'The RAF's last air-worthy
Lancaster Bomber. 'A relic of a war that will
soon be beyond living memory.' As a pilot, I've always been fascinated by
the wartime exploits of Bomber Command. I've known some of the veterans. And I own and fly one of the
aeroplanes that they trained in. 'The classic movie about
an impossible mission 'which succeeds against all the odds, 'The Dam Busters is one
of my favourite films.' It's gone! Look! My God! This has to be one of the most iconic
scenes in the history of war cinema. 'But I want to know whether the movie has distorted
our view of the true history of the raid.' What I'm hoping to find
out is the truth behind one of the most famous
war stories of them all. I'm going to retrace the
route taken by 617 squadron during its famous raid and rediscover some of the forgotten
secrets of the Dam Busters. 'I'll be hearing from the RAF's
last survivor from the raid. 'His crew's efforts didn't
feature in the film. 'And taking to the skies with
a former RAF Harrier pilot 'and navigating for him.' By my reckoning, we should be turning
now, and I can't see the river. - I'm going to override you this time.
- Please, please! 'Or at least try.' You're taught resourcefulness, courage... 'He was the dashing wing
commander who led the raid. 'But who was the real Guy Gibson?' - He was arrogant.
- Gorgeous. An absolutely charming young man. 'In London, the bright lights
of Leicester Square receive...' 'The film created an upsurge in national
pride in an era of post-war austerity, like the raid itself, 'boosting beleaguered Britain's morale.' 'Cheers and admiration greet
the princess who wears...' 'And perhaps this is where the film and the legend of
the Dam Busters started to become one and the same. '55 years after its release, The
Dam Busters retains its power 'as a piece of wartime storytelling. 'The stars Richard Todd as
Wing Commander Guy Gibson 'and Michael Redgrave as
Barnes Wallis, the inventor.' In the movie, their double
act personified the bravery and ingenuity that summed up perhaps the most spectacular
and daring raid in the history of aviation warfare. 'Over the years, the movie
has been accepted by many 'as the definitive version of the story. 'But a lot of it was pure fiction.' Guy Gibson's trip to the theatre
did not throw up the ingenious twin-lamp method for accurately measuring
the height of the aircraft above the water. 'No, far less dramatically, 'it was a scientist at the
Ministry of Aircraft Production 'who came up with the idea which was
crucial to the success of the operation.' The written sources for
the film were two books, Guy Gibson's Enemy Coast Ahead and Paul Brickhill's The Dam Busters. Now, according to those who know, both are riddled with inaccuracies. And then much of the information that
director Michael Anderson required for strict historical accuracy
was still classified as secret. Just take me through these timings again and I'll write them down. 'If I'm to follow the
route of 617 squadron, 'I'll need to do my homework. 'Especially as they expect
me to navigate the route. 'Former RAF fighter pilot Chris Norton 'led One Squadron into battle during
the conflicts in the Gulf and Kosovo. 'He's my pilot. I'm beginning to understand
what I'm letting myself in for.' Wow. That's daunting. So they'll probably have had
fairly significant blind areas... 'We'll be joined along the way by former RAF Red
Arrows pilot Dave Slow in a second aircraft.' The whole thing is mindboggling.
That they could navigate at night, being shot at, and not being
able to see out, either. It's probably an advantage, I suppose.
You just rely on your stopwatch and your compass and let the
captain worry about the rest. Lights out, pressure's rising. RPMs good. Warning lights out. 'It's time to get airborne. 'And later, I'll be following the
training routine of 617 Squadron. 'This is RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire,
home of the Dam Busters. 'It's a very different place today. 'There are no longer combat
aircraft based here. 'But you can almost feel
the ghosts of the past.' 'Spring 1943.' 'Airmen specially selected from across Bomber Command
were brought together here to form 617 Squadron 'under the tightest possible secrecy.' We had no idea what the
targets were going to be. And security was at an absolute premium. All letters were censored and even the public
telephone outside the station was monitored. 'They trained for mission impossible not
knowing their weapon or their target. 'Time and again they honed their
low-flying skills over British dams. 'For Johnny and the other young airmen, 'the unknown danger of their
mission to come was on hold 'as their intensive training began.' Flying at 100 feet, which was the prescribed
height for our training, was great. Lying in front, I'd see the
ground just whizzing past. Low level cross-countries
all done by map-reading, because it wasn't feasible to use the navigation aids at that height. Decelerating, 140. Letting down. 'So what's it like to fly so low?
We're about to find out. 'We're heading down to the height that
617 Squadron would've trained at, '100 feet from the ground.' - I'm just going to weave round these houses.
- Good idea. 'The legal minimum flying height
for civilian aircraft is 500 feet. 'We have special permission from
the Civil Aviation Authority.' In 1943, this was the best way to stay alive
if you were over enemy territory. Too low for night fighters and radar. But, of course, it's very
challenging flying this low. But this is in broad daylight. Imagine doing this at night. No. Are you comfy at 100 feet yet? - Me? - Yeah. - Oh, yeah.
- It's funny how quickly it happens, isn't it? This is exactly the sort of
training they would've done. And the beauty of it is that they knew they couldn't get in trouble,
no matter what they did, they'd be over villages and
whatever and learning to navigate. But, of course, this is the day, so you've got lots and
lots of visual resolution. Whereas at night, you
don't have any of that. And the way they simulated that is
they put blue film over the windscreen and they wore yellow goggles. If you look at the amount of risk they carried
in training, it's just amazing, really. 'As the navigator, flying at
this height is difficult for me. 'Instead of the panoramic
view you get at 1,000 feet, 'down here you see very little and
you reach the horizon in seconds, 'so navigation is challenging. 'Luckily, Chris is alongside me.' We've got this coming up on the nose. - Then we're going to come back down there.
- Right. 'This is where 617 Squadron
prepared for the raid. 'The twin towers of the Derwent Dam
in the Derbyshire Peak District.' Fortunately for us, the weather's lovely. So we're going to be in the
hills of the Peak District practising getting into the
very difficult terrain that they had to contend with
when they were in the Ruhr hills. What Gibson did is, he spent a
long time poring over maps, trying to find as many
features as he could in the UK that he could mimic with what
would happen on the raid. And then he got the guys flying round those features again
and again until they could find them in their sleep. They learned all the mistakes of navigation or
the tricks of navigation they would use later. 'Chris knows this valley well. 'He once flew down it in a Harrier Jump
Jet at night at 400 miles an hour. 'But he's never been down it this low.' This was the Dam Busters'
other secret weapon. This is an exact replica of the bomb sight that
they used on the raid. If you believe the film, that is. 'But this man knows the real story
better than anyone else alive. 'Johnny Johnson occupied the
bomb-aimer's position in the Lancaster 'piloted by the American Joe McCarthy.' We had to make our own bomb sights. And they consisted, basically,
of a plywood triangle with pins in the three points. I didn't use one at all. I had no
need to use one on the actual attack. 'That's because Johnny's crew was
dispatched to attack the Sorpe Dam, 'a very different structure
to the Eder and the Mohne.' We wondered what it was all about, how we'd do it.
We didn't know until we got there. The Sorpe had no towers and it was almost impossible to approach for a
head-on attack because of the hills around it. And so the practice was going to have to be coming down over the hills on one side, flying across the dam and releasing the bomb as near as
you could to the centre of the dam. We weren't spinning it. It was
going to be an inert drop. So it was up to me as the bomb-aimer to estimate when was the
right time to drop it. We weren't very happy about that, but there we are.
We had to get on with it. 'On the tenth attempt, he released
the weapon, hitting the target, 'one of only two crew to do so. 'But despite causing serious
damage, the waters were held back. 'Although urgent repairs were needed.' Well, could it really have worked? We're about to find out. 'Back at the Derwent, it's
time for our own experiment. 'Holding the sight steady
is extremely hard.' Almost impossible. - Get your wings level as soon as poss.
- Will do. 'The sight is a nightmare to hold steady.' OK. Coming in, coming, coming, coming. Coming, coming, coming. Coming. Bomb's gone now! I think we got it that time. - It's very fast and furious at the end, isn't it?
- Yeah. 'We're all full of admiration
for the men who first did this. - I still can't believe they managed
to get a Lancaster in there. - I know. This has got to be nimble compared
to a fully-laden Lancaster. Absolutely. 'Because the wooden sight
proved hard to use, 'the bomb-aimers improvised,
with surprising results. 'Believe it or not, this was one device. 'A length of string. 'Again, the two forward points were
used to measure the drop distance 'when lined up with the
twin towers of the dam.' OK, wing's a little... Steady, steady. Steady.
Come by, come by, come by. Level, level. Get it level. Get it level, get it level. OK. All right. Hold it, hold it. Level up. Level up. - Bomb gone!
- Good effort! It's miles away, isn't it? That's phenomenal. I loved that.
That was good. I couldn't decide if we
were on the left that time. But you could see how absolutely
crucial it was to get the wings level. There's no point in letting the bomb go when you've
got any bank on, otherwise it goes off to the side. I prefer the string. 'I now feel I know a bit more about the
problems of dropping a bouncing bomb. 'But what exactly was it?' 'A bouncing bomb that'll skip across the surface
of the water and explode against the dam wall.' 'Codenamed Upkeep, 'this ingenious device was only
ever used on this one raid. 'The secret to its operation 'was applying backspin through a
belt mechanism before release. It made the revolving depth charge 'skip across the surface of the
water before hitting the dam wall 'and exploding at a set depth
to cause maximum damage. 'In the movie, the bomb is
the wrong shape and size, 'because its real dimensions were
classified as secret until 1973. 'Dr Barnes Wallis, the inventor
of the special dam-busting bomb, 'and Air Marshal Sir Robert
Saundby and Lady Saundby.' 'But after the premiere, 'the retired air marshal complained of a
fundamental misconception in the film. 'Wallis, he complained in a
letter to the New Statesman, 'was not behind the idea
to attack the dams.' Plans were being hatched
to attack the German dams was as early as 1937. And the idea of exploding a
depth charge against the dams was being discussed before
the outbreak of the war. I've got an idea for destroying the dams. The effects on Germany would be enormous. I know all that. I've read the report. - Do you really think you can knock
down a dam with that thing? - Yes. It looks clever enough on paper, but that goes for all these wheezy ideas. - When you try to make them work, they fall down flat.
- This one doesn't. - How do you know?
- We've tested it and proved it. I've got some films here. Barnes Wallis is depicted
as the genius inventor, frustrated by bureaucracy and the
scepticism of the War Office. That's not strictly true. 'The real Barnes Wallis did feel
a huge burden of responsibility 'for the airmen who had to
deliver his invention.' One was endangering those men's lives simply to make an idea work. But, mind you, the doing was done by Guy
Gibson and 617 Squadron, not by me. 'What can't be disputed 'is the bravery of those young
men who took to the skies.' Their courage, audacity and sacrifice is rightly celebrated in this movie. 'Two months after 617 Squadron was
formed, their task was finally revealed. 'They'd fly at night, 60
feet above the water, 'at more than 200 miles an hour. 'Possibly under heavy fire, 'they'd drop their single untried weapon
in an attempt to break the dam walls 'and destroy German armament
factories in the valleys below.' Under the light of the full moon, seven young men climbed
into each Lancaster. They'd all trained exhaustively, honing their individual skills, each of them depending on their fellow
crew members for their survival. It's hard to imagine how they were feeling as they sat cramped in their
cockpits waiting for takeoff. 'The 19 Lancasters left RAF
Scampton in three waves. 'Flying low over the North Sea,
they crossed the enemy coast 'and on deep into the Ruhr Valley. 'They pressed home their attack on three
dams, breaching the Mohne and the Eder. 'But the air crews paid a
terrible price for their bravery. 'Of 19 Lancasters, only 11 come home.' My dad called it a suicide mission. So courage, absolute courage beyond any fear. 'John Fraser survived the
wreckage of his crashed plane 'due to the heroism of his
pilot, John Hopgood.' They were badly hit and
Dad released the bomb. Hopgood tried to take the aircraft
up approximately 300 feet so that the crew could bail. My dad managed to pull his chute out
and it got caught in the slipstream and the chute opened and he bailed at
very, very low altitude, extremely low, and he said the treetops
looked awfully damn close. This memorial commemorates
the airmen of 617 Squadron who lost their lives in World War II. More than a quarter of them fell on that first raid in May 1943. 'But on the German side, the consequences
of that raid were catastrophic, 'in human terms as well as industrial.' Are you there? Nearly 70 years on, these scenes of devastation
could be seen as insensitive. Even triumphalist from today's perspective. So many innocent people were killed. But this was wartime. 'The next stop off on our
journey is where it all began, 'RAF Scampton, home of the Dam Busters. 'This was the officers' mess when
617 Squadron was based here.' You know most of the chaps, I think.
Carry on, please. - Hello, sir.
- Hello.
- McCarthy, sir. 'In the movie, this is where Gibson meets the
officers from his new Squadron for the first time. 'And this is where that scene was shot.' Just extraordinary. Even derelict, it's so atmospheric. And this is the officers' mess at Scampton. You can imagine it filled
with rumbustious young men not long out of school. Probably even had mates
killed last week, yesterday. And there would've been a fantastic
amount of horseplay in here. I mean, they probably played
cricket and rugby right here. And got drunk right here. And who could blame them? 'A short walk from the
officers' mess at Scampton 'is another relic of the raid, steeped
in the history of the squadron.' I'm trying to put myself in Guy
Gibson's shoes, as it were, the night before the raid, sitting in this office
with that awesome responsibility on his shoulders. At the age of 24. It just... It doesn't compute, you know? I get nervous sometimes if I'm just going off
in my plane on my own. There's just that little tension,
you know, about... being a pilot and just knowing where you're going
and the things that could go wrong. Just imagining that with all of
those lives, all of those crews. The Nazis, they have their
German youth movement, where they're taught the
foulest things in life, and you're quite the opposite. 'This was Guy Gibson
addressing the boy scouts. 'He was patriotism personified. 'Barnes Wallis described
him as "all guts and go." 'But if you strip back the layers
of Boy's Own legend from the movie, 'a far more complex figure emerges. 'So who was the real Wing Commander Gibson? 'This most English of heroes
was born in 1918 in India 'during the British Raj, only moving back
to Britain when he was six years old.' Gibson was basically insecure in that
he had a very dysfunctional family. At the age of six, his parents split up. His mother became an alcoholic
by the time he was 12 and he didn't have a family life in any sense.
That meant that he was, throughout his life, an insecure
person and somewhat lonely. 'There was nothing in his early life that gave
clues to the wartime hero he would become. At the school, he was
sound but unspectacular. He was lance corporal in the OTC and he didn't shine in sports, so he was not
therefore, in any sense, an outstanding personality. His one love was flying and from 1935, he got it into his
mind that he actually wanted to fly, and that gave him a sense of purpose. He had, in his room, a
collection of Biggles books, and on the wall was a photograph of Albert
Ball, the VC of the First World War, and I think that may well be his
inspiration for wanting to fly. When he goes into the service in 1936, he then has to acquire a
military personality. And that's where I think you have a
difference between what he was as a person and what he was as an officer in the RAF. I was a sergeant then and one of his, I suppose, shortcomings,
if that's the right word, was that he couldn't mix with
the lower ranks too well. He was a strict disciplinarian. The other thing about him was that
he was quite small, quite short. And one got the impression that short men were more for arrogance than
they were for anything else. And I remember, on one occasion, on an evening meeting, Gibson really
tore a young Canadian pilot to pieces because he'd rung his girlfriend
in Lincoln the night before and said sorry, he couldn't make
it, "we've got something on." That was all he said, but as far as Gibson was
concerned, that was a breach of security. And so we knew exactly
what the position was. He was not a natural leader.
He was a manufactured leader in the sense that he adopted an attitude which
he felt was the way of running something in much the same way as a school was run. Maybe years later, one of the rear gunners on 617
Squadron said he was, "a product of his environment" and by that he meant that he'd
come from a public school, which was a hierarchical organisation, where the prefects controlled the boys, and he applied this to the RAF, he made sure that the
lower ranks saluted him, because he felt that that
was part of discipline. Without saluting and without smart
uniforms, you didn't have efficiency. He is not only insecure and lonely,
but he's rather gauche socially. Gibson as the commander was
much more of a martinet, much more a disciplinarian
than he appeared in the film. You saved my life. I'll never forget it. He appeared as sort of
an almost jovial person. What are you messing about for?
I told you, I'm not going. - This new squadron, are you going to fly with it?
- Of course. - You'll need a crew, won't you?
- Of course, but I'll get one all right. - Ooh, you want to get rid of us.
- I didn't say that. Gibson's crew from his old squadron
eagerly signed up to join him. But that's not the way it happened. 'In fact, only one member of his old
crew joined him at 617 Squadron. 'Flight Lieutenant Hutchinson,
his wireless operator. 'Whilst on leave, he met actress
and showgirl Eve Moore, 'who was older than him,
at a party in Coventry. 'They were married the next year, in 1940.' In her words, he stalked her. He used to go to all her plays and the other cast said, "There's that
RAF boy sitting in the front row." My husband's efforts, and all the
boys in the services with him, can bring this war to an end so quickly. So much the better. Then
we can enjoy ourselves. 'But hundreds of miles
away in Lincolnshire, 'her husband was shouldering the
immense burden of leadership alone. 'He befriended a member of the Women's
Auxiliary Air Force, Margaret Masters. When I first met Guy, I'd gone out to help either operate on or bring in a very badly injured officer. After kneeling on the floor for some time and holding what was left
of a badly injured arm... ..my knees rather hurt. It was a very hard floor. And I looked at a pair of legs behind me and
said, "Can I borrow your legs to lean against?" I didn't know at the time
that they were Guy's legs. That's how I first met him. My first impressions were that
he was a typical officer, full of his own importance at times, but there was something about him that
I wanted to know... more and more. And I did. He was charming. I'd found that he was at a bad spot. In fact, his marriage was broken. And he was lonely, unhappy, but he loved his job. Everything was flying. 'This is the first time Margaret has
spoken publicly about their relationship. 'She recalls a fantasy
world they escaped to. 'In it, they shared a life together in a
place they called Honeysuckle Cottage.' Each meeting was adding a
little bit to the cottage. I could tell you how many teaspoons we had. We did it that much. It was
just a form of escapism from the life we were leading. Which, on one hand, was
very, very dangerous... ..and on my behalf, was very,
very painful at times. We used to drive out and sit
and just chat, just generally. We found out about each other's lives. Do you think he was in love with you? I hope he was. Yes, I was. I'd be a fool if I wasn't. Wing Commander Gibson VC who led the
great Lancaster raid on the Ruhr dams... 'Immediately after the dams raid, Guy
Gibson inevitably became a national hero, 'receiving a Victoria
Cross for his leadership. 'His bravery was extraordinary. 'After dropping the first bomb, 'he flew in a further three times
with the attacking bombers 'to draw the fierce enemy
fire away from them. 'Guy Gibson died in a plane crash
over Holland the following year. 'The Petwood Hall Hotel in Woodhall Spa. 'It's where the 617 Squadron
officers' mess was eventually based. 'Chris Norton and I are staying here tonight,
before embarking on our flight to Germany. 'Inside there's a bar dedicated
to the memory of the squadron 'and its defining moment. 'Chris knows the feeling
of going into battle, 'and was himself awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross, 'one of Gibson's many wartime honours.' You've been to war yourself and had to, presumably, lie awake a night, or at least know that
tomorrow morning's the day you go into action. What's that like? - Erm, the first time you go into action, everybody's anxious.
- I should imagine. They're mostly anxious about
not making a mistake. I think they're less anxious, albeit
there's still an anxiety there, that they might not come back. Now, it was probably more certain
in 1943 than it is today that you're not going to come back. The
chances of not coming back were quite high. In the case of the Iraq War, which is
when I was commanding One Squadron, then there were a lot of people
who didn't believe in that war. I guess, in the Second World War,
the issues were much clearer. - Exactly, it was a war of national survival.
- Yes. Absolutely. And the whole country was at war. Whether you were a labourer or a driver or a wife, a nurse, a pilot or a soldier, everyone was at war. 'In about ten hours' time, we'll be
setting off to follow Guy Gibson's route. 'I wonder how well he slept
the night before the raid.' - Morning, Martin.
- Morning. - How are you?
- You all right?
- Yes, thank you.
- Good to go? 'The time has come to retrace the
route taken by 617 Squadron. 'But first, an impromptu
navigation briefing.' Briefing on the wing, always the best way. 'I must admit to some last-minute nerves. 'I'm about to navigate the longest flight
I've ever undertaken in a light aircraft 'across some of Europe's busiest skies. 'Oh, well, here goes.' Takeoff. 'We'll be in close formation
with a second plane 'that will follow us as far as the coast. 'This is the start of a
400-mile flight that, in 1943, 'changed the course of the war. 'When the Dam Busters left
Scampton, there was no tarmac. 'Their runway was made of grass.
But some things haven't changed. 'As the crews headed for enemy airspace, 'each must have wondered whether they'd ever see a
familiar landmark, like Lincoln Cathedral, again.' It's extraordinary to think that
that's pretty much what they saw. To put yourself in their position. Not much has changed, really. You're looking out of the window
of an aeroplane at the cathedral. There were so many Bomber Command
bases around Lincolnshire and whilst they would've
been in small villages, Lincoln was that big landmark. 'So, onwards over the
familiar towns and villages 'and across the vast expanse
of the Lincolnshire Fens.' So who were the men who set out for
Germany on that day in May in 1943? The movie suggests that they were veterans, handpicked by Guy Gibson himself. 'But that wasn't the whole story. 'Some where there quite by chance. 'Jack Liddell was the youngest Dam Buster, 'but he'd already been
thrown out of the RAF. 'He was just 15 at the outbreak of war. 'But that wasn't about
to stop him joining up, 'even if he had to lie about his age.' He joined underage, and when the
authorities found out his real age, they threw him out. So he went
to the London Fire Service and worked with them during the Blitz. Working for the London
Fire Service in the Blitz was as dangerous as anything. I
mean, a lot of firemen were killed. So he did join eventually again and got trained up as a gunner. 'Vic Townsend served with Jack
Liddell on the same bomber crew. 'He now lives near Sydney, Australia. 'These postcards are mementos of
their Lancaster bombing raids 'whilst serving together on 61 Squadron. 'This is the view young Jack would've
had from his position as rear gunner.' I met Jack Liddell in 1942 after we'd come back from Canada and been pushed into a number
of time-wasting activities because there was a bottleneck in training. And I never knew him as Jack Liddell. He was always called Killer, cos
he never fired his guns in anger. They said to all of us, "You can do a period of instruction
or you can join this new squadron which we are just forming, but we
cannot tell you anything about it." Nobody volunteered. Nobody
wanted to volunteer blind. But Jack Liddell said, "I can't instruct nobody. I can fire a gun.
I'll go to the new squadron." So that's how he got to
the Dam Buster squadron. So he went on the Dam Busters
raid and didn't come back. 'That's because the Lancaster that Jack
Liddell was aboard, piloted by Robert Barlow, 'crashed over Germany, killing all of its crew.
But more of that story in a moment. 'Leaving the English coast, we
drop as low as the Lancasters 'of 617 Squadron would've done
to avoid enemy detection.' 4570 for Amsterdam, Golf Yankee Mike. 'For the last 45 minutes, we've been
flying east over the North Sea. 'Back then, it was a dangerous
place, bristling with enemy ships. 'A fact that the crew of 617
Squadron were well aware of.' - It wasn't operation certain death, but it
was operation quite likely to die. - Yeah. We're going to come back
onto the track here, which is this point here. So I'll
hit that point there for you. - OK.
- Then you've got it, so you'll know where you stand. - 100 feet. There you go.
- Cracking. 'The Dutch aviation authorities 'have given us special permission to cross
the coast at a height of 100 feet.' They would've gone as low as they dared.
Some of the pilots were extremely low. - 40 feet they were reputed to be able to fly at.
- This looks a lot less than 100 feet to me. You're the expert, but I reckon
that's a lot less than 100 feet. I've got 100 feet on the altimeter. 'So, even in daylight with no enemy menace
to threaten us, low flying is difficult.' That's the Dutch coast ahead and,
in 1943, we'd be flying into a lethal hole of antiaircraft fire, so your best chance was to stay low. But that had its dangers, too. 'As Pilot Officer Jeff Rice, flying in the
second wave of Lancasters, found to his cost.' You were so low that you had
to hop over the sand dunes. You couldn't judge the distance above
the water because of the moon. And the last thing you'll see will
be a shadow coming up to meet you. - And it's yours.
- And it's yours. There was an enormous bang
followed by a second bang. His engineer said to him,
"You've lost the bomb" and he then had to pull the aircraft up but, of course, the water was so violent that it not only went down
through the fuselage, but it hit the top of the fuselage
in the cockpit where he was. 'Incredibly, Jeff Rice managed to
pull the bomb out of the water 'in what surely must be one of
the greatest escapes of the war. 'And he headed for home, his mission over. 'With the tail wheel
disabled by the impact, 'the landing back at Scampton was dangerous 'and left the rear gunner, Sergeant
Burns, trapped in his turret.' So poor old Burns has to be cut out of
the rear turret by the ground crew. 'The day after the raid, the surviving
pilots were photographed together.' Gibson quizzed Rice as to
why he'd lost the bomb. He told him and he looked at him and he said, "Bad luck.
I almost did the same thing." You're right of track at the moment. - Very good. 143, is that right?
- Yes. So, that's exactly what they did. If I'd got
you out of track by not flying properly, you'd have said, "come left
ten" for about a minute - and then turn me back onto my heading.
- OK, that's what you want to do.
- OK. 'We're crossing the Zuiderzee,
Holland's inland sea. 'And following the Dam Busters' wake seems simple.
Flying in broad daylight, that is.' The only thing you wouldn't want to
do in here is fly past a flak ship. We are absolutely beautifully on track. We've got perfect visibility and nobody's shooting at us. 'Drifting off the route plan cost more
than one Lancaster the lives of its crew. 'For them, flying at 100 feet or less
at night, it was understandable. 'But even in the day,
navigation isn't simple. 'As I'm finding out.' I think I'm slightly right of track. - I've got you bang on.
- OK. By my reckoning, we should be turning now. And I can't see the river. I think we missed it. I
think it was back there. I don't think so. I think the river
is coming up on our right-hand side. - OK.
- So I'm going to override you this time.
- Please! If you just think about the emotion
that's going on as you're thinking, "I haven't seen my point. I'm
starting to get worried." My point's late. 'He's right, of course. 'But in the industrial sprawl of southern
Holland, it's easy to make a mistake. 'In 1943, it could've been a fatal error.' - It's the confusion, isn't it? - Yeah.
- You see something go past and you think, "Right, that's me" - and then you're getting more and
more doubt in your own mind. - Yeah. Crossing the border. Bye-bye. We've just crossed the German border and in 1943, these were
very dangerous skies, as Flight Lieutenant Robert Barlow and the
crew of E-Easy were just about to find out. 'It's thought a combination
of enemy fire and pylons 'conspired to bring down the Lancaster,
with the loss of all seven crew, 'near to Haldern in northern Germany. 'But when the embers cooled
from the crash site, 'the Germans were able to recover
the top-secret weapon intact.' They knew that the Germans had
recovered one of the bombs and they were afraid that they would
be able to adapt it and use it. 'Weapons experts quickly went
to work analysing the bomb. 'These technical diagrams show how
full a picture they had of the weapon. 'And along with the bomb, they had one of the surviving
members of the Lancaster that crashed in flames on the other side of the Mohne
Dam, Flight Sergeant John Fraser. He was in solitary
confinement for seven days and he was interrogated. He did describe some
details, being forced to. I would say that he probably
wasn't treated very well. 'German transcripts of his interrogation 'show how Fraser gave away
top-secret information, 'including details of his training
and his own role as bomb-aimer. 'He also divulged technical details
of how the weapon was deployed. 'And this seldom-seen
top-secret German footage 'shows just how far
advanced their plans were 'to deploy a similar weapon
against British targets. 'Codenamed Kurt, it was a
rocket-assisted bouncing bomb. 'So the same dams used by 617
Squadron to train for the raid 'were now themselves
under threat of attack. 'These German plans showed
the fears were justified. 'Enemy reconnaissance had
pinpointed the reservoirs 'which presented the maximum opportunity
to damage the British war effort. 'A month after the dams raid, Winston Churchill was
so worried about a copycat raid by the Germans, 'he personally sought
assurances from the War Cabinet 'about the readiness of British defences.' For the five dams close to Sheffield,
we deployed a total of 5,000 troops. We put smoke-screened
balloons, antiaircraft guns, and in some of the dams, we actually put a
metal structure on each side of the dam with wires slung down between them so that you couldn't have
low-flying aircraft attacking. 'It's bank holiday in Germany and the
crowds are out enjoying the sun. 'This is the Mohne Dam, 'now a place of leisure as well as an
abiding memorial to a national disaster. 'It's hard to believe this mighty
stone structure was ever breached.' It's huge. - It's big.
- There's a lot of water in it. 'From up here, it makes me shudder
to think of that dam coming down. 'But when it did, the devastation brought
upon this beautiful place was total. 'Maria Nierhoff was 16 years old 'and living in the town of Neheim,
about four miles from the dam. Our house stood here. Our neighbour, Herr Schaker, said to us, "Save
yourselves, the Mohne has been breached." 'The water poured down the valley, 'destroying towns and
villages for many miles.' You heard this roaring sound and as soon as we heard
that roar of the water, we were lucky we could run straight up the hill.
We just ran and ran. How times changes the
perception of what's an enemy and what's good and what's bad. And really it was a political
regime that was making this bad, not the people or the country. That being said, it's now
against the Geneva Convention - to bomb water.
- Really?
- Yeah. So it's an illegal target. If we were ever sent
again for such a thing, then bombing a dam is completely illegal,
ever since the Geneva Convention. 'Maria is retracing her footsteps. 'This journey of about two
miles probably saved her life. We just kept running. When we arrived at the top of the hill, we
stopped at the cross and sat underneath it. There was one neighbour,
they had four children. They must have been asleep and not woken up.
I don't know. One man was home on leave
and said to his wife, "You go up the hill with the baby" and he went back to help this
family with the four children. He died along with that family. They all died.
It was just how it was. There were several people at the cross.
They had run up the hill. It was a very clear night, so
they could see everything. They came in their planes
and they shot at us. Like I said, if I hadn't been
there, I wouldn't have believed it. There were no men there,
just women and children. It was just war. That's how it was. So many people died. We were lucky that we went up that
hill, or we might have died, as well. 'Today we arrive in peace time 'in the land of our close European allies.' For us, it's a thrill. For them,
it's a different thing altogether. It's hard, really, to say
what my thoughts are, because there's so many
conflicting thoughts. 'All these years later, Maria's
memories are still vivid.' Then in the
morning, we came down. Everything was underwater.
All the houses had gone. Our house was simply no longer there.
Not even the foundations. There was nothing left of it. All the houses had gone.
We just couldn't believe it. 'Of the estimated 1,600 people who died, 'it's reckoned that more than 900
were foreign forced labourers. 'By comparison, the Eder Dam breach
caused a fraction of the casualties.' Four bombs hit the dam before
the breach was confirmed. And then where I'm standing here,
a tsunami was triggered this way and 135 billion litres of
water, an unimaginable amount, came cascading down the valley. Guy Gibson looked down and thought it
was an absolutely wonderful sight. And, of course, to them it was.
The raid was successful, they'd done their duty, they hadn't been killed on
the way, they hadn't missed the dam altogether. And yet, down here, it
must have been awful. And it's hard to equate the
peacefulness and the calm and a nice afternoon in the sun... There are people strolling backwards and
forwards, sitting on benches, having picnics, and this was the scene of such
utter terrible devastation. And, for me, it's poignant, as well, cos I read about this raid when I was 15 and it's something, if you're interested
in aeroplanes and war stories, that is right in the centre of your
imagination, and here I am where it happened. And I can imagine and hear the Lancasters
pulling up and getting out over there. And yet, there's a sort of overtone of
sadness, as well, the futility of it all. In the end, it didn't really
accomplish very much at all. 'That sentiment strikes a
chord in modern-day Germany.' So, on the German
side, we see them as war victims. We see this event as a day of commemoration and also as a warning
of the futility of war, and we hope that such
events are never repeated. In England, it is remembered
very differently. In some reports, the German
casualties are forgotten about and the attack is seen
in pure technical terms as a military operation against a target. 'When this squadron photograph
was taken after the raid, 53 members of 617 Squadron
were already dead. 'Nearly 70 years on, and
just a handful survive.' 'One of the last two Dam Buster
veterans has died at the age of 91 'at his home in Lincolnshire. 'Flying officer Ray Grayston
was a member of 617 Squadron. 'His funeral will be held
at Boston Crematorium.' 'Ray Grayston was part of the
crew that breached the Eder Dam. 'On a later raid, he was captured after escaping
from his doomed Lancaster before it crashed 'and he spent the rest of the
war as a German prisoner.' Obviously very sad, the passing of Ray.
He was a great guy. Very modest. Wore the badge
of hero reluctantly. The ingenuity, the spirit
of these young men, who were just doing a job
and did it really well in such a short space of
time, should be remembered. What we're capable of being able
to do when we're called upon. And I think that's very much lacking
today and we should remember that. 'And on the anniversary of the
raid, they are still remembered. 'At this year's commemorative service, there
was only one dams raid veteran attending. 'Johnny Johnson.' My father was pilot of
AJ-T on the dams raid. I get to see Johnny Johnson,
my dad's bomb-aimer. He's the last living member
in the UK that we know of. There's only four of them in the world, so it's just really great to
come back and see somebody that was in my dad's crew. You look at what these people did,
left their jobs and their schools when they were 18, 19, 20 years
old and went out to fight a war, not knowing how long it was going
to take or if you'd ever come back. And then they came back and then, after
the war, it's like they dropped it and just went on with their lives and it was a part that they
all just sort of let lie. And they don't brag or anything like that. It's just wonderful to honour those people. Not much was said when they returned from war.
Not much at all. And my dad didn't talk
much to my mom about it. And, as a little girl, I just
remember my father loved flying and I was a Dam Buster's daughter and he busted dams and I didn't know
what the heck that was as a child. It was just funny. I thought it was funny. And now when I look back years later, and
I can reflect on what these men did, to go out on the night of a raid like that and to be talking about,
"We might not come home" and to fly and do that, I can't
imagine the courage it took. This has been an amazing journey for me. I've learned so much about a
story that I knew very well, and there was a lot more to learn. And now I'm about to realise
a boyhood ambition. You guys really do have the
best job in the world. There is a clear area up
there through the clouds. 'Today's flight is all about marking perhaps
the most important act of wartime defiance 'in this nation's history.' This is the Battle of Britain
memorial flight Lancaster, one of only two left flying in the world. This is the end of a memorable
personal journey for me and the fulfilment of a
boyhood dream, really. I can't believe I'm doing this. 'It's the 70th anniversary of the
start of the Battle of Britain.' Today, this grand old lady
is on ceremonial duty. We'll be giving a lot of
pleasure to people on the ground as well as memorialising some of the brave men who
lost their lives flying in these wonderful things. 'What could evoke the British
wartime spirit better 'than the white cliffs of Dover and a
Spitfire flying in close formation? 'On the ground, thousands have gathered, 'including some of the veterans themselves. 'All have come to see us fly past in honour
of those who died defending this country.' Seeing the Battle of Britain
memorial flight Spitfire join us and then do an attacking run, that's a sight
I never thought I would see in this life, believe me, but it was very exciting. 'Just when it seems it really
cannot get any better, 'it just has. 'Squadron leader Stuart Reed has asked
me to join him on the flight deck.' If you'd said to them the
best part of 70 years ago, "We'll still have one flying in honour of what
you're doing" they would never have believed it. 'Ceremonial duties performed,
it's time to head for home. 'So what have I learned along the way? 'Well, the Dam Busters story and
the men who made it possible, 'it's not like the movie at all. 'Oh, no. In truth, it's
far more unbelievable. 'A far more amazing story than that.'
