Derwent Lancaster

[mark sicknote]

Just watching the Derwent Reservoir Lancaster flyby. What a beautiful aircraft flown beautifully.

Respect to all involved. Lump in my throat and I was born in '72.

Best,

Sicknote:ok:

[justlooking_tks]

Fully agree. What brave men!

I think what we tend to forget that these brave men went in at night for the attack, grossly overloaded (no CAA getting involved), hunted all the way to the target and all the way back and flown virtually on the "deck."

Very, very brave men indeed.

[Blink182]

And how as a country have we have recognised their bravery ???

visit http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ForgottenRAF/

[lgw-morph]

Makes me very proud to be British.

Thank you for the link.

:ok:

[shaun ryder]

Was there to see that fine Lancaster blast its way over Derwent this morning. Those brave men fought for our freedom and the good of our country. Proud of them and what they represented, you bet! If they could only see it now, our beloved land invaded by immigrants and run by guttless politically correct do gooders.

Next thing you know such events will be banned for being too British.

[dudleydick]

As a child of the London Blitz we watched them fly out by the hundred. I admit to shedding a tear when I see her still flying - may she "show them" for many years to come. Thanks for the thread.
dudleydick (now in South Africa)

[good spark]

shaun ryder
totally agree with you, shame they did not take the lanc on a trip around europe just to wind up the pc brigade



gs

remember they did all that night flying on one generator!

[5150]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7404554.stm

[StressFree]

Shaun Ryder,
Absolutely SPOT ON, good for you, well said :ok: :ok: :ok:

[Meering]

Shaun Ryder - I dare say the nationality of a fair few of the immigrants you refer to in desparaging tones corresponds exactly with the nationality of men of the commonwealth and of other European nations who fought alongside my Father in WWII.

[RICKO]

Afternoon.

Here are a few shots from today.

Richard.

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lanca.jpg?t=1210951997

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lancb.jpg?t=1210952054

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lancc.jpg?t=1210952101

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lancd.jpg?t=1210952146

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lance.jpg?t=1210952177

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lancf.jpg?t=1210952206

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lancg.jpg?t=1210952240

[Ivor Fynn]

Thanks RICKO, beautiful

Ivor:D:D

[Del Prado]

Meering, spot on, well said.

Ricko, thanks for the pics. I'll take them to show my neighbour tomorrow, he was a radio operator on Lancasters during the war, 30 missions not out.

[SpeedbirdXK8]

Fantastic pics, the cockpit close up is awesome :D:ok::):O made my Friday.

[good spark]

ricko
well done that man, thats stunning stuff.

[Wycombe]

Looked like some fairly aggresive manouvering (by BBMF standards) was required to get the Lanc down the valley and over the dam.

Good coverage from the Beeb, but did any one else notice the initial caption at the top of the screen on the BBC News Channel (which was corrected after a few mins :ok:) - "Live - Ladyblower Reservoir" - made me chuckle anyway.

[RICKO]

Hi.

My pleasure.
It was a very special event and glad i made it.
If anyone wants high res images just let me know.

Cheers Richard.

[Jetjock330]

Here is the BBC footage! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7404052.stm)

Beautiful!

[slip and turn]

Yep, I am very proud to count myself among the offspring of the nation that devised, saw through and led such adventures that define our country's finest hours and which still inspire us to go on to achieve other great things ...

But the Dambusters mission was also a terrible reminder of the enormous costs numbered in fine young lives of aircrews, and in those of innocent good people caught up in the collateral damage. Their only fault was to have been unfortunate enough to have been raised to call somewhere in Germany "home" at a time when their leaders went so over the top in their quest to rebuild their country's pride and give their citizens a sense of national identity and strength again.

I was reminded of the same quest for regained pride when I watched the Putin/Medjedev handover ceremony recently on tv. There is nothing ugly in a proud people, so long as it is kept on a level where there is still room for the balancing values of self-deprecation and humility.

Many once proud nations have a tendency to luxuriate after repairing their own greatness periodically. Even us!

I have been a Dambusters 'fan' all my life and I guess it is no great surprise that my son called it his favorite film from a young age and still counts it as one.

But the gravity of it as turning point in history really hit home with me when I happened to be visiting a crafts exhibition in a small but very fine small town in Germany called Soest, just before the last World Cup. I discovered that the Mohne dam was literally just round the corner from where we stayed.

One evening just before dusk, we went to the dam, and I ended up walking to the middle alone. No-one else was on the dam. It was very quiet, and the weather was moody with a hint of possible rain, but it was warm enough for the midges to be barring the route across the top in swarms too much for my other half to bear. She went back to the car. Way down the valley below the dam, a few lights had started to appear in houses as locals were settling down for their evening. The air was completely still. There was only the sound of evening birdsong in the trees to the side of the dam complex ...

I had already read about the repair of the dam on the sign board near the car park, and I had a good idea of where the breach had been made. But once on the thing, the size of it began to tell. It felt very odd to look back over my shoulder across the water to where the Lancasters made their approach and then to pan round to look along the dam at the slightly crooked masonry lines in the sidewalls on the top, and then to look down over the front edge and make out where the hole had extended across the centre face, and to imagine what terrible quantity of water had been instantaneously released onto the poor people down the valley ...

...Yet that evening, the most surprising thing I learned was how fast they fixed it - I think I read on the board that it was repaired in about a month?

So I wonder if the main resultant was not so much a physical interruption to the German war production, but the huge damage to moral in Germany, that we Brits could do such a thing, and the corresponding moral boost for the Allies.

It was an amazing turning point in WWII powered by the unrestricted creativity, audacity and the technical prowess of Allied ability to refine and practice something so daring and surprising. I am sure we as a country can number many such events from various conflicts, but as I have never been in the forces I can only easily compare such things to the beautiful craziness of my fellow countrymen who when asked by Mrs T if it were possible, then took equally brave young lives to the Falklands, manipulated international opinion and support in ways that only tweeded Brits can, and raised all UK spirits to wonderful new highs.

But we do of course remember all the lives lost when we do these remembrance events, and I again felt proud this morning even before the Merlins turned, because the BBC got the balance exactly right when they pointedly said so in their very first news report this morning on the 7 o'clock news as the mist was rising to greet those gathering to remember.

So, unlike shaun, I have no fear that we'll be banning events like this any time soon - we do them too well - that is, we understand the self-deprecation/humility bit too as we gaze to the sky and let the Merlins stroke our hearts and moisten our eyes. I am quite sure shaun knows what a multi-national effort the Allied fight back really was. He is right however that some of our values are currently quite difficult to define with so much outside influence in so short a time ... Thankfully many numbered among the most recent influx enjoy grandparents or great-grandparents who shared the same times and necessary adventures as ours did.

So we can easily remember together...and today we do.

[justlooking_tks]

RICKO Great pictures.

slip and turn Great post.

[Ivor Fynn]

Slip & Turn, great post.

Ivor

[sooty615]

slip and turn, beautifully written

[rubik101]

Richard Todd (Guy Gibson) talked today of meeting the last surviving pilot from that raid, Flt Lt Les Munro. He mentioned how very reserved and unassuming the man is. He also said that he had never met any of those involved at the time, as he was involved elsewhere.
Indeed he was. He himself was a serving officer, completing six years as a Para with the 6th Airborne. He was one of the first to land on D day close to Pegasus Bridge. How very unassuming and reserved he showed himself to be and what a contrast to today's 'celebrity' generation.
Youngster now seem to aspire to be winners on reality shows, The Apprentice, WAGs, or simply famous for being famous.
If this generation were called upon to join up and act as these two men did 65 years ago, what hope would we have, I wonder?
I have the greatest respect for them both.

[Shunter]

Just as a sidenote, there is an annual event called Project Propeller which involves GA pilots of today volunteering their time and aircraft to fly WW2 air crew from all over the country to one place so they can get together and have a good old knees up. Also a great chance to put them back in the air (I shall be demoting myself to Radio Operator and Map Reader - my 2 allocated former Spitfire/Hurricane pilots will be doing the flying!).

This year it's taking place at Old Warden at the end of the month. I believe it's all pretty much organised now, but if any of you still do any GA flying, perhaps worth considering next year?

[PT6ER]

Here I sit several thousand miles from the land where I was born, watching a small computer screen and listening through cheap headphones to the BBC coverage and that Merlin sound gives me huge goose bumps and stands up hair I didnt realize I still had :O

Not much can do that to me. Such powerful images and sounds - contrary to conventional wisdom grown men do cry :)

[Mav64]

Simply put - 96 litres worth of "Land of Hope and Glory".

My utmost respect and heartfelt thanks to those that made the last 60 years possible.

:D:D:D

[Doc Strangebrew]

It is the sound of those Rolls Royce Merlin's that really defines the pride...such power and so distinctive....It is a British sound...simple like so...

Respect....

[Aerostar6]

Me and some of my pals had a 'look' at the Moehne dam from dambuster height on our way back from a air show in Poland last year at 160kt and 60ft. We looked at it first from 2000', we knew what we were looking for, the a/c we were flying weighed less than a tenth of a lanc, it was broad daylight and above all, no-one was shooting at us. And yet it was still incredibly hard work to get around the hill in front of the dam, and line up square to it for longer than a few seconds.
We were absolutely in awe of what these young guys did that night, and whatever the cost on both sides, it was a flying feat that will rarely be surpassed.

[Xeque]

Well said Slip & Turn

[driftdown]

Truly stunning photos Ricko, can you let me know how to get them in hi res.

Well said Slip and Turn.

:D :D

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

RICKO. How did you avoid camera shake at that shutter speed? Magnificent results.

Slip & Turn . :ok: :D

[RICKO]

Hi

Let me have an e mail address and i will send some hi res images.

The beauty of shooting the Lanc here was the fact that he was slow and low which allowed a slow shutter speed without any camera shake.

Richard.

[DennisK]

Loved the post ... pure nostalgia and such celebration is always something the Brits do so well.

Just as an aside, as a B206 pilot in 1993, I was tasked to take Richard Todd to the Derwent water for the fiftieth anniversary. The Lanc did its mesmeric dambuster run, Merlins howling ... followed by a 617 Tornado scorching down the valley in full reheat!

I met three of the original 617 guys on the parapet and as has already been said, you'll never meet a more modest group of aircrew. The highlight for me, apart from the Reds flyover, was doing a low level pass for Mr Todd to simulate the WW2 bombing run. Watching the BBC programme this year, I particularly noticed the smallish crowd. For the 93 event, it was estimated that 300,000 spectators had flocked to the best viewing points overlooking the valley. Have a piccy of the approaching dam wall with a few hundred feet to run if anyone wants a copy.

Richard Todd is a great guy too ... he smokes a lot and on the drive from Redhill Aerodrome to the Hawthe at Crawley where he was appearing, he just had to pop in to a local shop to renew his pack of Players. A charming, thoughtful guy, and I have to use the phrase ... 'they don't come like that any more.'

Hope it all happens again in 2018. But I'll be 86 if the good Lord allows.

DRK

[QNH 1013]

DRK, The reason the crowd was so small this year was that the police closed the access roads, so the only spectators were the 400 "invited guests" plus the enthusiasts who had to walk many miles on foot to see the flypast of the Derwent Dam.
I remember the 1993 event very well and I took my two (then teenage) sons out of school for the day so that they could witness it. Their headmaster agreed with me that they would gain more seeing this event, than they would lose in a day's schooling. There were so many people at the 1993 event that it was chaos when they all tried to leave in the late afternoon. I understand that by 9pm some people were still stuck there and those without warm clothing were suffering from exposure. Hence the decision to limit the crowds this year. It gets very cold in the peak district.
Yesterday, the Lancaster continued south down the Derwent Valley to Chatsworth before heading East, and there were crowds at many vantage points down the valley.
QNH 1013

[S'land]

I was in the local town today meeting a few friends (all German and about my age) at a café . As we all have an interest in aviation history I was showing them the video coverage by the Beeb of yesterday's flypast.

At the next table was a German of about seventy years of age who asked asked if he could look at the videos as well. After seeing the first video he said "Ah yes, the English Terror Flyers". At this point I was expecting a diatribe about English aircraft bombing Germany. However, after saying this he smiled and explained that he was born and brought up near the Dams. As a child he had seen the raid and was terrified by it. For quite a few years he had hated what happened, but as he grew up he realised that bombing raids such as this had helped to shorten the war. The point I found most interesting was that he claimed that over the years he had come to realise that if the war had been lost he would have had none of the freedoms that he had been brought up with and would have had to live under one of the most repressive regimes of all time.

[India Four Two]

Awesome moment
Here is the BBC footage! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7404052.stm)

Beautiful!
I quite agree with jetjock330. Whatever you do don't miss the in-cockpit (well, mostly in bomb-aimer's position) video, which is only referred to at the end of the first video. Here is the direct link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7405514.stm

And I have to confess, that in spite of having seen the fly-past on BBC World the night before, when I clicked on this thread for the first time, I was expecting something about a Lancaster jet-engine test bed!

[Africrash]

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We will remember them.

Always with heartfelt gratitude, and total respect.

Tim

[broadmeadows]

How lucky you UK people were to see this magnificent flight. I can only look at pictures and imagine. I think these aircraft are the 'bees knees' and would dearly love to actually see one, but the nearest I can get to one is in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra where G for George stands proudly. A friend of my parents was one of a crew on a Lancaster who lost his life over Magdeburg in 1944 and it is through him that I have this fascination for Lancasters. May they fly forever and may those of Dam Buster fame be remembered and always given the recognition they so rightfully deserve.

:ok:

[VictorGolf]

Rubik101, I recently met a most unassuming young man wearing quite a deep tan that clearly wasn't from the UK. Gentle questioning revealed that he was just back from his second tour in Afghanistan, A bit more revealed three tours in Basra. So I think that we can safely say that if the call comes there will be British youngsters who will be prepared to do what is requiired of them. The trouble is they aren't the ones who get the recognition, it's the knuckle-draggers on the "reality" shows.