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Thread: Dam Busters 70th anniversary

  1. 16-May-2013 #1
    Neil
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    Dam Busters 70th anniversary

    70 years since this amazing and ingenious war time attack!


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22549964

    Commemorations are to be held marking the anniversary of one of the RAF's most daring and legendary raids.

    Thursday marks 70 years since 19 Lancaster bombers took off from a runway in Lincolnshire in eastern England, each carrying a purpose built weapon - the bouncing bomb - and dropped them in Nazi Germany's industrial heartland.

    Peter Jackson will be doing a film of the story (script by Stephen Fry). Ten Wellington bombers are already built! - http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36033 (Jump to 1:15 in the video)
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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  2. 16-May-2013 #2
    wayzim
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil View Post
    70 years since this amazing and ingenious war time attack!


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22549964




    Peter Jackson will be doing a film of the story (script by Stephen Fry). Ten Wellington bombers are already built! - http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36033 (Jump to 1:15 in the video)
    I don't recall ever seeing the 54 movie ( which is very odd, since I was a war movie freak as a kid - musta been my military brat upbringing ) but there was a later film called 'The Mosquito Squardron. ' (1968, directed by Boris Sagal ) with the bouncing bomb ( in this case, the breed known as The Highball - used in the movie against concealed V rocket bunkers ) as the mission for our hero ( played by David McCullum )

    I recall it fondly, though that might be the foolishness of youth. But the genius of wartime invention was something to be both marvelled at and dreaded.

    Wayne Z
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  3. 16-May-2013 #3
    Neil
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    I seem to enjoying the 54 film, with only the special effects letting it down really...

    I'm glad it's Jackson and Fry behind the film... I'd fear if it was a Hollywood affair the crew/planes would suddenly become American, as has happened in some other "based on true events" war films...
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan
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  4. 16-May-2013 #4
    shootemindehead
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    The 1954 film is great, but because of the Official Secrets Act, the actual bouncing bomb couldn't be shown. The real shape being more of a barrel, than what is shown in the film. The greatest strength of the film lay in the background to the bomb, involving Barnes Wallis.

    I'm looking forward to the new version and have been for years. It's been on the boil for a long time now. But I wonder if they'll show the aftermath of the dams being destroyed, or just leave it at "we blew them up and went home" and everything was grand...

    ...I also wonder if "Nigger" will be mentioned.

    Ooh...it's controversial!
    Last edited by shootemindehead; 16-May-2013 at 01:08 PM. Reason: .
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  5. 16-May-2013 #5
    AcesandEights
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    It's a bit large, but cool image retronaut posted today of Wallis testing his idea out with BBs in his backyard.


    "Men choose as their prophets those who tell them that their hopes are true." --Lord Dunsany
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  6. 16-May-2013 #6
    shootemindehead
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    Nice.
    I'm runnin' this monkey farm now Frankenstein.....
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