The Dam Busters (1955)
Based on a combination of two books – The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead by Wing Commander Guy Gibson – this true story was adapted for the screen by R.C. Sherriff (Aces High). It depicts Operation Chastise of 1943 – a mission in which the RAF’s 617 Squadron staged targeted aerial attacks on Germany’s Sorpe, Mohne and Eder dams, deploying the famous ‘bouncing bomb.’ The purpose of the airstrikes was to land damaging blows to German heavy industry. The innovative bomb was continually adjusted by engineer Barnes Wallis, while the crews of the Lancaster Bombers trained for the dangerous, low-level runs. Though a number of the crews never returned from the mission, two dams were breached and the operation succeeded in its aim.
Directed by Michael Anderson (Logan’s Run), and starring Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave and Ursula Jeans, this is one of the most respected and emotionally-affecting feature films of the many that relate the events of World War II – focusing as it does on one of the most courageous and ingenious military operations of the conflict. The film is notable still for the fact that its director, Anderson, and leading man, Todd, had themselves served in critical military operations during World War II – along with many others in the production.
