- 5/17/2025
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00:00The RAF's last airworthy Lancaster bomber, a relic of a war that will soon be beyond
00:10living memory.
00:11As a pilot, I've always been fascinated by the wartime exploits of Bomber Command.
00:19I've known some of the veterans, and I own and fly one of the aeroplanes that they trained
00:26in.
00:28The classic movie about an impossible mission which succeeds against all the odds, The Dambusters
00:34is one of my favourite films.
00:36It's gone! Look! It's gone!
00:41This has to be one of the most iconic scenes in the history of war cinema.
00:47But I want to know whether the movie has distorted our view of the true history of the raid.
00:54What I'm hoping to find out is the truth behind one of the most famous war stories of them all.
01:04I'm going to retrace the route taken by 617 Squadron during its famous raid,
01:11and rediscover some of the forgotten secrets of the Dambusters.
01:17I'll be hearing from the RAF's last survivor from the raid.
01:23His crew's efforts didn't feature in the film.
01:27And taking to the skies with a former RAF Harrier pilot, and navigating for him.
01:33By my reckoning we should be turning now, and I can't see the river.
01:38I'm going to override you this time.
01:41Or at least trying.
01:43You're taught resourcefulness, courage...
01:46He was the dashing wing commander who led the raid.
01:49But who was the real Guy Gibson?
01:52He was arrogant, gorgeous, an absolutely charming young man.
02:13In London, the bright lights of Leicester Square receive an added glitter.
02:17The film created an upsurge in national pride in an era of post-war austerity.
02:23Like the raid itself, boosting beleaguered Britain's morale.
02:32And perhaps this is where the film and the legend of the Dambusters started to become one and the same.
02:3955 years after its release,
02:42the Dambusters retains its power as a piece of wartime storytelling.
02:51It stars Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson,
02:55and Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallace, the inventor.
02:59In the movie, their double act personified the bravery and ingenuity
03:05that summed up perhaps the most spectacular and daring raid
03:11in the history of aviation warfare.
03:16Over the years, the movie has been accepted by many as the definitive version of the story.
03:22But a lot of it was pure fiction.
03:26Guy Gibson's trip to the theatre did not throw up the ingenious twin-lamp method
03:32for accurately measuring the height of the aircraft above the water.
03:38No, far less dramatically, it was a scientist at the Ministry of Aircraft Production
03:43who came up with the idea which was crucial to the success of the operation.
03:49The written sources for the film were two books,
03:53Guy Gibson's Enemy Coast Ahead and Paul Brickhill's The Dambusters.
04:00Now, according to those who know, both are riddled with inaccuracies.
04:06And then much of the information that director Michael Anderson
04:10required for strict historical accuracy was still classified as secret.
04:16Just take me through these timings again.
04:21If I'm to follow the route of 617 Squadron, I'll need to do my homework,
04:26especially as they expect me to navigate the route.
04:29Former RAF fighter pilot Chris Norton led one squadron into battle
04:33during the conflicts in the Gulf and Kosovo.
04:36He'll be my pilot, and I'm just beginning to understand what I'm letting myself in for.
04:41Wow, that's daunting.
04:44So they would probably have had some fairly significant blind areas...
04:47We'll be joined along the way by former RAF Red Arrows pilot Dave Slow in a second aircraft.
04:54The whole thing is mind-boggling, that they could navigate at night being shot at
05:00and not being able to see out either.
05:03That's probably an advantage, I suppose.
05:06I mean, you just rely on your stopwatch and your compass
05:10and let the captain worry about the rest.
05:18Lights out, pressure's rising.
05:211pm to good. Start warning lights out.
05:26It's time to get airborne.
05:28And later, I'll be following the training routine of 617 Squadron.
05:43This is RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, home of the Dambusters.
05:47It's a very different place today.
05:50There are no longer combat aircraft based here.
05:53But you can almost feel the ghosts of the past.
05:57Spring 1943.
06:00Airmen specially selected from a cross-bomber command
06:03were brought together here to form 617 Squadron under the tightest possible secrecy.
06:08We had no idea what the targets were going to be.
06:11And security was an absolute premium.
06:17All letters were censored.
06:19And even the public telephone outside the station was monitored.
06:25They trained for Mission Impossible not knowing their weapon or their target.
06:30Time and again, they honed their low-flying skills over British dams.
06:35For Johnny and the other young airmen, the unknown danger of their mission to come
06:40was on hold as their intensive training began.
06:43Flying at 100 feet, which was the prescribed height for our training, was great.
06:48Lying in the front, I'd see the ground just whizzing past.
06:52Low-level cross-countries.
06:54All done by map reading, because it wasn't feasible
06:59to use the navigation aids at that height.
07:06Decelerating 140, letting down.
07:10So what's it like to fly so low?
07:13We're about to find out.
07:15We're heading down to the height that 617 Squadron would have trained at,
07:19100 feet from the ground.
07:21Just going to weave around these houses.
07:23Good idea.
07:25The legal minimum flying height for civilian aircraft is 500 feet.
07:29But we've got special permission from the Civil Aviation Authority.
07:33In 1943, this was the best way to stay alive
07:38if you were over enemy territory.
07:40Too low for night fighters and radar.
07:45But of course it's very challenging flying this low.
07:49But this is in broad daylight.
07:51Imagine doing this at night.
07:54Oh.
07:56Are you comfortable at 100 feet yet?
07:58Me?
07:59Yeah.
08:00Oh yeah?
08:01It's funny how quickly it happens, isn't it?
08:02Oh yeah.
08:03This is exactly the sort of training they would have done.
08:06The beauty of it is that they knew they really couldn't get in trouble,
08:12no matter what they did.
08:13They would run over villages and whatever, learning to navigate.
08:18But of course, this is day.
08:21So you've got lots and lots of visual resolution.
08:25Whereas at night, you don't have any of that.
08:28And the way they simulated that is they put a blue film over the windscreen
08:33and then they wore yellow goggles.
08:36You look at the amount of trips they carried in training.
08:38It's just amazing, really.
08:42As the navigator, flying at this height is difficult for me.
08:46Instead of the panoramic view you get at 1,000 feet,
08:49down here you see very little, and you reach the horizon in seconds.
08:54So navigation is challenging.
08:56Luckily, Chris is alongside me.
08:59We've got a guy coming up on the nose.
09:02And then we're going to come back down there.
09:04Right.
09:05This is where 617 Squadron prepared for the raid.
09:10The twin towers of the Derwent Dam in the Derbyshire Peak District.
09:15Fortunately for us, the weather's lovely.
09:17So we're going to be in the hills of the Peak District,
09:21practising getting into the very difficult terrain
09:25that they had to contend with when they were in the raw hills.
09:30What Gibson did is he spent a long time
09:32looking at the maps, trying to find as many features as he could in the UK
09:36that he could mimic that would happen on the raid.
09:39And then he got the guys flying around those beaches again and again
09:43until they could find them in their sleep.
09:45They learnt all the mistakes of navigation
09:47or the tricks of navigation that they were going to use later.
09:51Chris knows this valley well.
09:53He once flew down it in a Harrier jump jet at night at 400 knots.
09:58Chris flew down it in a Harrier jump jet at night at 400 miles an hour.
10:02But he's never been down it this low.
10:04This was the Dam Lufthansa's other secret weapon.
10:08This is an exact replica of the bombsight that they used on the raid.
10:13If you believe the film, that is.
10:15EXPLOSION
10:25But this man knows the real story better than anyone else alive.
10:30Johnny Johnson occupied the bomb aimer's position in the Lancaster
10:34piloted by the American Joe McCarthy.
10:37We had to make our own bombsights.
10:39And they consisted basically of a plywood triangle
10:44with pins in the three points.
10:47I didn't use one at all.
10:49I had no need to use one on the actual attack.
10:54And that's because Johnny's crew was dispatched to attack the Zorpa Dam,
10:58a very different structure to the Ada and the Myrna.
11:02We wondered what the hell it was all about.
11:04How were we going to do it? We didn't know until we got there.
11:07The Zorpa had no towers.
11:09And it was almost impossible to approach for a head-on attack
11:14because of the hills round about it.
11:16And so the practice was going to have to be
11:19coming down over the hills on one side,
11:22flying across the dam and releasing the bomb
11:26as near as you could to the centre of the dam.
11:29We weren't spinning it. It was going to be an inert drop.
11:33So it was up to me as the bomb aimer
11:36to estimate when was the right time to drop it.
11:39We weren't very happy about that, but there we are.
11:42We had to get on with it.
11:44On the 10th attempt, he released the weapon hitting the target,
11:47one of only two crews to do so.
11:51But despite causing serious damage, the waters were held back,
11:55although urgent repairs were needed.
11:59Well, could it really have worked?
12:04We're about to find out.
12:07Back at the Derwent, it's time for our own experiment.
12:10Holding the site steady is extremely hard.
12:13Almost impossible.
12:15Got towels?
12:16Oh, yeah, shave this.
12:17OK.
12:18Get your wings level as soon as possible.
12:20Will do.
12:21The site is a nightmare to hold steady.
12:24OK.
12:25Coming in, coming, coming, coming.
12:27Coming, coming, coming.
12:29Coming. Bomb's gone.
12:31Now!
12:33I think we got it that time.
12:35So it's very fast and furious right at the end, isn't it?
12:38Yeah.
12:40We're all full of admiration for the men who first did this.
12:44I still can't believe they managed to get a Lancaster in there.
12:47I know.
12:49This is probably nimble compared to a fully laden Lancaster.
12:53Absolutely.
12:55Because the wooden site proved hard to use,
12:58the bomb aimers improvised with surprising results.
13:02And believe it or not, this was one device.
13:05A length of string.
13:07Again, the two forward points were used to measure the drop distance
13:11when lined up with the twin towers of the dam.
13:13OK. Wings level as soon as you can.
13:16Steady, steady.
13:18Steady. Combine, combine, combine.
13:20Level, level.
13:22Steady. Get it level, get it level, get it level.
13:25OK. OK.
13:27Right. Hold it, hold it. Level up, level up, level up.
13:31The bomb's gone.
13:33Good effort. It's miles away, isn't it?
13:35That was phenomenal. I loved that.
13:37That was good.
13:39I got a good sight of the headland on the left that time.
13:42But you could see how absolutely crucial it was to get the wings level.
13:47No point in letting the bomb go when you've got any bank on,
13:50otherwise it's going off to the side.
13:53I prefer the string.
13:55I now feel I know a bit more about the problems of dropping a bouncing bomb.
13:59But what exactly was it?
14:02A bouncing bomb that'll skip across the surface of the water
14:05and explode against the dam wall.
14:10Codenamed Upkeep, this ingenious device was only ever used on this one raid.
14:16The secret to its operation was applying backspin through a belt mechanism before release.
14:22It made the revolving depth charge skip across the surface of the water
14:26before hitting the dam wall
14:28and exploding at a set depth to cause maximum damage.
14:32MUSIC
14:36In the movie, the bomb is the wrong shape and size
14:39because its real dimensions were classified as secret until 1973.
14:45Dr Barnes Wallace, the inventor of the special dam-busting bomb,
14:49and Air Marshals Robert Sornby and Lady Sornby.
14:54But after the premiere, the retired Air Marshal complained
14:58of a fundamental misconception in the film.
15:01Wallace, he complained in A Letter to the New Statesman,
15:04was not behind the idea to attack the dams.
15:09Plans were being hacked to attack the German dams as early as 1937.
15:16And the idea of exploding a depth charge against the dams
15:19was being discussed before the outbreak of the war.
15:23I've got an idea for destroying the Ruhr dams.
15:25The effects on Germany would be enormous.
15:27I know all that. I've read the report.
15:29Do you really think you can knock down a dam with that thing?
15:33Yes.
15:35It looks clever enough on paper.
15:37That goes for all these wheezy ideas.
15:39When you try to make them work, they fall down flat.
15:42This one doesn't. How do you know?
15:45We've tested it and proved it. I've got some films here I'd like you to see.
15:49Barnes Wallace is depicted as the genius inventor,
15:55frustrated by bureaucracy and the scepticism of the war office.
16:01That's not strictly true.
16:06The real Barnes Wallace did feel a huge burden of responsibility
16:10for the airmen who had to deliver his invention.
16:13One was endangering those men's lives simply to make an idea work.
16:21But mind you, the doing was done by Guy Gibson and 617 Squadron, not by me.
16:31What can't be disputed is the bravery of those young men who took to the skies.
16:39Their courage, audacity and sacrifice is rightly celebrated in this movie.
16:47Two months after 617 Squadron was formed, their task was finally revealed.
16:54They'd fly at night, 60 feet above the water, at more than 200 miles an hour.
16:59Possibly under heavy fire, they'd drop their single untried weapon
17:04in an attempt to break the dam walls
17:06and destroy German armaments factories in the valleys below.
17:11Under the light of the full moon,
17:15seven young men climbed into each Lancaster.
17:23They'd all trained exhaustively, honing their individual skills,
17:29each of them depending on their fellow crew members for their survival.
17:33It's hard to imagine how they were feeling
17:37as they sat cramped in their cockpits, waiting for take-off.
17:45The 19 Lancasters left RAF Scampton in three waves.
17:50Flying low over the North Sea, they crossed the enemy coast
17:53and on deep into the Ruhr Valley.
17:56They pressed home their attack on three dams,
17:58but the aircrews paid a terrible price for their bravery.
18:04Of 19 Lancasters, only 11 come home.
18:09My dad called it a suicide mission.
18:14So, courage, absolute courage beyond any fear.
18:20John F. Kennedy was a young man.
18:23Absolute courage beyond any fear.
18:27John Fraser survived the wreckage of his crashed plane
18:30due to the heroism of his pilot, John Hopgood.
18:34They were badly hit and Dad released the bomb.
18:38Hopgood tried to take the aircraft up
18:41approximately 300 feet so that the crew could bail.
18:46My dad managed to pull his chute out of the...
18:51It got caught in the slipstream and the chute opened
18:54and he bailed at very, very low altitude, extremely low.
19:00And he said the treetops looked awfully damn close.
19:09This memorial commemorates the airmen of 617 Squadron
19:13who lost their lives in World War II.
19:15More than a quarter of them fell on that first raid in May 1943.
19:33But on the German side, the consequences of that raid
19:36were catastrophic in human terms as well as industrial.
19:45Nearly 70 years on,
19:48these scenes of devastation could be seen as insensitive.
19:55Even triumphalist from today's perspective.
20:00So many innocent people were killed.
20:06But this was wartime.
20:08The next stop off on our journey is where it all began,
20:11RAF Scampton, home of the Dambusters.
20:30This was the officers' mess when 617 Squadron was based here.
20:35In the movie, this is where Gibson meets the officers
20:38from his new squadron for the first time.
20:41And this is where that scene was shot.
20:45Just extraordinary.
20:49Even derelict.
20:51It's so atmospheric.
20:55It's just...
20:57It's just...
20:59It's just...
21:01It's just...
21:03It's so atmospheric.
21:07And this is the officers' mess at Scampton.
21:11You can imagine it filled with rumbustious young men
21:16not long out of school.
21:18Probably even had mates killed last week, yesterday.
21:22And there would have been a fantastic amount of horseplay in here.
21:26I mean, they probably played cricket and rugby right here.
21:30And got drunk right here.
21:33And who can blame them?
21:41A short walk from the officers' mess at Scampton
21:44is another relic of the raid, steeped in the history of the squadron.
21:52I'm trying to put myself in Guy Gibson's shoes, as it were.
21:58The night before the raid, sitting in this office
22:01with that awesome responsibility on your shoulders.
22:06At the age of 24.
22:09It just... It doesn't compute, you know.
22:18I get nervous sometimes
22:20if I'm just going off in my plane on my own.
22:24It's just that little tickle.
22:26It's just that little tension, you know, about the...
22:30being a pilot and just knowing where you're going
22:33and the things that could go wrong.
22:35Just imagining that with all of those lives, all of those crews.
22:48The Nazis, they have their German youth movement
22:52where they're taught the foulest things in life
22:55and you're quite the opposite.
22:57This was Guy Gibson addressing the Boy Scouts.
23:00He was patriotism personified.
23:02Barnes Wallace described him as all guts and go.
23:06But if you strip back the layers of Boy's Own Legend from the movie,
23:10a far more complex figure emerges.
23:13So who was the real Wing Commander Gibson?
23:19This most English of heroes was born in 1918 in India,
23:24serving the British Raj,
23:26only moving back to Britain when he was six years old.
23:29Gibson was basically insecure
23:31in that he had a very dysfunctional family.
23:34At the age of six, his parents split up.
23:37His mother became an alcoholic by the time he was 12
23:40and he didn't have a family life in any sense.
23:43That meant that he was, I think, throughout his life,
23:47an insecure person and somewhat lonely.
23:50There was nothing in his early life
23:52that gave clues to the wartime hero he would become.
23:55At the school, he was sound but unspectacular.
24:00He was Lance Corpland, the OTC, and he didn't shine in sports,
24:06so he was not, therefore, in any sense an outstanding personality.
24:10His one love was flying,
24:13and from 1935, he got it into his mind he actually wanted to fly,
24:18and that gave him a sense of purpose.
24:21He had in his room there a collection of Biggles books,
24:24and on the wall was a photograph of Albert Ball,
24:27the VC of the First World War,
24:29and I think that may well be his inspiration wanting to fly.
24:33When he goes into the service in 1936,
24:37he then has to acquire a military personality,
24:41and that's where I think you have a difference
24:44between what he was as a person
24:47and what he was as an officer in the RAF.
24:51I was a sergeant then,
24:53and one of his, I suppose, shortcomings, if that's the right word,
24:57was he couldn't mix with the lower ranks too well.
25:02He was a strict disciplinarian.
25:04The other thing about him was that he was quite small, quite short.
25:09And one got the impression that short men
25:12were more for arrogance than they were for anything else.
25:15I remember on one occasion, on an evening meeting,
25:19Gibson really tore a young Canadian pilot to pieces
25:24because he'd rung his girlfriend in Lincoln the night before
25:28and said, sorry, he couldn't make it, we've got something on.
25:32That was all he said, but as far as Gibson was concerned,
25:35that was a breach of security,
25:37and so we knew exactly what the position was.
25:40He was not a natural leader.
25:42He was a manufactured leader
25:44in the sense that he adopted an attitude
25:47which he felt was the way of running something
25:50in much the same way as a school was run.
25:53Many years later, one of the rear gunners on 617 Squadron
25:57said he was a product of his environment,
26:00and by that he meant that he'd come from a public school
26:03which was a hierarchical organisation
26:07where the prefects controlled the boys,
26:10and he applied this to the RAF.
26:13He made sure that the lower ranks saluted him
26:16because he felt that that was part of discipline,
26:19and without saluting and without smart uniforms,
26:22you didn't have efficiency.
26:24He is not only insecure and lonely,
26:27but he's rather gauche socially.
26:32Gibson, as the commander, was much more of a martinet,
26:35much more a disciplinarian than he appeared in the film.
26:41I've saved my life, never again!
26:44He appeared as sort of a jovial, almost jovial person.
26:48What are you messing about for? I told you I'm not going.
26:51Discover this new squadron.
26:53Are you going to fly with it?
26:55Of course I'm going to fly with it.
26:57Well, you'll need a crew, won't you?
26:59Of course, but there's nothing in there. I'll get one, all right.
27:02Gibson's crew from his old squadron
27:05eagerly signed up to join him.
27:08But that's not the way it happened.
27:12In fact, only one member of his old crew
27:15joined him at 617 Squadron,
27:18Flight Lieutenant Hutchison, his wireless operator.
27:21Whilst on leave, he met actress and showgirl Eve Moore,
27:25who was older than him, at a party in Coventry.
27:28They were married the next year, in 1940.
27:32In her words, he stalked her.
27:35He used to go to all her plays,
27:38and the other cast said,
27:40there's that RAF boy sitting in the front row.
27:43My husband's efforts and all the boys and the services with him
27:46can bring this war to an end so quickly,
27:49so much the better, and then we can enjoy ourselves.
27:52But hundreds of miles away in Lincolnshire,
27:55her husband was shouldering the immense burden of leadership alone.
27:59He befriended a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force,
28:02Margaret Masters.
28:04When I first met Guy,
28:07I'd gone out to help either operate on
28:11or bring in a very badly injured officer.
28:15After kneeling on the floor for some time
28:19and holding what was left of a badly injured arm,
28:24my knees rather hurt.
28:27It was a very hard floor.
28:30And I looked at a pair of legs behind me and said,
28:34can I borrow your legs to lean against?
28:37I didn't know it at the time,
28:40but they were Guy's legs.
28:43That's how I first met him.
28:46My first impressions were
28:49that he was a typical officer,
28:53full of his own importance at times,
28:56but there was something about him
28:59that I wanted to know more and more.
29:02And I did.
29:05He was charming.
29:10I found that he was at a bad spot.
29:16In fact, his marriage was broken
29:19and he was lonely, unhappy,
29:22but he loved his job.
29:25Everything was flying.
29:28This is the first time Margaret has spoken publicly
29:32about their relationship.
29:34She recalls a fantasy world they escaped to.
29:37In it, they shared a life together
29:40in a place they called Honeysuckle Cottage.
29:43Each meeting was adding a little bit
29:46to the cottage.
29:49I could tell you how many teaspoons we had.
29:52We did it that much.
29:55It was just a form of escapism
29:58from the life we were leading,
30:01which on one hand was very, very dangerous,
30:09and on my behalf was very, very painful at times.
30:12We used to drive out
30:15and sit and just chat just generally
30:18and found out about each other's lives.
30:21Do you think he was in love with you?
30:24I hope he was.
30:27Yes, I was.
30:30I'd be a fool if I wasn't.
30:33Wing Commander Gibson VC,
30:36who led the Great Lancaster Raid on the Ruhr Dam,
30:40Immediately after the dam's raid,
30:43Guy Gibson inevitably became a national hero,
30:46receiving a Victoria Cross for his leadership.
30:49His bravery was extraordinary.
30:52After dropping the first bomb,
30:55he flew in a further three times
30:58with the attacking bombers
31:01to draw the fierce enemy fire away from them.
31:04Guy Gibson died in a plane crash over Holland
31:07the following year.
31:10The Petwood Hall Hotel in Woodhall Spa.
31:13It's where the 617 Squadron officers' mess
31:16was eventually based.
31:19Chris Norton and I are staying here tonight
31:22before embarking on our flight to Germany.
31:25Inside there's a bar
31:28dedicated to the memory of the squadron
31:31and its defining moment.
31:34And was himself awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross,
31:37one of Gibson's many wartime honours.
31:40You've been to war yourself
31:43and had to presumably lie awake at night
31:46or at least know that tomorrow morning
31:49is the day I'm going to go into action.
31:52What's that like?
31:55The first time you go into action,
31:58everybody's anxious.
32:01Everybody's anxious about not making a mistake.
32:04I think they're less anxious,
32:07albeit that there's still an anxiety there,
32:10that they might not come back.
32:13Now, it was probably more certain in 1943
32:16than it is today that you're not going to come back.
32:19The chances of not coming back were quite high.
32:22In the case of the Iraq war,
32:25which is when I was commanding one squadron,
32:28I guess in the Second World War
32:31the issues were much clearer.
32:34Exactly, it was a war of national survival.
32:37Yes, absolutely.
32:40And the whole country was at war,
32:43whether you were a labourer or a driver or a wife,
32:46a nurse, a pilot or a soldier, everyone was at war.
32:49In about ten hours' time,
32:52we'll be setting off to follow Guy Gibson's route.
32:55We wonder how well he slept the night before the raid.
33:13Morning, Martin.
33:15Good morning. How are you?
33:17You all right? Yes, thank you. Good to go?
33:20The time has come to retrace the route taken by 617 Squadron.
33:23First, an impromptu navigation briefing.
33:26Briefing on the wing, always the best way.
33:29And I must admit, to some last-minute nerves,
33:32I'm about to navigate the longest flight
33:35I've ever undertaken in a light aircraft
33:38across some of Europe's busiest skies.
33:41Oh, well, here goes.
33:43Take off.
33:46We'll be in close formation with a second plane
33:49that will follow us as far as the coast.
33:52It was a 400-mile flight that, in 1943,
33:55changed the course of the war.
33:58When the Dambusters left Scampton, there was no tarmac.
34:02Their runway was made of grass.
34:05But some things haven't changed.
34:07As the crews headed for enemy airspace,
34:10each must have wondered whether they would ever see
34:13a familiar landmark like Lincoln Cathedral again.
34:16It's extraordinary to think that that's pretty much what they saw.
34:19It was up in their position, you know,
34:22and not much has changed, really.
34:25Essentially, you're looking out of the window of an aeroplane at the cathedral.
34:29There were so many bomb command bases around Lincolnshire.
34:33And whilst they will have been in small villages and small pubs,
34:38then Lincoln was that big landmark.
34:41So onwards over the familiar towns and villages
34:44and across the vast expanse of the Lincolnshire Fens.
34:48So who were the men who set out for Germany on that day in May in 1943?
34:55It merely suggests that they were veterans,
34:58handpicked by Guy Gibson himself.
35:01But that wasn't the whole story.
35:03Some were there quite by chance.
35:06Jack Liddell was the youngest Dambuster,
35:08but he'd already been thrown out of the RAF.
35:11He was just 15 at the outbreak of war.
35:14But that wasn't about to stop him joining up,
35:17even if he had to lie about his age.
35:20He joined underage, and when the authorities found out his real age,
35:25they threw him out.
35:27So he went to the London Fire Service and worked with them during the Blitz.
35:32Working for the London Fire Service in the Blitz was as dangerous as anything.
35:37I mean, a lot of firemen were killed.
35:40So he did join eventually again
35:43and got trained up as a gunner.
35:47Vic Townsend served with Jack Liddell on the same bomber crew.
35:51He now lives near Sydney, Australia.
35:55These postcards are mementos of their Lancaster bombing raids
35:59while serving together on 61 Squadron.
36:02This is the view young Jack would have had from his position as rear gunner.
36:07I met Jack Liddell in 1942
36:11after we'd come back from Canada
36:13and been pushed into a number of time-wasting activities
36:17just because he was a bottleneck in training.
36:20And I never knew him as Jack Liddell.
36:23He was always called Killer
36:25because he never fired his guns in anger.
36:28They said to all of us,
36:30you can do a period of instruction
36:32or you can join this new squadron which we are just forming,
36:36but we cannot tell you anything about it.
36:39Nobody volunteered.
36:41Nobody wanted to volunteer blind.
36:43But Jack Liddell said,
36:47I can't instruct nobody.
36:50I can fire a gun. I'll go to the new squadron.
36:53So that's how he got to the Dambusters squadron.
36:57So he went on the Dambusters raid and didn't come back.
37:01That's because the Lancaster that Jack Liddell was aboard,
37:04piloted by Robert Barlow,
37:06crashed over Germany, killing all of its crew.
37:09But more of that story in a moment.
37:12Leaving the English coast,
37:14we drop as low as the Lancasters of 617 Squadron
37:17would have done to avoid enemy detection.
37:194570 for Amsterdam, go for Yankee Mike.
37:23For the last 45 minutes, we've been flying east over the North Sea.
37:27Back then, it was a dangerous place,
37:30bristling with enemy ships,
37:32a fact that the crews of 617 Squadron were well aware of.
37:36It wasn't Operation Certain Death,
37:38but it was Operation Quite Likely to Die.
37:45We're going to come back onto the track at Topper,
37:48which is this point here.
37:50So I'll hit that point there for you.
37:52And then you've got it.
37:54So you'll know where you stand.
37:57100 feet. There you go.
37:59Cracking.
38:01Dutch aviation authorities have given us special permission
38:04to cross the coast at a height of 100 feet.
38:07They would have gone as low as they dared,
38:09and I think some of the pilots were extremely low.
38:1230 feet they were reputed to be able to fly at.
38:15Well, this looks a lot less than 100 feet to me.
38:18You're the expert, but I reckon that's a lot less than 100 feet.
38:21You reckon that's a lot less? Well, I've got 100 feet on the altimeter.
38:24So, even in daylight, with no enemy menace to threaten us,
38:28low-flying is difficult.
38:30That's the Dutch coast ahead,
38:32and in 1943 we'd be flying into a lethal hell of anti-aircraft fire.
38:37So your best chance was to stay low.
38:41But that had its dangers too.
38:44As pilot officer Geoff Rice, flying in the second wave of Lancasters,
38:48found to his cost...
38:50He was so low that he had to hop over the sand dunes.
38:54He couldn't judge the distance above the water because of the moon.
38:59And then the last thing you'll see will be a shadow coming up to meet you.
39:03And it's yours. And it's yours.
39:05There was an enormous bang, followed by a second bang.
39:09His engineer said to him,
39:11you've lost the bomb.
39:13And he then had to pull the aircraft up.
39:15But, of course, the water was so violent
39:17that it not only went down through the fuselage,
39:20but it hit the top of the fuselage in the cockpit where he was.
39:24Incredibly, Geoff Rice managed to pull the bomber out of the water
39:28in what surely must be one of the greatest escapes of the war.
39:32And he headed for home, his mission over.
39:36With the tail wheel disabled by the impact,
39:38the landing back at Scampton was dangerous
39:41and left the rear gunner, Sergeant Burns, trapped in his turret.
39:45So poor old Burns has to be cut out of the rear turret by the ground crew.
39:51The day after the raid, the surviving pilots were photographed together.
39:56Gibson quizzed Rice as to why he'd lost the bomb.
40:00He told him, and he looked at him, and he said,
40:03bad luck, I almost did the same thing.
40:11Do you want to come up your right of track at the moment?
40:14Very good. 143, is that right?
40:17Yes. So that's exactly what they did.
40:19What they did is, if I'd got you right of track, but I'm not flying properly,
40:23you'd have said, right, come left 10 for about a minute,
40:26and then turn me back onto my heading.
40:28OK, well, that's what you want to do. OK.
40:31We're crossing the Zuiderzee, Holland's inland sea.
40:36And following the Dambusters' wake seems simple,
40:39flying in broad daylight, that is.
40:41The only thing you wouldn't want to do in here
40:43is you wouldn't want to fly past a flak ship.
40:45We are absolutely beautifully on track.
40:49We've got perfect visibility, and nobody's shooting at us.
40:53Drifting off the route plan cost more than one Lancaster the lives of its crew.
40:58For them flying at 100 feet or less at night, it was understandable.
41:03But even in the day, navigation isn't simple.
41:06As I'm finding out...
41:08I think I'm slightly right of track.
41:10I've got you bang on. OK.
41:13Well, by my reckoning, we should be turning now,
41:17and I can't see the river.
41:23I think we missed it. I think it was back there.
41:26I don't think so. I think that the river is coming up on our right-hand side.
41:30OK.
41:31So I'm going to override you. Please, please.
41:35If you just think about the emotion that's going on as you start thinking,
41:39I haven't seen my point. I'm starting to get worried.
41:42My point's late.
41:44He's right, of course.
41:46But in the industrial sprawl of southern Holland, it's easy to make a mistake.
41:50In 1943, it could have been a fatal error.
41:55It's the confusion, isn't it? Yeah.
41:57You see something go past, and you think, right, that's me.
42:01And then you're getting doubt in your own mind.
42:04More doubt in your own mind.
42:06Crossing the border and going to land. Any information?
42:13Bye-bye.
42:16This is the German border, and in 1943, these were very dangerous skies,
42:22as Flight Lieutenant Robin Barlow and the crew of E.E.C. were just about to find out.
42:29It's thought a combination of enemy fire and pylons conspired to bring down the Lancaster,
42:35with the loss of all seven crew near Tehulden in northern Germany.
42:42But when the embers cooled from the crash site,
42:45the Germans were able to recover the top-secret weapon intact.
42:49They knew that the Germans had recovered one of the bombs,
42:52and they were afraid that they would be able to adapt it and use it.
42:57Weapons experts quickly went to work analysing the bomb.
43:01These technical diagrams show how full a picture they had of the weapon.
43:07And along with the bomb, they had one of the surviving members of the Lancaster
43:13on the other side of the Moerner Dam, Flight Sergeant John Fraser.
43:17He was in solitary confinement for seven days, and he was interrogated.
43:24He did describe some details of being forced to.
43:30I would say that he probably wasn't treated very well.
43:35German transcripts of his interrogation show how Fraser gave away top-secret information,
43:41including details of his training and his own role as bomb aimer.
43:46He also divulged technical details of how the weapon was deployed.
43:51And this seldom-seen top-secret German footage shows just how far advanced their plans were
43:57to deploy a similar weapon against British targets.
44:00Codenamed Kurt, it was a rocket-assisted bouncing bomb.
44:06So the same dams used by 617 Squadron to train for the raid
44:11were now themselves under threat of attack.
44:14These German plans showed the fears were justified.
44:18Enemy reconnaissance had pinpointed the reservoirs
44:21which presented the maximum opportunity to damage the British war effort.
44:26A month after the dams raid, Winston Churchill was so worried about a copycat raid by the Germans,
44:32he personally sought assurances from the War Cabinet about the readiness of British defences.
44:38For the five dams close to Sheffield, we deployed a total of 5,000 troops.
44:43We put smoke-screened balloons, anti-aircraft guns,
44:47and in some of the dams we actually put a metal structure on each side of the dam
44:53with wires slung down between them so you couldn't have low-flying aircraft attacking.
45:03It's bank holiday in Germany, and the crowds are out enjoying the sun.
45:09This is the Moerner Dam, now a place of leisure
45:13as well as an abiding memorial to a national disaster.
45:17It's hard to believe this mighty stone structure was ever breached.
45:23It's huge. It's big. There's a lot of water in it.
45:29From up here, it makes me shudder to think of that dam coming down.
45:34But when it did, the devastation wrought upon this beautiful place was total.
45:44Maria Niehoff was 16 years old and living in the town of Neyheim, about four miles from the dam.
45:51Our house stood here.
45:57Our neighbor Herr Schacker said to us,
46:02Save yourselves, the Moerner has been breached.
46:06The water poured down the valley, destroying towns and villages for many miles.
46:11You heard this roaring sound, and as soon as we heard that roar of the water,
46:18we were lucky we could run straight up the hill. We just ran and ran.
46:23Time changes the perception of what's an enemy and what's good and what's bad.
46:29And really, it was the political regime that was making this bad,
46:34and not the people nor the country.
46:37That being said, it's now against the Geneva Convention to pump water.
46:44So it's an illegal target. If we were ever set against such a thing,
46:49then pumping a dam is completely illegal ever since the Geneva Convention.
46:59Maria is retracing her footsteps.
47:02This journey of about two miles probably saved her life.
47:09We just kept running.
47:11When we arrived at the top of the hill, we stopped at the cross and sat down underneath it.
47:21There was one neighbor. They had four children.
47:24They must have been asleep and not woken up. I don't know.
47:28One man was home on leave and said to his wife, he would go up the hill with the baby.
47:33And he went back to help this family with the four children.
47:38They all died. It was just how it was.
47:46There were several people at the cross. They had run up the hill.
47:50It was a very clear night, so they could see everything.
47:53They came in their planes and they shot at us.
47:56Like I said, if I hadn't been there, I wouldn't have believed it.
48:00There were no men there, just women and children.
48:03It was just war. That's how it was.
48:08So many people died.
48:12We were lucky that we went up that hill or we might have died as well.
48:19Today we arrive in Pistein, in the land of our close European allies.
48:24For us it's a thrill. For them it's a different thing, isn't it, altogether?
48:31It's hard, really, to say what my thoughts are,
48:35because there are so many conflicting thoughts.
48:40All these years later, Maria's memories are still vivid.
48:47Then in the morning we came down. Everything was underwater.
48:51All the houses had gone. Our house was simply no longer there.
48:55Not even the foundations. There was nothing left of it.
48:59All the houses had gone. We just couldn't believe it.
49:04Of the estimated 1,600 people who died,
49:08it's reckoned that more than 900 were foreign forced labourers.
49:13By comparison, the Eder Dam breach caused a fraction of the casualties.
49:18Four bombs hit the dam before the breach was confirmed.
49:24And then where I'm standing here, a tsunami was triggered this way
49:30and 135 billion litres of water, an unimaginable amount,
49:35came cascading down the valley.
49:38Guy Gibson looked down and thought it was an absolutely wonderful sight.
49:43And, of course, to them it was. The raid was successful.
49:45They'd done their duty. They hadn't been killed on the way.
49:48They hadn't screwed up by missing the dam altogether.
49:51And yet down here, it must have been awful.
49:57And it's hard to equate the peacefulness and the calm,
50:01the nice afternoon in the sun,
50:04you know, people strolling backwards and forwards,
50:07sitting on benches, having picnics.
50:09And this was a scene of such utter, terrible devastation.
50:15And for me it's poignant as well,
50:17because I read about this raid when I was 15,
50:21and it's just something, if you're interested in aeroplanes and war stories,
50:25that is right in the centre of your imagination,
50:28and here I am where it happened.
50:31And I can imagine and hear the Lancasters pulling up and getting out over there.
50:38And yet there's a sort of an overtone of sadness as well,
50:41the futility of it all.
50:43In the end, it didn't really accomplish very much at all.
50:48And that sentiment strikes a chord in modern-day Germany.
50:56So, on the German side, we see them as war victims.
51:00We see this event as a day of commemoration
51:03and also as a warning of the futility of war,
51:06and we hope that such events are never repeated.
51:11In England, it is remembered very differently.
51:14In some reports, the German casualties are forgotten about
51:17and the attack is seen in pure technical terms
51:20as a military operation against a target.
51:25When this squadron photograph was taken after the raid,
51:2853 members of 617 Squadron were already dead.
51:33Nearly 70 years on, and just a handful survive.
51:37One of the last two British Dambaster veterans
51:40has died at the age of 91 at his home in Lincolnshire.
51:44Flying Officer Ray Greyston was a member of 617 Squadron.
51:48His funeral will be held at Boston Crematorium.
51:56Ray Greyston was part of the crew that breached the Eder Dam.
52:00On a later raid, he was captured after escaping from his home.
52:04He spent the rest of the war as a German prisoner.
52:08Obviously very sad in the passing of Ray.
52:11He was a great guy, very modest,
52:14wore the badge of hero reluctantly.
52:17The ingenuity, the spirit of these young men
52:21who were just doing a job and did it really well
52:25in such a short space of time should be remembered.
52:29What we are capable of,
52:31what we are capable of being able to do when we're called upon.
52:35And I think that's very much lacking today.
52:38I think we should remember that.
52:49And on the anniversary of the raid, they are still remembered.
52:53At this year's commemorative service,
52:56there was only one dams raid veteran attending.
53:00Johnny Johnson.
53:03My father was pilot of AJT on the dams raid.
53:07I get to see Johnny Johnson, my dad's bomb aimer,
53:12and he's the last living member in the UK that we know of.
53:18And there's only four of them in the world,
53:21so it's just really great to come back
53:24and see somebody that was in my dad's crew.
53:29You look at what these people did,
53:32left their jobs and their schools when they were 18, 19, 20 years old
53:37and went out to fight a war,
53:39and not knowing how long it was going to take
53:42or if he'd ever come back.
53:44And then they came back, and they sort of, after the war,
53:48it's like they dropped it and just went on with their lives.
53:52And it was a part that was, they all just sort of let lie.
53:57And, you know, they don't brag or anything like that,
54:02and it's just wonderful to honour those people.
54:06Not much was said when they returned from war.
54:09Not much at all.
54:11And my dad didn't talk much to my mom about it,
54:15and he certainly, as a little girl,
54:18I just remember my father loved flying,
54:21and I was a dam buster's daughter,
54:25and he busted dams,
54:27and I didn't know what the heck that was as a child.
54:30It was just funny.
54:32I thought it was funny,
54:34and how now when I look back years later
54:37and I can reflect on what these men did.
54:41To go out on the night of a raid like that
54:44and to be talking about we might not come home
54:48and to fly and do that,
54:51I can't imagine the courage it took.
54:56MUSIC
55:00This has been an amazing journey for me.
55:03I've learned so much about a story that I knew very well,
55:08and there was a lot more to learn.
55:11And now I'm about to realise a boyhood ambition.
55:17MUSIC
55:22OK, flaps.
55:24And trolley are up.
55:26And indicate leave a message.
55:28MUSIC
55:31Your push to flight.
55:33Pressure's good.
55:35MUSIC
55:45You guys really do have the best job in the world, don't you?
55:49MUSIC
55:58There is a clear area up there to do the panel change, which is fine.
56:01MUSIC
56:08Today's flight is all about marking
56:11perhaps the most important act of wartime defiance
56:14in this nation's history.
56:20This is the Battle of Britain memorial flight, Lancaster.
56:25One of only two left flying in the world.
56:29This is the end of a memorable personal journey for me
56:34and the fulfilment of a boyhood dream, really.
56:38I can't believe I'm doing this.
56:41It's the 70th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain.
56:46Today this grand old lady is on ceremonial duty.
56:53We'll be giving a lot of pleasure to people on the ground
56:56as well as memorialising some of the brave men
56:59who lost their lives flying in these wonderful things.
57:04What could evoke the British wartime spirit better
57:07than the White Cliffs of Dover
57:09and a Spitfire flying in close formation?
57:13On the ground, thousands have gathered,
57:16including some of the veterans themselves.
57:19All have come to see us fly past
57:21in honour of those who died defending this country.
57:24Seeing the Battle of Britain memorial flight Spitfire
57:29join us and then do an attacking run,
57:32it's a sight I never thought I would see in this life, believe me,
57:35but it was very exciting.
57:38Just when it seems it really cannot get any better,
57:41well, it just has.
57:44Squadron leader Stuart Reid has asked me to join him on the flight deck.
57:49He said to them,
57:51the best part of 70 years ago,
57:53we'll still have one flying in honour of what you did.
57:55They would never have believed him.
57:58Ceremonial duties performed, it's time to head for home.
58:03So what have I learned along the way?
58:05Well, the Danbuster story and the men who made it possible,
58:09it's not like the movie at all.
58:11It's far more unbelievable,
58:13a far more amazing story than that.
58:32The Danbuster story
58:37The Danbuster story
58:42The Danbuster story
58:47The Danbuster story
58:52The Danbuster story
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