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Dambusters heroes
Daily Mail UK ^ | 27 August 2013

Posted on 08/30/2013 9:40:21 AM PDT by Lorianne

Flying Officer Harold Hobday, navigator

I don't think any of us expected to get through, really, because so many of our friends had been shot down or gone missing or simply had accidents.

The percentage was very high. I'm surprised I got through. All the same, I don't think people took special precautions - making wills - I certainly didn't.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson

Hoppy Hopgood, my second-in-command, said to me: 'Hey Gibbo, if you don't come back, can I have your egg tomorrow?'

I realised that the first aircraft to attack the dam would probably catch the gunners with their pants down but the second to attack wouldn't be so lucky and that would be him.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 617squadron; aerospace; dambusters

1 posted on 08/30/2013 9:40:21 AM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
Not a bad movie ...
2 posted on 08/30/2013 9:44:45 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Lorianne; Clive; exg; Alberta's Child; albertabound; AntiKev; backhoe; Byron_the_Aussie; ...
To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

3 posted on 08/30/2013 9:48:06 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (I'd give up chocolate but I'm no quitter)
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To: oh8eleven

Wasn’t there a TV show by the same name?


4 posted on 08/30/2013 9:48:12 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (So Obama "inherited" a mess? Firemen "inherit" messes too. Ever see one put gasoline on it?)
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To: Lorianne
One of the most remarkable raids in military history.

Thanks for the post.

5 posted on 08/30/2013 9:54:34 AM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Lorianne

Too many good men did not come back.


6 posted on 08/30/2013 9:55:47 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the people. T Jefferson)
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To: Lorianne

There are some WW2 actions that showed the highest degree of courage and inventiveness. (e.g. Dolittle raid, Dam Busters, Breaking Ultra, D Day landing, deceptions and logistics ,,,,,)

This is among the top ones in my mind

How’d they do it? No one told them they couldn’t ! (it was a different era).


7 posted on 08/30/2013 9:55:58 AM PDT by llevrok ("It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words....." - Geo. Orwell)
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To: llevrok

Nowadays the EPA would have forced the mission to abort due to environmental concerns.


8 posted on 08/30/2013 10:27:24 AM PDT by left that other site (You Shall Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Set You Free...John 8:32)
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To: Lorianne

Thanks!


9 posted on 08/30/2013 10:51:55 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Wasn’t there a TV show by the same name?
The movie has been on TV many times and there's at least a couple of documentaries as well. But no TV show that I can recall.
10 posted on 08/30/2013 10:55:51 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Lorianne
This was an amazing raid and these men were real heroes. It took nerves of steal to stay on course at such a low altitude in heavy flak to pull this off.

But in hindsight the amount of damage done in light of quick repairs probably made the price in lives too high.

11 posted on 08/30/2013 11:06:45 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: oh8eleven

I have that movie in my collection and it’s pretty good. The only thing that a took away from it were the special effects. Still a good a movie.


12 posted on 08/30/2013 11:39:19 AM PDT by Wiggins
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To: oh8eleven

I was probably recalling a particular episode of “Twelve O’clock High”.


13 posted on 08/30/2013 12:46:57 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (So Obama "inherited" a mess? Firemen "inherit" messes too. Ever see one put gasoline on it?)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Twelve O’clock High
LOL - you're old! So am I, sigh ...
14 posted on 08/30/2013 12:53:13 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Too many good men did not come back.

Then or later. Gibson and his crew survived the raid but every man was killed during the course of the war.

15 posted on 08/30/2013 1:04:42 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Lorianne
The photo was one of many produced and analyzed in a top secret aerial reconnaissance program during WWII.

RAF Medmenham was a Royal Air Force unit based at Danesfield House near Medmenham, in Buckinghamshire, England. The unit specialized in photographic intelligence, and was once the home of the RAF Intelligence Branch. RAF Medmenham was to imagery intelligence, what Bletchley Park was to signals intelligence.

In April 1941 an RAF photographic interpretation unit (PIU) moved to Danesfield House, Medmenham,


Here are some sources:
http://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/Unit-Info/4125
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/4059
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/spies-3d.html

I saw the Nova program earlier this summer. It's available at their site, though not to me when I just tried - "due to right restrictions" -likely because I'm in Canada. It's billed as being about the German Rocket Program but was about much more.
16 posted on 08/30/2013 2:00:20 PM PDT by caveat emptor (!)
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