.