... but as the board automatically shortens links, perhaps it doesn't after all.
Edited by Geoff E, 02 January 2012 - 20:20.
Posted 02 January 2012 - 20:19
Edited by Geoff E, 02 January 2012 - 20:20.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 07:30
as was last night's sunset ceremony at Scampton as seen on TV.And now.. 70 years. The Derwent reservoir flypast in this link.
So moving.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 08:29
some only 13 years older than me and even Gibson was only 25 when he led the raid.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 08:47
Dan Snow was slightly less Tigger-ish than usual (and did correct Eddie Butler's Griffon/Merlin error, I think), but he did drop one enormous bollock when he asked Barnes Wallis' daughter if her father had viewed the Dambusters raid as a highlight of his career. Has he not seen the film and the scene where Wallis discovers how many aircrew had been lost? His daughter was polite enough not to slap him down about it, but she didn't seem best pleased by the question - especially when he showed up his lack of proper research by saying the letter he was quoting had been written when she was eleven rather than fourteen.Quite enjoyed the programme and thought it good of them to include a few howlers for TNF viewers to get indignant about (talking about the Merlins in the Griffon Spits, for one).
Posted 17 May 2013 - 09:20
I agree, Dan Snow had obvioulsy taken an anti-Tigger pill, but even so he was not really in touch with wjhat was going on and who he was talking to. Suggesting to the Kiwi Dambuster that flying to the UK for the event must have been demanding... Yes, probably a lot more demanding than flying a Lancaster across Germany at night, etc, etc. Surely, Barnes Wallis' daughter had said earlier in the programme that her father was devastated by the loss of crew, or have I mixed that in from another programme? All in all, a moving event, and would have been better without either presenter.Dan Snow was slightly less Tigger-ish than usual (and did correct Eddie Butler's Griffon/Merlin error, I think), but he did drop one enormous bollock when he asked Barnes Wallis' daughter if her father had viewed the Dambusters raid as a highlight of his career.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 09:25
Dan Snow was slightly less Tigger-ish than usual (and did correct Eddie Butler's Griffon/Merlin error, I think), but he did drop one enormous bollock when he asked Barnes Wallis' daughter if her father had viewed the Dambusters raid as a highlight of his career. Has he not seen the film and the scene where Wallis discovers how many aircrew had been lost? His daughter was polite enough not to slap him down about it, but she didn't seem best pleased by the question - especially when he showed up his lack of proper research by saying the letter he was quoting had been written when she was eleven rather than fourteen.
Overall, though, a pleasing programme and you have to give credit to the pilot of the Lanc for arriving what looked like bang on time to the second and parking the thing straight and within about six inches of symmetrical behind the flagpole.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 09:45
Posted 17 May 2013 - 10:46
Advertisement
Posted 17 May 2013 - 13:34
Posted 17 May 2013 - 13:40
Good show last night and on Radio 2 this morning.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 14:30
It appears not, but it's on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk...s_70_Years_On/#I'm beginning to wish that I'd seen it, but the advertised presence of Dan Snow persuaded me not to bother. Wonder if it will be repeated? Almost everything seems to be these days, usually several times.
Posted 17 May 2013 - 19:21
The Petwood led a very chequered life in the 70s and 80s, going bankrupt every 2 years or so, but I have not been in recently - has anyone here been there in the last couple of years ?
Posted 18 May 2013 - 11:20
Posted 18 May 2013 - 15:22
I was fortunate enough to see the BBMF Lancaster fly fairly low over the house a couple of years ago on its way to an event in the North East. It's route took it very close to the former AVRO factory in Chadderton although I have since learned that this particular aircraft was built in Chester. The recent BBC and C4 documentaries and reconstructions have their faults but it does no harm to remind us of the ingenuity and tenacity of Barnes Wallis and the skill and unbelievable bravery of the young men who delivered these weapons into the then enemys back yard.
Posted 18 May 2013 - 15:22
I was fortunate enough to see the BBMF Lancaster fly fairly low over the house a couple of years ago on its way to an event in the North East. It's route took it very close to the former AVRO factory in Chadderton although I have since learned that this particular aircraft was built in Chester. The recent BBC and C4 documentaries and reconstructions have their faults but it does no harm to remind us of the ingenuity and tenacity of Barnes Wallis and the skill and unbelievable bravery of the young men who delivered these weapons into the then enemys back yard.
Posted 01 September 2014 - 05:09
Pardon me if something like this has already been posted, but it seems that progress with Peter Jackson's mooted remake of The Dam Busters is, er, making very little progress at all. See http://dambustersblo...busters-remake/

Mr Jackson seems to be a tad irritated by frequent questions as to how the project is going, viz: "There is only a limited span I can abide, of people driving me nuts asking me when I’m going to do that project." The problem, apparently, lies with endless Hobbit films. (Never seen one, never likely to.)
But he also said: "We still have the rights, and it’s one in a little pot of movies. We don’t have a next movie nailed down, but certainly The Dam Busters is one of them."
Posted 01 September 2014 - 08:00
A remake seems unnecessary to me - what can it add except paid work for a large number of people in the film industry? If Mr Jackson's comments are accuratly quoted, let us hope that the scriptwriter's command of English is better!
Posted 01 September 2014 - 08:01
This thread needs a name change, it is 70 years now.
Posted 01 September 2014 - 08:49
As the fred starter, let's see if the system will le me do it... (darts off to try)
.... apparently it won't.
Seems a reasonable point, Lee.
If his honour the Nostalgia Forum Moderator sees fit, perhaps he could do the deed.
Posted 01 September 2014 - 09:14
As the fred starter, let's see if the system will le me do it... (darts off to try)
.... apparently it won't.
Seems a reasonable point, Lee.
If his honour the Nostalgia Forum Moderator sees fit, perhaps he could do the deed.
Done. (I did try to do a strikethrough of sixty to highlight the change, but apparently HTML doesn't work in thread titles!)
Posted 01 September 2014 - 13:18
This is the Möhne Dam as it is today, or a couple of years ago at any rate, probably looking exactly as it would have done a year or so after the raid, when it had been repaired by thousands of Organisation Todt slave labourers, most of them Russians or other eastern European prisoners, thousands of whom died during the work. It's interesting to note, something I've never seen mentioned in any of the numerous Dambusters TV programmes, that these slave labourers were hurriedly shipped from working on the Atlantic Wall defences on the French coast, which would have meant that Our Boys had slightly less to contend with on D Day than they might otherwise have done. I think that the fact that repairing the dam was regarded as such a high priority by Germany's wartime leaders is highly significant, and any revisionist historians claiming that the raid was a waste of men and resources would do well to remember that.
Posted 01 September 2014 - 17:20
Attached is the flight schedule for the TWO Lancasters over the next few weeks:
http://www.warplane....14-uk-tour.aspx
Posted 15 September 2014 - 10:36
Posted 16 September 2014 - 19:22
A somewhat indifferent effort from Sunday at Goodwood
Posted 18 September 2014 - 01:06
I just cant help it!
Im an American, and have not watched U-271 or Pearl Harbor! I do not approve of any twisting of history. I do however enjoy a good war story.
I would like close by telling the Hollywood set that we have just as good, interesting, and heroic history as anybody. So stop intercoursing it up!
Now that I mentioned it: Does anybody know the difference between a fairy tale and a war story?
A: A fairy tale starts out "Once upon a time..." A war story starts out "No ****! There I was..."
Cheers,
Leo
Posted 22 September 2014 - 11:24
Thought you'd all enjoy this, from one of today's papers. It's the two surviving Lancasters flying over the Derwent reservoir near Sheffield yesterday afternoon, obviously well publicised given the number of 'twitchers' in attendance. This was where they trained for the raid of course, the Derwent dam and approaches are vaguely similar to the target Möhne dam. My dad was the officer in charge of the Royal Artillery gunners pretending to shoot the planes down with blank training rounds in their 40mm Bofors AA weapons. Of course, no-one there including the men in the planes had any idea what they were actually training for, Dad read the MoD authorised version in the Daily Telegraph a few days after it all happened. The pair of Lancs were on their way back to RAF Coningsby after attending an air show.
Posted 22 September 2014 - 13:14
Somewhat off the subject of the Dambusters, but still with the Derwent reservoir, I couldn't help noticing from that last pic how low the water level is, clearly not much rain in those parts in recent months. I lived in the area most of my childhood, visited the place many times, and heard stories of how magnificent was the sight of water flowing over the dam after a lengthy wet period, usually following a winter thaw, but to my great disappointment, I never managed to see this awe inspiring sight. A few years ago, to mark a 'significant' birthday, my wife's present was a week's holiday in the Peak District, not far from my birthplace, (a whole week in a freezing and snowswept Yorkshire in early February, one of my best holidays ever, what could possibly beat that?) While walking around the nearby Ladybower reservoir, a friendly local told us that the Derwent and Howden dams were overflowing mightily, so we sped there as quickly as icy roads allowed, to see this wonderful sight.
The sound and grandeur were almost beyond description, but apparently it's a rare occurrence these days. A year or two after this, we visited the Möhne dam that had been one of the Dambuster targets, and this one also overflows from time to time. I'm just back from a couple of weeks in Germany, but I'd be back like a shot if someone told me there was a chance of seeing the Möhne overflowing like this, almost as impressive a sight as Our Boys would have seen all those years ago after dropping their bombs.
Advertisement
Posted 22 September 2014 - 18:55
I certainly chose the wrong day to go to the Southport Airshow; the weather was foul on Saturday and the Vulcan scrubbed, only to be re-scheduled for Sunday. Bugger!
Posted 23 September 2014 - 03:03
I certainly chose the wrong day to go to the Southport Airshow; the weather was foul on Saturday and the Vulcan scrubbed, only to be re-scheduled for Sunday. Bugger!
I had to look about 3 times, I thought it was a double exposure! Two Lancs up close, something you defenitly wont see very often! I do refer to the second pic, the one I saw first!
Edited by Lee Nicolle, 23 September 2014 - 03:06.
Posted 29 September 2014 - 16:30
I read this morning that the Canadian Lancaster has arrived back safely home in Canada.
Posted 08 May 2015 - 13:56
An interesting story about the last British survivor of the Dambusters raid, George "Johnny" Johnson.
http://www.bbc.com/n...gazine-32497360
Posted 18 June 2015 - 04:45
Some advice please. We have a very full trip to Blighty in early July and, at the last moment, a change to our itinerary has opened up the possibility of driving close to Lincoln and, thus... Scampton. I'm attracted by the idea of visiting the RAF Heritage Centre there. You have to book a visit and I haven't just yet.
So my question is, is it worth a visit?
I might say I have lots of brownie points up my sleeve. The Managing Director, bless her, has me visiting roughly half the open gardens in the British Isles! Never, in the field of human holidaying, will a Tom Tom have worked so hard for so long.
Posted 18 June 2015 - 06:26
Gary,
We visited RAF Coningsby in June 2013. It is the home for the BoB Memorial Flight and well worthwhile. An unexpected bonus was to see the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane prepared and take-off for a flight over nearby East Kirkby to mark the passing of one of the founders of the Lincolnshire Aviation Museum, Fred Panton. No bookings were needed. We arrived and were taken on a tour of the BoB hanger.
Perhaps the MD might grant you two wishes.
Peter
Posted 18 June 2015 - 13:48
Thank you, Peter.
Posted 04 August 2015 - 07:04
The last of the Dambusters pilots, Les Munro, has died.
http://www.stuff.co....-dambuster-dies
Johnny Johnson and Fred Sutherland - a Canadian - are the only living participants from the dams raid.
Posted 04 August 2015 - 08:40
The last of the Dambusters pilots, Les Munro, has died.
http://www.stuff.co....-dambuster-dies
Johnny Johnson and Fred Sutherland - a Canadian - are the only living participants from the dams raid.
Sad, but inevitable as it was such a long time ago.
Posted 04 August 2015 - 08:46
RIP brave man.
Posted 04 August 2015 - 13:14
Sad news
Posted 04 August 2015 - 17:35
Very sad news but 96 is a ripe old age and a life lived to the full!
The sight and sound of the last 2 flying Lancasters flying together still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Even after 72 years the ingenuity and sheer bravery of Operation Chastise still take ones breath away. It is a dreadful Shame that 617 Squadron is currently mothballed and that it is not due to fly again until next year at the earliest.
Posted 05 February 2016 - 22:25
Posted 17 May 2017 - 14:10
Sincere respect for some very brave men. And for all the people - on both sides - who died.
Posted 16 May 2018 - 06:22
Posted 16 May 2018 - 13:07
A friend has tickets for the digitally remastered "Dam Busters" in Kingston Thursday evening - So, a round of golf, curry, then off to the kinematograph in the evening.
Posted 16 May 2018 - 13:29
Gary,
We visited RAF Coningsby in June 2013. It is the home for the BoB Memorial Flight and well worthwhile. An unexpected bonus was to see the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane prepared and take-off for a flight over nearby East Kirkby to mark the passing of one of the founders of the Lincolnshire Aviation Museum, Fred Panton. No bookings were needed. We arrived and were taken on a tour of the BoB hanger.
Perhaps the MD might grant you two wishes.
Peter
A tad late responding, but I did get back, on my Tod Sloan, in late 2016 and had a couple of jars at the Petwood Hotel at Woodford Spa, aka the 617 Squadron Officers' Mess. https://goo.gl/maps/tLKGuo3nH6E2 Hugely nostalgic.
Posted 16 May 2018 - 16:23
A friend has tickets for the digitally remastered "Dam Busters" in Kingston Thursday evening - So, a round of golf, curry, then off to the kinematograph in the evening.
Advertisement
Posted 17 May 2018 - 15:24
I may be swimming against the tide here but I really think we need to move on from endless commemoration of the two world wars. If anything , as a country , the UK seems ever more obsessed by the iconography of the past . Radio 4 has been running an endless series of life in WW1 , poppies now appear in September and whilst it is right we should quietly acknowledge the past and respect those who died in past conflicts I really think that in the last decade or so we overdo it to the point of near hysteria .
As a kid I remember the dignity of the old boys from WW1 as we stood round the village war memorial on 11 November - but that was it , it wasn't an ongoing thing, we looked to the future instead of endlessly replaying the past. Were we getting excited about the anniversary of the Crimean or Boer Wars , or the Indian Mutiny on their centenary ? I don't think so
The other point is that we have friends on here from nations against whom we were fighting who may well have their own very different memories .
I am proud to be named after my uncle who died in WW2, in a Halifax , but that is a private family thing.
Can't we move on ? I think it is long overdue . . .