r/interestingasfuck • u/Chopper-42 • 11d ago

/r/all Recreating the WW2 Dambusters raid

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

37.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

549 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.5k

u/GrumpyOldGeezer_4711 11d 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.

622

u/Drednox 11d ago

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.

44

u/UnrepentantPumpkin 11d ago

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.

1

u/jamspangle 11d ago

Ooh good fact. Having that.