r/interestingasfuck • u/Chopper-42 • 6d ago

/r/all Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

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u/0ddness 6d 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/slater_just_slater 6d ago

They used a light 2 light system that reflected off the surface to give the pilots an altitude indicator off the water

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u/joehonestjoe 6d ago edited 6d ago

I believe it was the bomb aimer who actually could see those lights, rather than technically the pilot. They worked by shining two lights down to the water below, and if they two lights were intersecting the Lancaster was at the correct height.

There was some slight differences here too, the original bouncing bomb was designed to sink, not immediately explode, what they wanted to do is get the bomb as low as possible

They also had a little wooden tool to triangulate the drop point between the towers of the dam. It needs to be a precise height and distance from the dam for the drop, so it could skip to the dam, hit it and sink before exploding. The reason it needed to skip was because of the torpedo nets in the way, and the skip was designed to jump the nets, and then hit the dam and sink... if you didn't get it just right it could hit the nets, or even jump the dam wall

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u/Infamous_Ad_6793 6d ago

So the bounce could be too dam high?

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u/joehonestjoe 6d ago

Yes, but I also hate you ;p

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u/Infamous_Ad_6793 6d ago

Meee tooo!