Growing up in the generation subsequent to World War II meant that there were a LOT of movies related to that war on movie screens for at least three decades of my life.
I watched the Guns of Navarone be destroyed over and over. German submarines sank Allied shipping and American forces eventually returned the favor to Axis shipping, especially in the Pacific. At least that was the storyline in the movies.
The Eagle’s Next fell, General Doolittle’s raid on Japan was a success with expendable bombers and crews. Some soldiers were tough. John Wayne proved it as he swapped uniforms, units of service, battle grounds and rank with amazing ease.
One move from the genera that captured my imagination was “The Dam Busters”. I hadn’t heard of the RAF 617th Squadron, a unit that was specially trained to drop bombs to destroy dams in the European theater.
The bombers made their bombing runs as low as possible to drop their round water skipping bomb so they would explode upon impact with the wall of the dam.
The dam failure destroyed any hydroelectric production from that facility, flooded any structures down stream and denied any summer irrigation water if it was needed down stream. Eventually, the 617th was involved in all types of precision bombing from bridges to submarine yards.
I still don’t know what the real dam busting bombs looked like, but I certainly remember the big medicine ball looking bombs in the movie. Well done 617th. Well done. You helped end the war and the related massive loss of life and property.
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I grew up as a lad in New Zealand knowing who the Dam Busters were – a very famous squadron from the RAF which included a number of New Zealand crew members.
The “bouncing bombs” were designed to be spinning backwards as they bounced across the lake, so that on contact with the wall of the dam they would “wind” themselves down the wall of the dam and so explode right next to the wall – success.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_bomb
Peter Jackson – he of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies is working on a remake of The Dam Busters movie in New Zealand.
Roger – I’ll add the new Peter Jackson movie to my list of movies to watch in the coming months / year. I remember the intensity of the original movie without the visual impacts of CG. The new movie should be very spectacular and knowing Jackson, a story well told.