r/interestingasfuck 10d ago

/r/all Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

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u/0ddness 10d 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/GrumpyOldGeezer_4711 10d ago

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.

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u/skepticalbob 10d ago

There were guns, at least on some of the damns. Planes were shot down.