Mum's Monday: Dam Busters (1955)

This is now my 100^th Mums Monday blog, so I wanted to do something, that represented a 100 of something. On April 1^st 1918 the RAF (Royal Air Force) was formed with the amalgamation of the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) and the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service), also on November 11^th 1918 the first world war ended. So I have decided it was fitting to review a war film, which includes a strong connection to the RAF. The 617 (Dam Busters) Squadron being a part of the air force. The film is therefore based on a true story.

The film starts off with it being Spring 1942 and it is a light-hearted beginning, with Doctor B. N. Wallis C.B.E., F.R.S. (Played in the film by Michael Redgrave) and his children carrying out an experiment with marbles. It is good to see him interacting with his children, however, obsessed he is with his idea.

The film soon turns darker, but there is a war on, it is nice to see Wallis being given the chance to carry out more experiments, as we all know from history, it shows his idea worked. Hence the Dam Busters and this film being actually made.

We know the outcome, but to see the brains behind it, is interesting, proving that things don’t work without a lot of attempts and practice.

There is a good line ‘Everything he uses, has been invented’. It is a true statement and helps get Wallis’s point across. However, it is sad to see the idea, nearly didn’t get off the ground, but one man’s passion saw it through.

Now we see the 617 Squadron with Lancaster bombers and wing Commander Guy Gibson V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C (Played in the film by Richard Todd) as squadron leader in charge. It is interesting to see the thinking behind, who to choose, to go on the, then, secret mission.

It is amusing, to hear the waiters, talk about, what they think is going on, they have it wrong, as kidnapping Hitler, it is not. War time rumours are rife.

As the film progresses and just when I thought, the theatre trip for Guy Gibson was unnecessary, in the film, he comes up with a solution to a problem of dropping the bombs from 150 feet and on target.

When it looks like the mission is all hanging in the balance, Wallis suggests dropping the bombs from 60 feet, risky business war work, even more so for hens and their eggs and the trees.

The mission is going ahead. It is interesting to see the primitive, but effective equipment, they had to work with to drop the now infamous bouncing bombs on target.

The day has arrived, it is sad to see the fate of Guy Gibson’s black pet dog, but the mission must go on, and the rest is history as they say.

The special effects during the bombing raid scenes, are well done and realistic, for the time the film was made. The script is done so well, I also felt like I was back at base, waiting to hear, if the mission is a success or not, even though we know the outcome. It is lovely to see the film acknowledge the men that were lost, during the mission, showing the war involved real men with real lives.

Despite the losses the mission was achieved overall.

There are a few places you can visit, that are linked to the Dam Busters mission. Some of them I have listed here. Up the A15 north of Lincoln in the county of Lincolnshire UK, you can visit and have a tour of RAF Scampton. It is best to check the website before you go as it is a working air base. Another place you can visit is the Derwent Dam in the Hope valley which is sign posted of Snake road the A57 over the Ladybower reservoir, in the county of Derbyshire UK. Another place you can visit on the coast of the county of Dorset UK, is Chesil Beach near Weymouth. These places are where the mission was practiced and RAF Scampton, is where 617 Squadron was based.

Another place you can visit, and see the scar of the damage done by the bouncing bomb and the only surviving structure, a house that is still standing despite the deluge of the water, when the Dam was breached, is the Mohne Dam on the Mohne Reservoir situated at 59519 Mohnesee Germany. I visited as part of a coach tour, that included Berlin and the Harz mountains, staying in Goslar. The Mohne Dam was listed on the tour, as a stop off on the last day of the holiday, so it is worth reading the daily itineraries, if you so wish.