Dambusters Footage

[rgmwa]

Interesting colourised footage of this well known story. A lot of it looks like real footage but some looks like AI to me. 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 02:52 PM by rgmwa

[440032]

We had a guy in the local aero club who as a young boy in England, sat up on a hill watching them practice the craft and he said nobody really had much idea of what they were up to.

[onetrack]

Quite a good video, but the AI sections fail to show just how dark and often foggy, the landscape was. I wasn't aware that AJ-Y returned with its bomb intact, due to damage to its rear turret and weather stopping them from finding the target.

Nothing is mentioned as to whether AJ-Y landed with the bomb still aboard or whether it was dumped offshore. I couldn't imagine a Lancaster (and a damaged one at that) landing with a large bomb still aboard.

 

The video states the damage was only temporary and the Germans soon recovered with rapid dam repairs. However, I think that's not entirely correct, the dam water damage was substantial, and over an extended period.

Possibly the saddest part was over 1000 POW's and forced labourers losing their lives as a result of the raid. The British obviously considered those people expendable. Barnes-Wallis stated he would have never thought up the scheme if he knew beforehand, the number of air crew that would be lost. But he obviously didn't even consider the civilian losses potential.

 

Overall, the successful number of bombs was quite low in comparison to the number originally sent aloft. By any other measure, on any other raid, it would not be declared a successful raid.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chastise

 

Edited Sunday at 01:46 AM by onetrack