WIX Archives
Re: Well done Channel 5.....
Posted by Ron Henry on Wed Oct 30, 2002 02:22:40 PM
In reply top Re: Well done Channel 5..... posted by Paul McMillan on Wed Oct 30, 2002 03:51:38 AM
: I agree.. I was a bit aprehensive when I found Channel 5 w
: ere going to do a programme on the Dambusters. I thought i
: t would be all the juicy bits but no detail. How wrong I w
: as, it was put together by people who had an interesting s
: tory to tell and wanted it told accuratly.. Even the most
: non technical people could understand how Barnes Wallis wo
: rked through the problems one by one to get Upkeep to work
: ..
:
: They even did not shy away from describing what Guy Gibson
: was really like (i.e difficult, unapproachable etc), but
: without denegrating his memory.
:
: Best bit, was when the engineer said about the wooden slav
: es around the Upkeep Mine, being the cause of the problems
: and removing them being the answer 'first time ever as an
: engineer that I had a problem that solved itself'
:
: If you ever get the chance to see this on History Channel,
: Discovery or whatever. See it...
:
: Paul
Mmm....... mostly quite good, but it had some unusual omissions. Whereas some effort was put into explaining the custom bombsight, the two lights concept for holding height was dismissed in a sentence; anyone not familiar with the story would probably have had a bit of trouble grasping it. I was mystified when the crew members said that they didn't know the targets until mission briefing: I thought that part of their practice flying had included some UK dams. Nothing was said about preparation of the Lancasters, and little was said about the weapon installation itself.
I've got to believe the crew members, but I'm staggered that none of them did a practice flight in a Lanc with the weapon installed. Yes, I know it was wartime and secrecy was crucial, but so was maximum success for the mission.
I know the prog topic was The Dambusters, but little was said about Barnes Wallis' other achievements. A short mention of which aircraft he had designed, would have been useful scene setting for the less-informed, and mention of the later dvelopment of the similar "Upkeep" weapon and its intended uses wouldn't have hurt.