716Jones

And the Russians too, which produced the Mig 15 when matched up to a German airframe design.

orpheum

I havent read all the posts on this.Howeever in case it hasnt ben mentioned before i would point out that because the design of the bomb was still secret when the film was made it was shown to be a round ball.it was of course cylindrical in shape.I believe that a replica is on display at Bletchley park

Marky B

At the Yorkshire Air Museum,south east of York,there is an entire hut dedicated to 617 Squadron,and there is a complete casing of a trial bomb installed there. Worth a visit if you are in the area.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

christoph404

And Stalin killed far more Jews than Hitler! I think your statement is overly simplistic and not one I would agree with at all. One only has to look at the allies end of war policy of firbombing German cities, the destruction of Dresden being the most controversial, even Churchill tried to distance himself from that one! 25-35 thousand civilains and refugees incinerated over a period of two days! The worst casualties inflicted on a British city was an air raid on Coventry which claimed approx 1200 lives. Anglo American bombing of German cities claimed between 305- 600 thousand civlians. I think a fairer comparison would be to say that British and Allied bombing claimed at least two or three hundred times more civilain casualties than those inflicted on the UK. Difficult to swallow, but sadly true.The true horror of war is that both sides inflict cruel and needless casualties on each other and as ever the worst casualties are civilain.

Aaryk Noctivagus

Can we at least agree that Hitler started it?

batman

I thought it was Bernard Manning !!!!!!!

Seriously, any sensible person knows that all wars are disgusting and horrific events in which, unfortunately, it is always the innocent who suffer the most.

Bats.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

orpheum

Saw this at the local Vue last night.Shown in digital in its original aspect ratio,no ads no trailers just the film.,at a price of 3 pounds.About 50 people in the audience.Great film.Gibson himself was quite a strange personality.He did over 200sorties before finally being killed over Holland late in 1944.Given that once aircrew had done 25 subsequently 30 missions they were taken off active service it makes you wonder how he could just go on like that.After all however good you are in the sky the law of averages will eventually catch up with you.Perhaps instead of remaking this film they should make a film of the life of Gibson.Funny how fighter pilots such as Bader get their story told but not the less glamorous bomber pilots.

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Moor Larkin

That's the best thing about this Forum.

Intelligent remarks.

penfold

It would be an interesting film....like Bader, he inspired trememendous loyalty, but was also a fiercely driven martinet....the hard part would be the casting; I don't know of any actors in their early twenties who could give off that amount of charisma, combined with seriousness and gravity.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

orpheum

According to Amazon there is a biog on him due out on the 20th September.Curiously though it is 196 pages.What this could mean is that it is a scissors and paste job rather than a full scale biog.This of course could be due to the fact that most of the people who knew him have passed on.incidentally the synopsis refers to "questionable private life" so clearly he was not quite the stright laced individual that he appears to be in the film.

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orpheum

In the film shown last night the dogs original name was used,it had not been dubbed.However the code word for the breaching of the dams was changed to Digger.

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Moor Larkin

I'm sure I watched a version the other week where everyone called the dog 'Boy', just as Patrick McGoohan did. It seemed to work quite well and made a modicum of sense.

How odd that they should leave the dog as
-. * .. * --. * --. * . * .-.
but change the code-word.........

I wonder how many versions are out there? They could do a boxed set of all the variations........

[code]http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487363@N02/sets/72157606700675506/code]

penfold

It might also be only 196 pages because he was dead at 24....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Moor Larkin

Age 22 (at the time)

327 pages

cooleyn

I've joined this forum to express my sheer delight at finally seeing my all-time favourite war movie - The Dam Busters - on the big screen again last night at Cineworld in Aberdeen, an event which was - to the amazement of the management - packed to capacity.

Having watched it repeatedly since I was a child, the experience of seeing (and hearing) it up there was like seeing it for the first time. Being in the second row, the effect of seeing REAL Lancasters thundering towards the screen at genuinely low level was simply awesome, and the sound of those Merlin engines through a cinema sound system was incredible.

Interesting point to make, though . . . .

The cinema was mostly full of youngsters, and I had expected them to denigrade the movie and perhaps snigger (HEY! A new and politically-correct name for Gibson's dog, perhaps?) at a lot of it, especially the special effects - but not a bit of it.

These young people - many who obviously had never seen the film before, laughed at the parts that we may have forgotten were amusing ("my 'ens lay premature eggs that fall off the perch and mess up the floor") and were genuinely awed by the sight and sounds.

What really struck me, however, was their reaction during the classic scene near the end, when the camera silently pans through the empty rooms of the missing aircrews - you could have heard a pin drop in the cinema.

Another interesting fact was that the Lancasters cavorting at low level over the lakes in the movie were obviously real and were obviously REALLY flying that low. There is no amount of cgi (am I wrong?) that could replicate such an incredible sight, especially when the bombers filled the screen and almost flew right out of it.

So, I say praise God that such an awesome, powerful, poignant, magnificent movie masterpiece was once again shown where it truly belongs - on the big screen, and thanks also to all those youngsters in the cinema in Aberdeen, who showed respect for a legend and who, I really believe, became fans of the movie too.