Must-watchWorld War II · Film · 1955
The Dam Busters
Engineer Barnes Wallis fights sceptical officials to build a bomb that bounces across water, and Wing Commander Guy Gibson trains a new squadron to drop it on the great dams of the Ruhr.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Vickers works, Weybridge
Wallis tests his idea with marbles and model dams, and struggles to win time and a bomber from the Air Ministry.
Stop 2: RAF Scampton
Gibson hand-picks his crews and trains them to fly at low level by night without being told the target.
Stop 3: Möhne Dam
Key location
Under heavy flak, the Lancasters make run after run over the reservoir while Gibson draws the fire.
Stop 4: Eder Dam
The surviving aircraft fly on to a second dam hidden in a steep, winding valley.
What really happened
On the night of 16 to 17 May 1943, in Operation Chastise, 19 Lancasters of the newly formed No. 617 Squadron attacked the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams with Barnes Wallis's rotating 'bouncing' mine, flying at 60 feet over the water. The Möhne and Eder were breached, the Sorpe held, and eight aircraft and 53 aircrew were lost.
The floods killed about 1,600 people, many of them forced labourers from the Soviet Union, and disrupted Ruhr industry for weeks, though production soon recovered. The film, based on Paul Brickhill's book and Gibson's memoir, is faithful to the planning and the raid but says nothing about the civilian deaths below the dams.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- The Dam Busters
- Directed by
- Michael Anderson
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English
- Released
- 1955
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Air war
- True story
