70 Years Ago... Operation Chastise

[Deathblade Eric]

At 21:39 hrs on May 16th 1943, 19 specially modified Lancaster bombers crewed by 133 men took off from RAF Scampton to attack the Ruhr dams using Barnes Wallis' revolutionary bouncing bomb.

53 of them never came home.

The effect of the mission has always been debated, but is now generally viewed as being a qualified success in that it not only dealt a major blow to the Nazi regime in their heartland (thus giving a massive boost to morale on the 'Home Front'), but the raid caused the diversion of enormous amounts of men & materiel intended for the Eastern Front to repair and defend the dams. It also meant that Speer's plan for the Atlantic Wall wasn't fully realised, making the D-Day invasion that little bit less hard.

Invalid Link Removed

BBC Map of the route

Invalid Link Removed

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

 

[bassist11]

There is a Nova documentary on this as well. They built an aircraft and a mock bomb and tried to reproduce the event. Pretty wicked stuff.

 

[kesslari]

Salute to that. Brave men fighting a necessary war.

 

[SoVeryTired]

A great combination of ingenuity and bravery.

 

[Downunderwonder]

They made a PC film about it a few years ago.

 

[Gopherbassist]

I remember Peter Jackson wanted to make a movie about this. Did that ever come through?

 

[P. Aaron]

I always enjoyed the classic B & W movie: The Dam Busters.

 

[Downunderwonder]

I remember Peter Jackson wanted to make a movie about this. Did that ever come through?

Yes. Big blowup over renaming a hero's unfortunately named black dog.

 

[Rusty Chainsaw]

Yes. Big blowup over renaming a hero's unfortunately named black dog.

I was really looking forward to this. I love the original 1955 film, and the script for the new one was written by the great Stephen Fry. Seems it's in production limbo at the moment though.

I think they were going to go with "Digger" for the dog - they're in a bit of a difficult position with the dog's name, damned if they do, damned if they don't. Also, apparently Weta Workshop actually went as far as building several full-size Lancaster props for it. Let's hope that it does actually get made - the 70th anniversary of the raid would be a great time to announce that it's been greenlit.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Pete up and decided to flesh out three Hobbits when two were originally planned. Presently they have another small Hobbit shoot on to get the necessary footage and then they should get on with Dambusters.

According to last December's newspaper quote there are fully ten prop Lancasters in a shed:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/8093744/Jackson-gets-Hobbit-cameo-scene

 

[Rusty Chainsaw]

According to this blog post, Peter Jackson says the remake is going to happen very soon:

http://dambustersblog.com/2012/12/14/peter-jackson-speaks-december-2012-update/

As long as it sticks to the story and doesn't take much in the way of dramatic licence, it should be good. I love the idea of seeing classic WW2-era planes done with modern special effects.

So, who should be cast as Barnes Wallis? Guy Gibson?

 

[Downunderwonder]

That blog is from same time as that article I posted about them wrapping up The Hobbit. The studio saw $$$ being left on the table only doing two Hobbit films when they had nearly enough footage and story for three so Damnbusters went on the backburner again.

It took Jackson something like 15 years to get around to Kong so breath holding might not be wise.

 

[Rusty Chainsaw]

That blog is from same time as that article I posted about them wrapping up The Hobbit. The studio saw $$$ being left on the table only doing two Hobbit films when they had nearly enough footage and story for three so Damnbusters went on the backburner again.

It took Jackson something like 15 years to get around to Kong so breath holding might not be wise.

Looks like the blog is from the end of 2012, so not that long ago. Once everything has wrapped on all three Hobbit films, hopefully he can get going on it then.