Day: May 19, 2008

Flying with the Dambusters – live video!

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I missed this BBC posting on Friday. This is a seven minute sequence of video (no commentary) shot inside the BBMF Lancaster as it makes its three passes over the Derwent reservoir. It’s mainly taken from inside the bomb aimer’s front blister, and gives you a real sense of what it is like to fly at a hundred feet altitude across a lake. When you consider that at the Möhne Dam, on the real raid, they were flying forty feet lower, they didn’t know the terrain and there were three anti-aircraft gun emplacements firing at them. Now you get some idea of what it was like!

Towards the end, the camera operator moves up to shoot some footage from the cockpit. It’s interesting to see how cramped it was. Tall pilots like David Maltby and Joe McCarthy must have found it a squeeze to get into a space this small. It was a lot easier for someone short, like Guy Gibson.

Dambuster survivors

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Somebody has recently asked me privately how many of the original Dambusters are still alive. The answer to that is six. I am not going to name all of them here, as I think that one of them no longer does any public events. Of the five who still appear in public there are two in the UK. At the time of the dams raid, George (Johnny) Johnson was Sgt G L Johnson, the bomb aimer in the crew of AJ-T, piloted by Joe McCarthy. The crew dropped their bomb on the Sorpe Dam. 

Ray Grayston also lives in England. As Sgt R E Grayston, he was the flight engineer in Les Knight’s crew, AJ-N. They were the crew which dropped the mine which finally breached the Eder Dam.

The only pilot still surviving is Les Munro, one of two New Zealanders on the Dams Raid. Flt Lt J L Munro flew AJ-W on the raid, and was also supposed to attack the Sorpe Dam. Unfortunately, crossing the Dutch coast near Vlieland, they were hit by flak, which put the intercom and the VHF radio out of action, as well as damaging the compass and the tail turret pipes. With no way of speaking either to each other on board, or to other aircraft, they had no option but to return to Scampton with their mine still intact.

The final two Dambusters who are still active returned to their native Canada after the war. Both were gunners: Fred Sutherland and Grant MacDonald. Sgt F E Sutherland was the front gunner in Les Knight’s crew, AJ-N. Flt Sgt G S MacDonald was the rear gunner in Ken Brown’s crew, AJ-F. Like AJ-T, they attacked the Sorpe Dam, but failed to breach it. 

In my dealings with these gentlemen, I have to say that they were all models of courtesy. They have all told their stories hundreds of times and yet their patience and willingness to provide information is outstanding. We owe them all a huge debt as they keep the story of the Dams Raid alive.