Dam Busters, The (1955)
Synopsis
The Dam Busters is a British war film based on The Dam Busters (1951) by Paul
Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead (1946) by Guy Gibson. Directed by Michael Ander-
son and starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd, the film tells the true story
of Operation Chastise: a mission carried out by the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) 617
Squadron of bombers that attacked the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams in Germa-
ny’s Ruhr region with a bouncing bomb specially designed by Barnes Wallis.
Background
On a daring secret mission dubbed “Operation Chastise” (16–17 May 1943) 19 Lan-
caster bombers of the RAF’s 617 Squadron attacked three huge dams— the Sorpe,
Möhne, and Edersee—in Germany’s industrial Ruhr valley in order to disrupt the
German war effort. The bombs used were a unique spherical “bouncing bomb”
developed by Barnes Wallis (1887–1979), a Vickers engineer. Though the Sorpe
Dam sustained only minor damage, the Möhne and Edersee dams were breached,
causing catastrophic flooding that destroyed two hydroelectric power stations and
damaged or destroyed other power stations, factories, and mines and drowned an
estimated 1,600 civilians. The Germans managed to minimize the damage by rapid
repairs, but full industrial production in the Ruhr did not return to normal until
September. The leader of the raid, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, died in a plane
crash in September 1944 but not before writing Enemy Coast Ahead. Posthumously
published by Michael Joseph Ltd. in 1946, Gibson’s memoir included a RAF-
censored account of the so- called “Dam Busters raid.” Four years later Paul Brick-
hill, a former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pi lot and author of The Great Escape
(1950), published The Dam Busters (1951), a bestselling account of the raid. In Octo-
ber 1951 Robert Clark of the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) pur-
chased the film rights as a star vehicle for actor Richard Todd and hired R. C. Sheriff
to write a script based on a treatment by ABPC production supervisor Bill Whit-
taker and script editor Walter Mycroft. Sheriff had the script completed by
October 1952.
Production
The Dam Busters was filmed from mid- April to mid- July 1954 at vari ous locations
in England. The flight sequences were shot using four real Avro Lancaster B.VII
bombers that had to be taken out of storage and modified (i.e., their mid- upper