Sir Barnes Wallis - "The Dam Busters" The Dam Busters (1955) The film The Dam Busters premiered on 16th/17th May 1955 (the 12th anniversary of the raid), attended by numerous survivors of the raid. Overall, the film is a very good portrayal of the story of the development of the "bouncing bomb" and Operation Chastise itself (and of the characters involved in the story), but like all cinematic versions, there are some inaccuracies, omissions or inconsistencies (for whatever reason). This list gives some detail on the factual inaccuracies in the film: Upkeep: the bomb shown beneath the attacking Lancasters in the film is too large and too spherical in shape; this suggests continuity with the earlier footage of real test drops, but is more likely due to the secret nature of the Upkeep weapon (it was still secret when the film was made, details only being released in 1963 - hence in some of the real test drop footage from the Wellington and Mosquito, the bomb is masked out by a black disc).

There is no hint of the mechanism used to spin the bombs, this feature going unmentioned in the film as it was still secret. The shots of the bombs bouncing towards the dams in the film are actually archive shots of Highball tests on Loch Striven. [There is no archive footage of Upkeep test drops with a suitable background.] Other Aircraft: During the crew briefing in the film (and very prominently in the cinema trailer for the film), Gibson remarks that 617 will be the only squadron operating that night. This is also stated in Gibson's book and Morpurgo's biography of Wallis, although Sweetman and Cooper note that other squadrons were flying that night (including "gardening" (mine-laying) operations all along the enemy coast (with 54 aircraft, one of which was lost), and a 9 Mosquito raid on Berlin; major bombing raids were off due to the full moon).

[Cooper and Sweetman are correct, according to the Bomber Command diary for May 1943 .] The spotlights: The idea of the triangulated spotlamps to set the aircraft height is shown as being Gibson's, during a visit to the theatre; in fact it was Benjamin Lockspeiser (Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Supply) who came up with the idea, it having been used as far back as World War I. Also in the film, the height spotlamps are shown under the nose and tail of the Lancasters; in fact the second spotlamp was in the rear of the bomb bay. In many art prints of the dams raid, the spotlamp beams are incorrectly shown shining down directly beneath the aircraft (where they could not have been seen from the cockpit). Hitting the dams: In the film, all the mines hit the dams (with the exception of Hopgood's at the Mï¿½hne and Maudley's at the Eder) and it appears to take several hits to break the dams, contrary to Wallis' theory that one hit in the right place would be enough.

In fact, it was the first correctly placed mine which actually broke the dam in each case, just as Wallis predicted. The last mine was dropped at the Mï¿½hne (by Maltby) just as the dam was already crumbling following the hit by Young. [This error, which actually reflects badly on Wallis, is probably down to wanting it to appear as though all the aircraft bombed accurately.] The Eder: In the film, the second mine dropped at the Eder (by Maudslay) is dropped too late and the explosion causes the aircraft to crash into the hillside after a last faint radio message. However, it is now known that Maudslay's aircraft actually crashed in Holland, so it was either not damaged by the explosion of the mine (other than perhaps the radio), or took longer to succumb to the damage than is suggested. [This error is probably due to the records of the time which showed Maudslay as lost over the Eder.] The Sorpe: Although mentioned as one of the raid's targets during the crew briefing in the film, the actual attack on the dam, and the different method of attack, are not shown.

[This omission is probably due the anti-climax it would have produced, as the Sorpe was not breached.] The Lancasters: The Lancasters that appear in the film came from the Maintenance Unit at RAF Hemswell, having the 617 Squadron code letters applied (Gibson's aircraft also got the ED932 registration, though others kept their real registrations) as well as having the dorsal turrets removed (as the real aircraft had had) and the addition of the oversized dummy Upkeeps. Most of the original Lancasters saw no further action during the war, and were scrapped after the war ended, including Gibson's aircraft (AJ-G / ED932) which incredibly was scrapped in 1946. All the aircraft used in the film were broken up for scrap in 1956. The film aircraft appear to have 2 x 0.5" machine guns in the rear turrets, though the original aircraft would have all had 4 x 0.303" machine guns there; ammo seen being loaded also appears to be 0.5". [ This detail was probably overlooked when making the film.

] Test dams and testing tank: The catapult shown for testing the bouncing bomb in the National Physical Laboratory's tank at Teddington is the original device; this is now owned by the RAF Museum. The sequences in the testing tank were filmed in the actual tank (although the number 1 tank was used, as it was more photogenic than the number 2 tank where Wallis did all but one of his actual tests); one of the tanks was demolished in 1998 , the other in 2007. The original model of the Mï¿½hne Dam used for explosives testing still exists (though a bit overgrown), and in 2003 was declared a "scheduled monument". The dam models seen in the film are the actual briefing models made by the PRU at RAF Medmenham, although the Eder model was not completed in time so was not available to the crews; these are now held by the Imperial War Museum (the Mï¿½hne model is on display at their London site).

The explosions: as real explosions on the scale of the dam models would not have been impressive, the film's explosion effects were created using a matte made from the film of the explosion of the only live test of an Upkeep. Young's oar: "Dinghy" Young was in the victorious 1938 Oxford crew in the Boat Race, and at the end of the film we see on his wall an oar painted with the names of the crew. The oar is a genuine souvenir of the race, having been borrowed from Young's family for use in the film. Gibson's Mae West: The lifejacket worn by Todd in the film is not the type worn by RAF servicemen in 1943. However, after shooting down a Heinkel 111 during his nightfighter days, Gibson went to Skegness (where the aircraft crashed) and claimed one of the German lifejackets as a prize, and he wore this himself from then on - it is thus (correctly) a German lifejacket that Todd is seen wearing in the film.

Wallis: Although Michael Redgrave's performance probably captures the essence of Wallis, his character in the film absorbs some of the other technicians involved, so that Wallis appears to be credited personally with some of the research and ideas that were not actually his. Michael Redgrave sat in on some meetings with Wallis to feed into his characterisation, and Wallis was mostly happy with his portrayal in the film. Redgrave is alleged to have told Wallis "I'm not going to imitate you, you know" to which Wallis replied "Oh no, you must create me!" Redgrave was 47 when the film was made (Wallis was 56 in 1943) and was knighted when he was 51 (Wallis had to wait until he was 81 for his knighthood)! The music: "The Dam Busters March" by Eric Coates is heard throughout the film; it appears to have been written for the film (one of few film commissions accepted by the composer), although some sources claim it was written earlier.

Coates died in 1957; he is well known for other light British classics, including "By a Sleepy Lagoon" used as the theme to the long-running Desert Island Discs on BBC radio (1942-present). Nigger: This was the name of Gibson's black Labrador dog, killed in a hit-and-run accident on the day of the mission (in the film). In fact, the fatal accident took place the day before, and the car did stop (it was driven by an RAF officer). "Nigger" was also the codeword to indicate the breaching of the Mï¿½hne Dam; although today deemed politically incorrect (despite the fact that it simply stems from the Latin word for black), it is still used in the recent UK DVD release of the film (some US releases of the film had all references to this word cut or overdubbed with "Trigger", although the Morse code transmission heard still said "Nigger", and it does appear in the US DVD release of the film). The UK Channel 4 screening in July 2007 also cut all uses of the word, although the digitally remastered version being shown in cinemas at the same time remained uncut.

Sharp-eyed viewers may spot the "ghost of Nigger" running through the trees at the end of the film (where Gibson is talking to Wallis at Scampton) - no dog was known to be on the base when the film was made, so the identity of the animal seen on film remains a mystery! The people: Many of the people who worked on the film went on to even greater things, including: Richard Todd (Guy Gibson): although The Dam Busters was probably his "finest hour", Richard went on to star in many other films including D-Day: the Sixth of June and The Longest Day (he had taken part in the real action in Normandy, and played the part of his real commanding officer in the film, with another actor playing Todd!) and more recently he did occasional guest appearances on TV such as Silent Witness and Holby City; died 2009. Robert Shaw (Pulford, Gibson's Flight Engineer): became a big name in Hollywood, and is probably best remembered as Quint in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (he got eaten by the shark); died 1978.

Bill Kerr (Harold "Micky" Martin): a regular on UK radio and TV in the 1960s, best known alongside Tony Hancock, he is still working in occasional guest roles in Australia. Nigel Stock (Spafford, Gibson's Bomb Aimer): well known on TV in the 1970s as Owen M.D. and as Watson alongside Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes; died 1986. George Baker (David Maltby): regularly seen as Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and in many other guest roles in film (notably James Bond films) and on TV; died 2011. Richard Thorp (Henry Maudslay): since 1982, has played Alan Turner in TV series Emmerdale. Patrick McGoohan (uncredited, appears as a rather serious guard outside the briefing room in his first film role): later most famous as The Prisoner and as King Edward I in Braveheart; died 2009.

John Read (uncredited, special effects): became business partner of Gerry Anderson, and worked on many TV series including Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Cloppa Castle; died 2006. Oops!: In a number of shots of the Lancasters doing low flying practice (before the bombs are ready) ... the bombs are clearly visible beneath the aircraft! When the practice with the range sight begins, we see close-ups of test bombs hitting a dummy target of two oil drums with a flag on top - but in the wide shots of the dam approach, this target is not seen. As Shannon goes over the Eder, we hear the engines running up before he pushes the throttles forward. In some of the long shots, the "Lancasters" in the background are actually post-war Avro Lincolns. The Wellington and Mosquitoes seen preparing for test drops are in post-war markings. Sharp eyes may spot a silver Canberra in the far distance of one shot. The train washed away in the flood is running on the left track (as in the UK) - but German trains would normally run on the right track!

As the aircraft lined up to attack the Eder Dam, Waldeck Castle was behind them on a hill on the east side of the lake, but the castle seen in the film appears (in some shots) to be on the west side of the lake. In fact, the castle is painted on glass, and the aircraft footage is re-used from the Mï¿½hne attack. Other movie and TV trivia related to The Dam Busters: The Dam Busters was nominated for an Oscar for "Best Special Effects", and for BAFTAs for "Best British Film", "Best British Screenplay" and "Best Film from any Source" - it didn't win any of them. The Dam Busters was first shown on TV in the UK on Sunday 30th May 1971 - two days after Wallis retired from the British Aircraft Corporation. The Death Star trench sequence in the film Star Wars (1977) was allegedly inspired by The Dam Busters or by 633 Squadron (1964) which was itself inspired by The Dam Busters.

Dick King-Smith's first novel The Fox Busters (1978) was also inspired by The Dam Busters; his later novel The Sheep-Pig was made into the film Babe and was a huge hit. In the film Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), a clip of The Dam Busters is seen on a TV in Pink's room during the "One Of My Turns" scene (Roger Waters' father was killed at Anzio during WW2). Wallis lived in Effingham, Surrey, but "Wallis's house" in The Dam Busters is actually in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire. The Dam Busters came 11th in the 2005 Channel 4 viewer poll to find the "100 Greatest War Films" (it was beaten by Bridge on the River Kwai, Black Hawk Down, Zulu, A Bridge Too Far, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Schindler's List, The Great Escape, Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan which came 1st).

The Dam Busters came 5th in the 2014 Channel 5 viewer poll to find the "Greatest Ever War Movies" (it was beaten by Saving Private Ryan, Zulu, A Bridge Too Far and The Great Escape which came 1st). The Dam Busters (1955) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The story of how the British attacked German dams in WWII by using an ingenious technique to drop bombs where they would be most effective. Director: Michael Anderson Writers: Paul Brickhill (book), Guy Gibson (based on Wing Comdr. Gibson's own account in "Enemy Coast Ahead") (as Wing Comdr.

Gibson) | 1 more credit » Stars: a list of 48 titles created 05 Jan 2014 a list of 39 titles created 11 Feb 2014 a list of 35 titles created 18 Feb 2014 a list of 43 titles created 22 May 2014 a list of 25 titles created 17 Jun 2015 Title: The Dam Busters (1955) 7.4/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 nominations. See more awards » Videos An RAF squadron is assigned to knock out a German rocket fuel factory in Norway. The factory supplies fuel for the Nazi effort to launch rockets on England during D-Day. Director: Walter Grauman The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers. Director: Charles Frend The World War II story of the British Navy's effort to defeat Nazi Germany's most powerful warship.

Director: Lewis Gilbert During WW2 in North Africa, a medical field unit must cross the desert in their ambulance in order to reach the British lines in Alexandria. Director: J. Lee Thompson Allied prisoners of various nationalities pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from an "escape-proof" German POW camp housed in a Medieval castle. Director: Guy Hamilton Biopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WW2. Director: Lewis Gilbert In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the UK. Director: Guy Hamilton A dramatization of the British Expeditionary Force's 1940 retreat to the beaches of France and the extraordinary seaborne evacuation that saved it from utter destruction by Nazi Germany. Director: Leslie Norman The attack by British submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during the Second World War. Director: Ralph Thomas A British team is sent to cross occupied Greek territory and destroy the massive German gun emplacement that commands a key sea channel. Director: J.

Lee Thompson In WW2, a RAF squadron leader mourns the death of a comrade and receives a bombing mission against a secret Nazi V-2 rocket testing facility in France. Director: Boris Sagal Edit Storyline The British are desperate to shorten the length of WW2 and propose a daring raid to smash Germany's industrial heart. At first the objective looks impossible until a British scientist invents an ingenious weapon capable of destroying the planned target. Written by Dave Jenkins <david.jenkins@smallworld.co.uk> The dramatic true-life story of the men who broke the Nazis' back! See more » Genres: 16 July 1955 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Mono | Mono (RCA Sound Recording) Color: Did You Know? Trivia The bombs shown in the movie were the wrong shape because the actual shape (a stubby cylinder) was still secret at the time. See more » Goofs Gibson and Whitworth are sent off to select pilots for the new squadron. Their first selection is Les Knight, we are shown a photo of the actor Vincent Ball but when we meet the character Les Knight he is actually played by Denys Graham. See more » Quotes Flight Lt. H.B.

Martin, DSO, DFC, AFC : [looks out cockpit canopy at the Moehne as the attack formation arrives, and flak starts coming up] There it is, boys. Bit aggressive, aren't they? Someone's woken them up. What do you think about it, Bob? Flight Lt. R.C. Hay, DFC : My goodness. It's... It's big, isn't it? Can we really break *that*? (London, England) – See all my reviews In the spring of 1942, the English design engineer, Barnes Wallis, is working on a revolutionary new bomb, capable of breaching Germany's hydro-electric dams. This film, with its unforgettable "Dam Busters March" by Eric Coates, recounts the story of the development of the bomb and the devising of special tactics for attacking Germany's industrial heartland. It is also a tribute to the genius of Wallis and the courage and skill of the men who made the concept work. The great dams of western Germany, harnessing the energy of the rivers Moehne, Eder and Sorbe, were an important power source for the Nazi war effort.

If the dams could be breached, then the loss of electrical energy and the collateral flooding would, it was hoped, cripple German industry and shorten the war. As the film opens, Wallis is pondering the one central problem associated with bombing a dam. Any explosion in the water (and direct hits on the dam wall are too much to expect) is cushioned by the fluidity, and no structural damage results. We see Wallis eagerly experimenting in his back yard, surrounded and assisted by his adoring children. His brilliant idea is this - if a bomb can be delivered at the correct shallow trajectory and the right high speed, it will 'skip' along the lake's surface like a pebble on a pond, strike the dam and slide down the wall. A depth-sensitive trigger could then detonate the bomb where it would do maximum damage. The idea is a daring and imaginative one, and predictably enough, the various government departments are slow to see its merit. Wallis spends many disheartening hours waiting to speak to unsympathetic civil servants.

In a lovely piece of ironic humour, a Whitehall mandarin points out to Wallis the difficulties inherent in obtaining a Wellington bomber for tests, and Wallis quietly suggests that his own role as the creator of the Wellington might be of some assistance. Wallis is constantly being told that resources are scarce, that the communal effort requires sacrifices, and so forth. There is, he is told, "a very thin dividing line between inspiration and obsession". However, the eccentric genius persists, and eventually Churchill gets to hear of the idea. From that moment on, the project gathers momentum. 'Bomber' Harris, the chief of Britain's Bomber Command, sets up trials. The 'bouncing bomb' is at last a reality. Major disappointments accompany the trials. The casing of the bomb has to be drastically re-designed, and it transpires that the aircraft will need to approach the dam considerably lower and faster than had been envisaged. The RAF's standard altimeters are useless at heights of 50 feet, and the resulting danger to crews of flying blind at almost zero altitude are unacceptable. At this point, Commander Guy Gibson, the pilot who will lead the raid, has his own flash of inspiration.

The spotlights in a variety theatre give him the idea of two converging light beams, shining downwards from aircraft to water, which will fix the plane's altitude precisely. If this all sounds a little 'Heath Robinson', it is nothing compared to the viewing gadget which is cobbled together to enable crews to align on the twin towers of the dam. The climax of the film, the actual attack on the German dams, is rather a disappointment. Anti-aircraft tracer coming up from the German defenders is superimposed on the photographic matrix in the most amateurish of ways. The sound of the ground batteries is unrealistic, staying at a constant pitch and volume however the aircraft manoeuvre. The explosions are the poorest efforts of all, being no more than scraps of film and drawings, patched unconvincingly onto shots of a model dam. Michael Redgrave does a commendable job of 'creating' Barnes Wallis for the screen, quintessentially English and understated, with his runner beans and his cricket jokes. The man's boyish enthusiasm comes across.

In this respect the bathtub in the yard, the setting for his primitive experiments, serves two cinematic purposes, showing us the simple, unprepossessing genius of the English people, and explaining in visual terms exactly how the bomb will work. Good use is made of genuine Air Ministry film of the bouncing bomb tests. If the ultimate effect on Germany's war capacity is exaggerated, this can be forgiven. Richard Todd is terrific as Gibson, the tough little leader of the mission, the emotional man who is able through intense self-discipline to keep his feelings in check and do his duty. The powerful ending is almost too much to take, with the empty seats in the officers' mess, and Todd striding off in stiff-upper-lip fashion to 'write a few letters'. No English heart can fail to be stirred by that marvellous theme tune. 32 of 37 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Barnes Wallis - 必应 Sign in Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis CBE FRS RDI FRAeS (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979), was an English scientist, engineer and inventor.

He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. The raid was the subject of the 1955 film The Dam Busters, in which Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave. Among his other inventions were the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb. Barnes Wallis Career Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley, Derbyshire and educated at Christ's Hospital in Horsham and Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys' Grammar School[clarification needed] in South East London, leaving school at seventeen to start work in January 1905 at Thames Engineering Works at Blackheath, southeast London. He subsequently changed his apprenticeship to J. Samuel White's, the shipbuilders based at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. He originally trained as a marine engineer and in 1922 he took a degree in engineering via the University of London External Programme. He left J. Samuel White's in 1913 when an opportunity arose for him to work on airship design and then aircraft design.

He worked for Vickers - later part of Vickers-Armstrongs and latterly part of the British Aircraft Corporation until his retirement in 1971. Aircraft design His many achievements include the first use of geodetic (also known as geodesic) design in engineering and in the gasbag wiring of Vickers' R100 in 1930, which, at the time, was the largest airship ever designed. He also pioneered, along with John Edwin Temple, the use of light alloy and production engineering in the structural design of the R100. Nevil Shute Norway was the chief calculator for the project, responsible for calculating the stresses on the frame. Despite a better-than-expected performance and a successful return flight to Canada in 1930, the R100 was broken up following the crash in northern France of its "sister" ship, the R101 (which was designed and built by a team from the Government's Air Ministry). The later destruction of the Hindenburg led to the abandonment of airships as a mode of mass transport.

By the time of the R101 crash, Wallis had moved to the Vickers aircraft factory at the Brooklands motor circuit and aerodrome between Byfleet and Weybridge in Surrey. The pre-war aircraft designs of Rex Pierson, the Wellesley, the Wellington and the later Warwick and Windsor all employed Wallis's geodetic design in the fuselage and wing structures. The latter was one of the most robust airframes ever developed, and pictures of its skeleton largely shot away, but still sound enough to bring its crew home safely, are still impressive. The geodetic construction offered a light and strong airframe (compared to conventional designs), with clearly defined space within for fuel tanks, payload and so on. However the technique was not easily transferred to other aircraft manufacturers, nor was Vickers able to build other designs in factories tooled for geodetic work. Bomb design After the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in 1939, Wallis saw a need for strategic bombing to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war and he wrote a paper entitled "A Note on a Method of Attacking the Axis Powers".

Referring to the enemy's power supplies, he wrote (as Axiom 3): "If their destruction or paralysis can be accomplished they offer a means of rendering the enemy utterly incapable of continuing to prosecute the war". As a means to do this, he proposed huge bombs that could concentrate their force and destroy targets which were otherwise unlikely to be affected. Wallis's first super-large bomb design came out at some ten tonnes, far more than any current bomber could carry. Rather than drop the idea, this led him to suggest a plane that could carry it - the "Victory Bomber". Early in 1942, Wallis began experimenting with skipping marbles over water tanks in his garden, leading to his April 1942 paper "Spherical Bomb — Surface Torpedo". The idea was that a bomb could skip over the water surface, avoiding torpedo nets, and sink directly next to a battleship or dam wall as a depth charge, with the surrounding water concentrating the force of the explosion on the target.

A crucial innovation was the addition of backspin, which caused the bomb to trail behind the dropping aircraft (decreasing the chance of that aircraft being damaged by the force of the explosion below), increased the range of the bomb, and also prevented it from moving away from the target wall as it sank. After some initial scepticism, the Air Force accepted Wallis's bouncing bomb (codenamed Upkeep) for attacks on the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams in the Ruhr area. The raid on these dams in May 1943 (Operation Chastise) was immortalised in Paul Brickhill's 1951 book The Dam Busters and the 1955 film of the same name. The Möhne and Eder dams were successfully breached, causing damage to German factories and disrupting hydro-electric power. After the success of the bouncing bomb, Wallis was able to return to his huge bombs, producing first the Tallboy (6 tonnes) and then the Grand Slam (10 tonnes) deep-penetration earthquake bombs. These were not the same as the 5-tonne "blockbuster" bomb, which was a conventional blast bomb.

Although there was still no aircraft capable of lifting these two bombs to their optimal release altitude, they could still be dropped from a lower height, entering the earth at supersonic speed and penetrating to a depth of 20 metres before exploding. They were used on strategic German targets such as V-2 rocket launch sites, submarine pens, and other reinforced structures, large civil constructions such as viaducts and bridges, as well as the German battleship Tirpitz. They were the forerunners of modern bunker-busting bombs. Barnes Wallis Personal life In April 1922, Wallis met his cousin-in-law, Molly Bloxam, at a family tea party. She was only 17 and he was 35, and her father forbade them from courting. However, he allowed Wallis to assist Molly with her mathematics courses by correspondence, and they wrote some 250 letters, enlivening them with fictional characters such as "Duke Delta X". The letters gradually became personal, and Wallis proposed marriage on her 20th birthday.

They were married on 23 April 1925, and remained so for 54 years until his death in 1979. For 49 years, from 1930 until his death, Wallis lived with his family in Effingham, Surrey and he is now buried at the local St. Lawrence Church together with his wife. His epitaph in Latin reads "Spernit Humum Fugiente Penna" (Severed from the earth with fleeting wing). They had four children – Barnes (1926-2008), Mary (b. 1927), Elisabeth (b. 1933) and Christopher (1935-2006) – and also adopted Molly's sister's children when their parents were killed in an air raid. His daughter Mary Eyre Wallis later married Harry Stopes-Roe, a son of Marie Stopes. His son Christopher Loudon Wallis, was instrumental in the restoration of the watermill and its building on the Stanway Estate near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Barnes Wallis Memorials A public house named The Barnes Wallis exists in Howden, East Riding of Yorkshire.

Wallis was involved in airship work at the airship sheds near Howden in the early part of the 20th century. A booklet is available locally and information is available in Howden library. A display is on the walls of the public house near Howden station (North Howden). The Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington near York has a permanent display of The Dambusters raid including a replica bouncing bomb and the catapult used to skim stones to test the bouncing bomb theory.A brief history of Wallis' work is also part of the display. A public house named after Sir Barnes Wallis is located in the town of his birth, Ripley, Derbyshire. There is a statue to Wallis in Herne Bay, Kent just a short distance from Reculver where his bouncing bomb was tested, created by American sculptor Tom White in 2008. A Red Wheel heritage plaque commemorating Wallis's contribution as "Designer of airships, aeroplanes, the 'Bouncing Bomb' and swing-wing aircraft" was erected by the Transport Trust at Wallis' birthplace in Ripley, Derbyshire on 31 May 2009.

A Lewisham Council plaque is located at 241 New Cross Road in New Cross, London, where Wallis lived from 1892 to 1909. The Student Union Building on the University of Manchester North Campus is named in Wallis's honour; Wallis was awarded lifetime membership of the Students' Union in 1967. Nottingham Trent University also has a building named after Wallis, on Goldsmith Street. QinetiQ's site in Farnborough, Hampshire includes a building named in Wallis's honour, the former site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment. There is a Barnes Wallis Drive in Byfleet in Surrey within the former Brooklands aerodrome and motor circuit, also Barnes Wallis Close Effingham Surrey not far from where he lived. Additionally, Barnes Wallis Close in Chickerell, Weymouth, which is within sight of the Fleet Lagoon bounded by Chesil Beach, where Wallis tested the bouncing bomb, and also a Barnes Road which is off Wallis Street in Bradford, West Yorkshire. There is also a Barnes Wallis Drive in Apley in Telford, Shropshire, and Segensworth in Hampshire.

In golf, a "Barnes Wallis" is a shot that bounces on the surface of a water hazard. Howden School had three "House Groups" named after Barnes Wallis, Dag Hammarskjold and Albert Schweitzer. Sculpted busts of Wallis are held by Brooklands Museum and the RAF Club at Piccadilly, London. Barnes Wallis Archives The Science Museum at Wroughton, near Swindon, hold 105 boxes of papers of Barnes Wallis. The papers comprise design notes, photographs, calculations, correspondence and reports relating to Wallis's work on airships, including the R100; geodetic construction of aircraft; the bouncing bomb and deep penetration bombs; the "Wild Goose" and "Swallow" swing-wing aircraft; hypersonic aircraft designs and various outside contracts. Two boxes of records, containing copies of key aeronautical papers written between 1940 and 1958, are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.

Other Barnes Wallis papers are also held at Brooklands Museum, the Imperial War Museum, London, Newark Air Museum and the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, Trinity College, Cambridge and Bristol, Leeds and Oxford universities. The RAF Museum also has a reconstruction of his post-war office at Brooklands. ^ Historic Methods of Entry, Christ's Hospital School. ^ Edgerton,David, Warfare State, Cambridge University Press,, 2006, p. 227-228, ISBN 978-0-521-85636-2 ^ Shepherd, Jessica (2 May 2005). "Letters of love talk of maths". Birmingham Post. ^ Pugh (2005) p. 180. ^ "Sir Barnes Wallis statue". Tom White. Retrieved 11 May 2010. ^ Plaque at 241 New Cross Road ^ "Item information: Papers of Sir Barnes Wallis". Science Museum Library, Swindon. Retrieved 17 May 2013. ^ "The Papers of Sir Barnes Neville Wallis". Janus. Retrieved 17 May 2013.

^ "Person details: Wallis, Sir Barnes Neville (1887–1979), Knight, aeronautical designer and engineer". National Register of Archives. Retrieved 17 May 2013. Books Boorer, N.W. (2008). The Stratosphere Chamber. Weybridge, Surrey: Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd. Boorer, N.W. (2008). Sir Barnes Wallis, CBE, FRS, RDII, FRAeS 1887-1979. Weybridge, Surrey: Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd. Flower, Steven (2002). Hell of a Bomb: How the Bombs of Barnes Wallis Helped Win the Second World War. Tempus Publishing. ISBN978-0-7524-2386-9. Flower, Steven (2004). Barnes Wallis' Bombs: Tallboy, Dambuster and Grand Slam. Tempus Publishing. ISBN978-0-7524-2987-8. Morpurgo, J.E. (1972).

Barnes Wallis, A Biography. London: Longman. ISBN978-0-582-10360-3. Murray, Iain (2009). Bouncing-Bomb Man: the Science of Sir Barnes Wallis. Haynes. ISBN978-1-84425-588-7. Pugh, Peter (2005). Barnes Wallis Dambuster. Icon. ISBN978-1-84046-685-0. Robertson, Peter (1992). Beyond Southern Skies: Radio Astronomy and the Parkes Telescope. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-41408-1. Stopes-Roe, Mary (2005). Mathematics with Love: The Courtship Correspondence of Barnes Wallis, Inventor of the Bouncing Bomb. Macmillan. ISBN978-1-4039-4498-6.

Barnes Wallis Biography -Biography Online Barnes Wallis Biography Barnes Neville Wallis (1887-1979) Sir Barnes Wallis, was an English scientist, engineer and inventor, best known for his development of the ‘bouncing bomb’ used in the destruction of the Ruhr dams during the ‘dambuster raid’ of the Second World War. Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley, Derbyshire, leaving school aged 17 to work at an engineering works at Blackheath, London. In 1913, he took an opportunity to work for the aircraft design at Vickers. In 1913, aircraft design was in its infancy, but the First World War, increased the importance attached to the development of aircraft technology. Barnes enjoyed his work and in 1922, took an external degree in engineering via the University of London’s external programme. Barnes Wallis played a key role in developing the airships of the 1920s and early 1930s. He designed a geodesic design in the Vicker’s R100 spaceship.

Airship development was abandoned after the Hindenburg disaster, but his geodesic airframe was adapted for conventional planes. The structure gave pilots a better chance of returning home, even after experiencing a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire. With the onset of the Second World War, Barnes sought for ways to develop strategic bombing to enable the allies to take the war effort into Germany. His first design was for a ten tonne super bomb, which would have required a more powerful plane – Victory Bomber to actually be able to carry it. This plan never came to fruition. But, in 1942, he began work on a surface torpedo bomb which would enable the destruction of dams protected from conventional bombs. In 1943, the allies were under pressure from the Soviet Union to open a second front against Germany. However, at the time, Britain didn’t feel ready to invade mainland Europe. Therefore, a high priority was placed on strategic bombing as a way of attacking the enemy and showing Stalin they were serious in defeating Germany. However, despite the high priority of bombing, Wallis had great difficulty getting his ideas accepted by the military command. To be fair, they were presented with many ambitious ideas, which often lacked practicality.

Also, the idea was quite unique. Wallis had designed a bomb that was designed to bounce along the water for a certain distance before hitting the target and then sinking down to explode near the base. Despite frequent rejections, Wallis had great faith in his design. He worked around the clock to develop prototypes. He even started by bouncing marbles in a swimming pool in his back garden. Eventually, after speaking directly to Bomber Harris, Wallis was given the go ahead to develop a bomb, and a date for a potential attack was set for May of 1943. This gave Wallis little time to develop a working model which could be used by pilots. To his great disappointment, his first bombs real bombs failed to bounce and exploded on impact. This necessitated more modifications and asking the pilots to fly at an even lower height. Wallis managed to make the new bombs just in time and in May 1943, his bombs were successfully used in ‘Operation Chastise’ – attacking the Mohne, Eder and Sopre dams in the Ruhr area. Though the military benefit of the attacks was less than perhaps initially damaged.

It was a great morale boost, and the image of devastation were used by Churchill next time he saw Stalin. The project was later made famous in the 1954 film The Dam Busters – with Michael Redgrave playing Barnes Wallis. After the Dam Busters raid, Wallis worked on deep penetration earth quake bombs and other technical developments for Vickers. He worked until his retirement in 1971. He was knighted in 1968. He married Molly Bloxm in April 1925, and remained married for 54 years until his death in 1979. Citation : Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Barnes Wallis”, Oxford, , 14th Feb. 2010 Related pages Barnes Wallis • Biography & Facts Barnes Wallis Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, CBE FRS, RDI, FRAeS (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979), was an English scientist, engineer and inventor.

He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. The raid was the subject of the 1955 film The Dam Busters, in which Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave . Among his other inventions were the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb. SIR BARNES NEVILLE WALLIS INVENTOR OF THE DAM BUSTERS BOUNCING BOMB 617 SQUADRON Biography Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley, Derbyshire and educated at Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, leaving school at sixteen to start work in a shipyard. He originally trained as a marine engineer but turned his hand to airship design and then aircraft design. He worked for Vickers and its successor companies (including British Aircraft Corporation) from 1913 until his retirement in 1971. His many achievements include the first use of geodesic design in engineering, in the gasbag wiring of the R100, in 1930 the largest airship yet designed.

He also pioneered the use of light alloy and production engineering in the structure design of R100. Despite a better-than-expected performance and a successful return flight to Canada in 1930, the R100 was broken up following the tragedy that befell its "sister" ship, the R101 (which was designed and built by a separate Government-led team); the later crash of the Hindenburg led to the abandonment of airships as a mode of mass transport. (Wallis was not involved with either of these airships.) Wallis's pre-war aircraft designs included the Vickers Wellesley and the Vickers Wellington, both also employing a geodesic design in the fuselage and wing structure. The latter was one of the most robust airframes ever developed, and pictures of its skeleton largely shot away, but still sound enough to bring its crew home safely, still astonish today. The geodesic construction offered a light and strong airframe (compared to conventional designs) with clear space within for fuel tanks, payload etc. Lancaster bomber dropping bouncing bomb On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began.

Wallis saw a need for strategic bombing to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war, leading him to develop the bouncing bomb, immortalised in the Paul Brickhill's 1951 book The Dam Busters and the 1954 film with the same name. Wallis designed the Tallboy (6 tonnes) and Grand Slam (10 tonnes) deep penetration ("earthquake") bombs used to attack V1 rocket launch sites, submarine pens, and other reinforced structures, as well as the Tirpitz battleship. These two bombs were the fore-runners of modern bunker-busting bombs, and could enter the earth at supersonic velocity. The Tallboy should not be confused with the 5 tonne "blockbuster" bomb, which was a conventional blast bomb. Wallis first superlarge bomb design came out at some ten tonnes, far larger than any current plane could carry. This led him to suggest a plane that could carry it, the "Victory bomber", rather than drop the idea. Wallis did much pioneering engineering work to make the swing-wing concept functional (though he did not invent the concept). However, despite very promising wind tunnel and model work, his designs were not taken up.

His early Wild Goose (late 1940s) hoped to use laminar flow, but when this was shown to be unworkable, he developed swing-wing further for the Swallow (mid 1950s) which could have been developed for either military or civil applications. The UK government instead adopted the BAC TSR-2 (which Wallis did not work on, though one of his sons did) and Concorde . The BAC TSR-2 project was ignominiously scrapped in the mid 1960s in favour of the American F-111 (which had swing wings), though this order was also subsequently cancelled. Wallis also proposed using large cargo submarines to transport oil undersea, hence avoiding surface weather conditions. This idea was put into practice on a tactical level by the Germans, with their milch cows. During the 1960s and into his retirement, he developed ideas for an "all-speed" aircraft, capable of efficient flight at all speed ranges from subsonic to hypersonic. The story described in The Dam Busters reflected a trend throughout his lifetime, that his ideas were rejected by those in authority (and who controlled funding sources).

Following the terrible death toll of the aircrews involved in the Dambusters raid, he made a conscious effort never again to endanger the lives of his test pilots. He also became a pioneer in remote control of aircraft . Wallis became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1945 and was knighted in 1968. Wallis appears as a fictionalized character in Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships - the authorised sequel to The Time Machine. He is portrayed as a British engineer in an alternate history, where the First World War does not end in 1918, and Wallis concentrates his energies on developing a machine for time travel. As a consequence, it is the Germans who develop the bouncing bomb. Barnes Wallis and Michael Redgrave 1954 617 Squadron - the Dambusters No. 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is better known as the "Dambusters" squadron. It currently operates the Tornado GR4 from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland . History Second World War The squadron was formed at RAF Scampton during World War II on March 21, 1943.

It included Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel. The squadron was formed for the specific task of attacking three major dams on the Ruhr in Germany: the Mï¿½hne, Eder and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and was carried out on 17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy Barnes Wallis's "Bouncing bomb". The original commander of 617 Squadron, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the raid. The Squadron's badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam, in commemoration of Chastise. After the raid, Gibson was banned from flying and went on a publicity tour. George Holden became Commanding Officer (CO) in July, but he was shot down and killed on his fourth mission with the squadron in September 1943, an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal; he had four of Gibson's crew with him. H. B. "Mick" Martin took command temporarily, before Leonard Cheshire took over as CO.

Cheshire personally took part in the special target marking techniques required which went far beyond the precision delivered by the standard Pathfinder units ï¿½ by the end he was marking the targets from a Mustang fighter. He was awarded the VC . Throughout the rest of the war, the Squadron continued the specialist and precision bombing role, including the use of the enormous "Tallboy" and "Grand Slam" ground-penetrating earthquake bombs, on targets such as concrete U-boat shelters and bridges, and the Dortmund-Ems Canal was finally breached with Tallboys in September 1944. A particularly notable attack was the sinking of the Tirpitz. Tirpitz had been moved into a fjord in northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already been damaged by an attack by Royal Navy midget submarines and a series of attacks from carrier-borne aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, but both attacks had failed to sink her. The task was given to No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons, who operated from a staging base in Russia to attack Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs.

They damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to Tromsï¿½ fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland, and from there, in October, she was attacked again, but cloud cover thwarted the attack. Finally on 12 November 1944, the two squadrons attacked Tirpitz. The first bombs missed their target, but following aircraft scored three direct hits in quick succession. Within ten minutes of the fist bomb hitting the Tirpitz she turned turtle. Both squadrons claim that it was their bombs that actually sank the Tirpitz. All three RAF attacks on Tirpitz were led by Wing Commander J. B. "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944. The World War II exploits of the squadron, and Chastise in particular, were described in Paul Brickhill's 1951 book The Dam Busters and a 1954 film. The definitive work however is considered "The Dambusters Raid" by John Sweetman, Cassell Military Paperbacks (82,99,2002).

It is based on careful research and cross checking of original documents as well as interviews with survivors of the raid. In 2006, it was announced that New Zealand film director Peter Jackson and David Frost would co-produce a re-make of the film. It has been scripted by Stephen Fry and will be directed by Christian Rivers. The last living Dam Buster pilot, New Zealander Les Munro, offered his services as a technical adviser. Post war After the end of World War II, the squadron was given the Avro Lincoln, following those in 1952 with the English Electric Canberra jet bomber. The squadron was deployed to Malaya for four months in 1955, returning to RAF Binbrook to be disbanded on 15 December 1955. The squadron operated the Avro Vulcan upon reforming at Scampton on 1 May 1958 as part of the "V-Force". At first nuclear equipped, they reverted to conventional bombing after 1968 until disbanded on 31 December 1981 It was then reformed at RAF Marham, Norfolk on 1 January 1983 with the Panavia Tornado GR1.

In 1993 it began the changeover to anti-shipping and by 1994 was operating from RAF Lossiemouth with Tornado GR1B with the Sea Eagle missile. 617 Sqn continued its pioneering heritage by becoming the first RAF squadron to fire the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise-missile during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. No 617 Sqn Tornado GR1 [edit] Previous aircraft operated Peter Jackson’s “Dambusters” Remake to Draw on Newly Declassified Government Docs | The Cutting Room | ARTINFO.com Graham Fuller's The Cutting Room December 17, 2012, 4:29 pm Peter Jackson’s “Dambusters” Remake to Draw on Newly Declassified Government Docs Comments While promoting “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Peter Jackson confirmed that the remake of the classic British war film “The Dam Busters” is going ahead.

In planning since 2008, “Dambusters” will be produced by Jackson’s Wingnut company and mark the directorial debut of Christian Rivers, the New Zealand visual effects art director who has worked on all of Jackson’s films since “Braindead.” The screenplay was written by the writer and actor Stephen Fry, who plays the Master of Laketown in next year’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” He was able to draw on newly declassified British Government documents. “‘Dambusters’ is on hold while I finish ‘The Hobbit,’” Jackson told Empire magazine. “‘The Hobbit’ wasn’t something I intended to get involved in [as much] as I did, so there was an option at one stage I’d be shooting ‘Dambusters while Guillermo [del Toro] was shooting ‘The Hobbit,’ but as things ended up going, ‘Dambusters’ has just had to sit on the sidelines. “We’ve got ten Lancs,” said Jackson, referring to the facsimiles of the Royal Air Force’s Lancaster heavy bombers that have been built for the film.

“They’re ready to go as soon as we possibly can.” Director Michael Anderson’s original, the most popular British movie of 1955, is about the attack made on the Möhne, Edersee, and Sorpe dams in Germany, on May 16 and 17, 1943, by the RAF’s 617 Squadron. The dams were strategically targeted for their importance to providing water for hydroelectric power, the German steel industry, and supply to cities and canals. The attack was made possible by the scientist and engineer Barnes Wallis (played by Michael Redgrave). Wallis invented the bouncing bomb, which low-flying Lancasters — crewed by a mixture of British, New Zealand, Australian, and Canadian personnel — propelled against the dams. The raids breached the Möhne and Edersee dams, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr Valley and the villages on the Eder Valley. The Sorpe dam received at least one direct hit — from a plane piloted by Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy, an America serving with the Canadian Air Force — but sustained only minor damage.

“Mission Chastise” was led by 24-year-old Wing Commander Guy Gibson (played by Richard Todd), who was awarded the Victoria Cross; he was lost in action the following year, shot down by friendly fire. Eight of the 19 Lancasters on the raid were shot down, causing the loss of 53 men from a total personnel of 133. Fatalities on the ground were initially put at 1,294; 749 of the dead were French, Belgian, and Ukrainian prisoners of war and forced laborers. Later estimates put the death toll at 1,600. As the 1955 film showed, Gibson’s beloved black labrador retriever Nigger, the squadron’s mascot, was fatally hit by a car on the day Mission Chastise began. “Nigger” was the code word Gibson used to confirm the breach of the Möhne dam and is heard 12 times in the film. Because the word is no longer culturally acceptable, Sir David Frost, executive producer of the remake, asked Fry to come up with alternatives and then apparently rejected them all.

According to a report in the Daily Mail in June 2011, Fry confirmed that the dog would be renamed “Digger.” Fans of the film’s stirring musical theme, Eric Coates’s “The Dambusters March,” still popular with British marching bands at air shows and at England soccer internationals, may consider it sacrosanct and irreplaceable. It remains to be heard whether Jackson will integrate it or commission a new theme. Images from top: via Black Hole Reviews; Wikipedia Please upgrade your browser

Question: Who played scientist Barnes Wallis in the film 'The Dambusters'?
Answer: MICHAEL REDGRAVE