Author Archives: charlesfoster
Help for Heroes ride to follow Dams Raid route
On the night of 16/17 May 2012 the 69th anniversary of the Dams Raid will be marked by a fundraising motorcycle ride for the Help for Heroes charity. The four riders will follow as closely as possible the route flown by … Continue reading
Filed under Anniversaries, David Maltby
Les Knight’s mother at his grave – new picture
A Dutch correspondent, Hans Dekker, who lives in Den Ham, has kindly sent me some exciting rare photographs concerning Flt Lt Les Knight, the pilot of AJ-N on the Dams Raid, who was killed in a later operation on 16 … Continue reading
Filed under Dambuster Graves, Les Knight
Blink and you’ll miss it
My good friend Dom Howard kindly recorded Stephen Fry’s very brief reference to the Dambusters remake on The One Show on BBC1 last night. Receiving an award for “Most Consistent Attempt to Remake a Film” the great man revealed that he will … Continue reading
Filed under Dambusters remake, Peter Jackson, Stephen Fry
The wrong Dambusters
Patrick Bishop is a great author, and his books Bomber Boys and Fighter Boys are invaluable sources of reference for anyone wanting to find out more about life in the wartime RAF. But someone has taken their eyes off the … Continue reading
617 Squadron’s last wartime casualties
The last wartime loss from 617 Squadron happened on 16 April 1945, when 18 Lancasters set off to attack the German cruiser Lutzow in the Kiel Canal. This was the third mission against the ship. The previous two, in the … Continue reading
Bouncing bomb reaches US screens
If you haven’t yet caught up with the Windfall Films documentary Building the Bouncing Bomb, screened last May in the UK and later in Canada, you now have a chance to see it, if you live in the USA. It’s … Continue reading
Filed under Modern documentaries
The Dam Busters – Heffer’s view
If you watched The Dam Busters earlier today on ITV4, and are now paying your first visit to this blog, welcome. You may be searching for more information about the remake of the film, which is in the hands of … Continue reading
Filed under Dam Busters 1955 film, Dambusters remake
Christmas is all around me, and so the feeling grows…
…and so the immortal words of Billy Mack from Love Actually ring out as another year draws to a close. This blog has just had its most successful year, with nearly 100,000 visits. So let me wish all of you, … Continue reading
Filed under Indescribable
Bill Townsend obituary
Wartime portrait by Cuthbert Orde, published in The Tatler, September 1943 The last pilot to land his aircraft safely on the night of the Dams Raid was Bill Townsend, pilot of AJ-O. He had been detailed as one of the … Continue reading
Filed under Bill Townsend, Obituaries
Dams Raid: how Cleveland heard the news
Dom Howard continues to add to his impressive collection of contemporary reports of the Dams Raid. Here’s the latest, from Cleveland, Ohio, dated 17 May 1943. You can check out the full array of scans on his Photobucket page.
Filed under Contemporary reports
