May 1943 - The destruction of the dams

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title May 1943 - The destruction of the dams
Original title The Dam Busters
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1955
length 122 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Michael Anderson
script RC sheriff
production Robert Clark
W.A. Whittaker
music Louis Levy
Leighton Lucas
Eric Coates
camera Erwin Hillier
cut Richard Best
occupation

May 1943 - The Destruction of the Dams (Originally The Dam Busters ) is a British war film directed by Michael Anderson from 1955. The film is based on the true events of Operation Chastise , the destruction of several dams, on May 17, 1943. The script is based on the books The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead by Squadron Commodore Guy Gibson . The premiere in Germany took place on January 17, 1975 on German television ( ZDF ).

action

The engineer Barnes Wallis works for the UK Department of Aviation and aircraft manufacturer Vickers . He has also developed a special bomb , the roll bomb , to destroy dams: this bomb is dropped at some distance from the dam on the lake side of a dam and jumps like a pebble over the surface of the water to avoid torpedo nets before it hits the wall The bottom of the reservoir sinks to explode there. Wallis calculates that the attacking aircraft must approach very low so that the bombs hit the water surface at the right angle. When he reports his results to the ministry, the plan is filed for lack of production capacity.

Angry Valais visits the commander of the British bomber fleet, Sir Arthur Harris . At first Harris is not convinced, but after a while he realizes the possibilities of this plan. Harris succeeds in convincing the prime minister, who lets the project start with it.

For this operation, a special bomber squad of Lancaster bombers is formed, the No. 617 Squadron under the command of Wing Commander Guy Gibson . Gibson is recruiting experienced crew members who have completed flights at low altitude. While the unit is training, problems arise with the bombs, which break apart from the force of the impact on the water. So the bombers have to approach even lower. After a few weeks of training, the Chastise operation starts .

Several bombers are shot down during the attacks on several dams. Nevertheless, the mission succeeds. Two dams, the Möhnesees and the Edersee , break.

Reviews

"Captivating, with precise direction and very humanly drawn characters, the film, however, completely ignores the unforeseen consequences of the only supposedly war-important operation for the civilian population."

- Lexicon of international film

"Gripping factual war drama."

- Cinema

Awards

background

Möhnesee dam after the attack

The film was shot outside of dams in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire . The scenes of the bomb tests were filmed in the same tanks at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington in which they had taken place twelve years earlier.

In the original English version of the film, the same narrator brings the news of the operation over the airwaves as on May 18, 1943.

Patrick McGoohan can be seen in a minor role as a guard soldier, which is not mentioned in the credits . This role was his debut on the big screen. For Robert Shaw it was the second movie role (the first in which he was mentioned).

The film's military adviser was Captain JNH Whitworth.

Director George Lucas was influenced by the attack scenes for his finale of Star Wars (1977). Some scenes of the attack on the Death Star are based on the sequence and structure of the attack scenes in this film. Some dialogue scenes in the original versions of both films are also similar.

In the 1982 movie The Wall with the music of Pink Floyd , the television screen repeatedly shows scenes from The Dam Busters in the protagonist's hotel room . Both films have in common that they depict how every means is tried to break through a wall or wall.

Historical facts

people

Squadron Commodore Guy Gibson (1918–1944) was the first commander of the 617th Squadron. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his success at Operation Chastise . On September 19, 1944, he died when his plane crashed while on a reconnaissance flight over Belgium.

Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (1887–1979) was the engineer and scientist who developed the roll bombs with which the dams were bombed.

Sir Arthur Travers Harris (1892-1984) was the Commander in Chief of the British Bomber Command and Air Marshal of the British Royal Air Force . He was instrumental in the development of the so-called firestorm , in which the fires that developed after the bombs were to become large rollers of fire. He, who was also called Bomber Harris, ordered the bombing of Hamburg , Dresden , Pforzheim , Mainz , Würzburg and Hildesheim in addition to the “ thousand bomber attack ” on Cologne . In September 1945 he resigned after a dispute with Prime Minister Clement Attlee and emigrated to South Africa .

Operation Chastise

During Operation Chastise (in German: punishment), the 617th Squadron of the RAF attacked the dams of Möhnesee , Edersee and Sorpesee on the night of May 16-17, 1943 . The Möhne and Edersee dams were destroyed, and the attack on the Sorpesees dam failed. Up to 2,400 people died on the ground as a result of the attack, many of them in a POW camp near the Möhne. 133 RAF soldiers were involved in the attack. 53 died, three jumped with the parachute and were taken prisoner of war by Germany. The further impairment of the war industry of the German Reich expected by the Allies (e.g. tank construction at Henschel in Kassel) was not achieved. The main victims of the attacks were the German civilian population.

Web links

literature

  • Paul Brickhill: The Dam Busters. English version. Pan, 1999, ISBN 0-330-37644-6 .
  • Guy Gibson: Enemy Coast Ahead. English version. Crecy, 1998, ISBN 0-907579-62-0 .
  • Susan Ottaway: Dambuster: A Life of Guy Gibson, VC, DSO *, DFC. English version. Pen & Sword, 2007, ISBN 1-84415-605-2 .
  • John Sweetman: The Dambusters Raid. Cassell, 1999, ISBN 0-304-35173-3 .
  • Helmuth Euler : When Germany's dams broke. The truth about the bombing of the Möhne-Eder-Sorpe dams in 1943. Motorbuch, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-87943-367-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Lexicon of International Films 2000/2001 (CD-ROM).
  2. ↑ Cinema.de: Mai '43 - The Destruction of the Dams ( Memento from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )