'The Dambusters' movie
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'The Dambusters' movie
Does anybody know which grass airfield was used for some of the formation take-off shots of Lancasters in the movie 'The Dambusters' (1954)?
I don't think it's wartime footage as the aircraft shown appear to be those provided by the RAF for use for the film (i.e. training models modified to represent 617 Sqn's aircraft).
Any offers?
I don't think it's wartime footage as the aircraft shown appear to be those provided by the RAF for use for the film (i.e. training models modified to represent 617 Sqn's aircraft).
Any offers?
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Much of the film was actually filmed at Scampton, using 5 Lancaster VII aircraft, three fitted with mock ups of Upkeep - as the weapon was still classified at the time, the shape and size is a "guestimate". The ops room in the movie was the actual 5 group Ops room at RAF Grantham which was found locked up and dust covered but more or less exactly as it had been in 1943.
Most of the sequences from the raid were filmed in the Lake Windermere area.
After the Battle Magazine published a feature on the making of the film in issue 10, available from
After The Battle
Church House
Church Street
London E15 3JA
Most of the sequences from the raid were filmed in the Lake Windermere area.
After the Battle Magazine published a feature on the making of the film in issue 10, available from
After The Battle
Church House
Church Street
London E15 3JA
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The filming over the dams was, I believe at Derwent Reservoir, Derbyshire, those towers are definitely in the film, I also believe that this reservoir was used in practice due to the dam being 'hidden from view' from the Northern End, the terrain was pretty much the same on the Ruhr.
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Way back in 1976 I was visiting England on a business trip. An English colleague took me for a ride starting at Sheffield. We stopped at a reservoir that I was told fed the water systems of Sheffield and if I remember correctly Swindon. He told me that the Dam Busters was filmed at that reservoir.
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When I was stationed in the 60s at Kirton Lindsey - a large grass airfield north of Scampton - I was told that a formation take-off of three Lancasters had been filmed there for a sequence in the Dambusters.
Apparently they used the longest run, to the north-west, which was uphill and by all accounts, had squeezed neatly through the gap between the hangars and the farmhouse which sits on the western boundary.
Apparently they used the longest run, to the north-west, which was uphill and by all accounts, had squeezed neatly through the gap between the hangars and the farmhouse which sits on the western boundary.
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I think that a lot of the scenes involving test-dropping the weapon into the sea where filmed at Gibraltar Point in Lincolnshire. There is a display panel in the visitor centre or at the tip of the Point with further details on it.
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Most of the original test drops were off Reculver in North Kent. A couple of the test Upkeeps were recovered from the sea there during the 1990s.
Having done a quick Google search, it seems that there are several dams and lakes in and around the UK that were used in the filming of the Dambusters including Derwent, the Elan valley, and Lake Vyrnwy in Powys.
Derwent Water was used in training by 617 prior to Chastise and was also used by the filmmakers in 1954 . It seems to have been the main area used by the film, although no doubt others were also used. The Elan valley also has a "real life" connection to the raid as a small redundant dam built on the Nant-y-Gro in the early stages of the construction of the reservoir was blown up as a test during the development of Upkeep (though not from an air-dropped weapon).
Having done a quick Google search, it seems that there are several dams and lakes in and around the UK that were used in the filming of the Dambusters including Derwent, the Elan valley, and Lake Vyrnwy in Powys.
Derwent Water was used in training by 617 prior to Chastise and was also used by the filmmakers in 1954 . It seems to have been the main area used by the film, although no doubt others were also used. The Elan valley also has a "real life" connection to the raid as a small redundant dam built on the Nant-y-Gro in the early stages of the construction of the reservoir was blown up as a test during the development of Upkeep (though not from an air-dropped weapon).
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There’s some wonderful celluloid footage of the Reculver tests. The cameraman was so intent on panning his camera to follow the bomb that he didn’t notice that it had deviated towards the beach and was approaching him in great bursts of shingle and debris, finally bouncing over his shoulder and out of picture. Once the dust had settled the onlookers rushed up to congratulate him on his courage and devotion to duty, to which he replied "you might have bloody told me!!" 
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Studied Derwent as part of my masters dissertation and can confirm its use in the training for the actual raid and, if my memory serves me correctly, for the film. Memorial for 617 squadron just inside the gate to the access along the crest of the dam, and a related exhibition inside the west control tower. Cannot remember the opening hours (think it is volunteer run) but a visit is very interesting.
Lu Zuckerman, the water from Derwent, along with Ladybower and Howden, is shared between Yorkshire Water for Sheffied and Severn Trent Water for the Derwent Valley Aqueduct system supplying the East Midlands.
Lu Zuckerman, the water from Derwent, along with Ladybower and Howden, is shared between Yorkshire Water for Sheffied and Severn Trent Water for the Derwent Valley Aqueduct system supplying the East Midlands.
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DD I am sorry if that is a fact! That is political correctness gone mad.
Guy Gibson's dog was called N****r, like many dogs I knew of in my childhood - including my own, and also a black labrador. There ain't nothing in this world that can change that. It is fact. Just as Agatha Christie's book was called "Ten little N****rs" - later to be changed to "Ten Little Indians" how bloody absurd.
GG's dog was a part of his life at that time and has a small but rightful place in history. Why in God's name does someone think they have a right to change history!
How crazy this world has become.
Guy Gibson's dog was called N****r, like many dogs I knew of in my childhood - including my own, and also a black labrador. There ain't nothing in this world that can change that. It is fact. Just as Agatha Christie's book was called "Ten little N****rs" - later to be changed to "Ten Little Indians" how bloody absurd.
GG's dog was a part of his life at that time and has a small but rightful place in history. Why in God's name does someone think they have a right to change history!
How crazy this world has become.
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My memory of the film, and the book is a bit dim now 
but if my memory serves me well, wasn't the dog's name the code for a successful raid?
I seem to remember that there was a scene in the ops room when the code word is received, someone shouts it out, and there is general congratulations all round.
I wonder how our American friends got around that?
but if my memory serves me well, wasn't the dog's name the code for a successful raid? I seem to remember that there was a scene in the ops room when the code word is received, someone shouts it out, and there is general congratulations all round.
I wonder how our American friends got around that?
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Shouldn't Agatha Christie's book now be re-renamed "Ten little native Americans"?
Even more unforgiveably,apparently all the Lancs used in the film were scrapped immediately afterwards.
Even more unforgiveably,apparently all the Lancs used in the film were scrapped immediately afterwards.
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PLovett
You are absoluteley right. The code word was N****r - it was used when a dam was actually breached.
Well no-one changed it (would they dare?) in the showing of the movie last year, and I have a copy which will NEVER be changed.
Damn it! We have to keep certain things sacred.
You are absoluteley right. The code word was N****r - it was used when a dam was actually breached.
Well no-one changed it (would they dare?) in the showing of the movie last year, and I have a copy which will NEVER be changed.
Damn it! We have to keep certain things sacred.
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During the early 1970's, the Rev W Audry, the author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books, came in for some criticism because he'd also used the "N word" in one of his books.
His son - acting as his father's spokesman - said that his father was upset by the criticism as the word had been innocuous in the 30's when the book was written.
Leo Hartley, author of "The Go-Between", wrote as that books opening line: "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there." How right he was!
Pronto
His son - acting as his father's spokesman - said that his father was upset by the criticism as the word had been innocuous in the 30's when the book was written.
Leo Hartley, author of "The Go-Between", wrote as that books opening line: "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there." How right he was!
Pronto
