‘In the bleak midwinter, frosty winds made moan’ goes the old carol. However, here on the western coast of Europe, it looks as though we might have a mild and wet festive season. Never mind!
The month of May this year brought the millionth visitor to this blog, and as of today we’ve added nearly one hundred thousand since. So please keep checking us out for all the latest Dambuster news. And whatever the weather wherever you are, let me wish you all the best for Christmas and the New Year!
Seasonal picture above by Maria Mekht of Unsplash. A great site for royalty free pictures and images!
Dambusters Blog 
And a very happy Christmas to you too.Thank you all for everything you are doing at Bomber Command,its a very real way to keep in touch with people of like mind.I hope the coming year brings more for us to celebrate and enjoy.Enjoy your Christmas and your family’s and stay safe.
Merry Christmas, Charles. Thank you for keeping us up to date. Especially notifying us of the NATO commeration service in Sardinia. Denise Dawson (nee Hay).
Thank you for your good wishes , I am 82 & visited the Dams this year with my son , a very moving , emotional trip & thank God for all those brave young men who fought to keep our country free , let us ALWAYS TEMEMBER THEM I look forward to your news & appreciate all that you do especially the Bomber Boys ! Have a blessed Christmas & a healthy New Year too .
Happy Christmas to Charles and all contributors. Hope you all have a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
And a Merry Christmas to you and yours too, Charles
Regards
Phil
A Merry Christmas and a Happy new year to all my fellow Dambuster bloggers!!!
Interesting blog! My venerable mother in law who now lives with us is aged 96 and was at one time engaged to a Bomber pilot who died in service over the North Sea. She is a living reminder to me of this period. Her father was pulled off the plane that had Leslie Howard aboard that was then shot down. – Apparently, he was ordered off the plane at the last minute by a locally based British Intelligence officer; as he was British Consul General in Lisbon and had been due to fly home to make some report or other.
I remember we gave a very bad time to an old (old to us then old) Monaro grazier who had retrained in his 50s to become a part time Science teacher that is when I attended a High School in Canberra in the early ‘70s. He has been a pilot in the Battle of Britain and we were just atrocious to him making goat and sheep noises etc., over the dissected rats, Bunsen Burners and the like! Heroes never receive the tribute they require or deserve! He didn’t seem perturbed as I think he has seen a lot worse thing than a group of idiot schoolchildren! I also spent multiples hours, and days working on gardening projects with a neighbour of my grandfathers in Sydney who has been a pilot facing the Japanese, again a dashing ex-countryman who drove a brace of Lancia’s- at a time when their wiring was more than bad and when things always seemed to fall off them every time he got one to start and drove up the street!
We have all lived with heroes among us and with people who lived and were very close to these heroes not realising the full meaning of this I suppose until was a bit too late. Film can play key role in honouring what we may not have yet fully honoured and rally, can never fully honour even if we tried to.
One thing I am interested in does anyone, perhaps someone not from the UK think that Fry’s script once it is translated into usable dialogue, might just be a bit too much of a fetishized, High Camp re-run of the worst sort of excesses of stuff we all loved but also to some extent also, at times, had to take with pinch of salt, when watching the great black and white British war movies made mostly in the ‘50’s? I am thinking of lines like ‘I think he’s had a bit of bother at home’ (or something to that effect) spoken about Kenneth More’s character in Sink the Bismarck! …
Is say this not out of disrespect for the writing powers and capacities of Mr Fry who I have reason to know has exceptional capacity for good use and good writing in English.
However, I am not sure he may not be tempted to continue the old tropes in a sort of homage to the art form but that there were ‘Dominions people’ among the crew (such as those played in such a clipped and emasculated form at the original film by the late great Bill Kerr. Kerr gave a great performance in the original film despite the limitations placed on his characterisation due to time, role (as able to be portrayed relative to storyline) and the rest. Also, too the still evergreen issue of how those other than those who went to public school are portrayed? Also, there is the temptation will there not be to not have a wart and all portrayal of some of the key figures or has this sort of thing been thought about and talked about already? I must say I loved the portrayal of Barnes Wallis in the original by the great Redgrave and the great actor named way back ten years ago to play him in this re-make will do great job too!
As someone with Australian and New Zealand connections I can say that I hope Mr Jackson has the time to be the director for the re-make and do it soon otherwise it might not ever happen. I understand he was inspired for some key aspects or other of his famous Tolkien films by the assertive urge visual motifs and the driving visual narrative driving the original Dam Busters film. I wonder if any thought has been given to commissioning another good and effective piece of music which might attempt to balance and in one sense honour whatever use is made of the great music of Eric Coates in the re-make (obviously I would hope use is made of it again).