SBS As It Happened - Dam Busters Fly Again

[Hans Tucker]

Caught the second part of a two part documentary

As It Happened - Dam Busters Fly Again

In 1943, 19 aircraft and crew of 617SQN, lead by WGCDR Guy Gibson, attacked the dams in the Rhur Valley. They were successful in destroying the Mohne and Edersee dams, wilfully causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley and of villages in the Eder valley in Germany's industrial heartland. The unique bouncing bomb was the brain child of engineer Barnes Wallis.

70 years later an Aussie engineer, Hugh Hunt, tries to recreate the great raid but using a civilian aircraft and this is documented in a two part series...Dang...I missed the first.

Great story of brave men achieving the impossible...unfortunately Barnes Wallis was devastated by the loses his idea incurred.

[JohnG]

Watched both parts, facinating story, they had to work all the calculations out again, there are, apparently, no surviving plans or calculations of how the bouncing bombs were made or worked.

The first part showed experiments after the war using what looked like Boston bombers, one A/C dropped from too low and the bomb took its tail off, no survivors unfortunately, dangerous business.

Since checked it was a US A-26 Invader.

Nice bit of flying by the old DC-4.

Cheers