Guess the name of the movie

Theme song "The Expendables"

When watching Doctor Strange Love, Americans drove a B52 with a nuclear warhead to bomb the Soviet Union, which reminded me of the British film Dam buster of 1954. This film almost recorded the "disciplinary action" carried out by the Royal Air Force on the night of 1943 in World War II in the form of a documentary.

The film described in detail the Allied attack on German dams during World War II. They are very organized, but they are also very enthusiastic, calculating what plane, what bomb, what angle, what altitude and so on. In order to cause maximum damage to the dam and minimize the loss of aircraft. The answer they came up with sounds ridiculous, but it really works: very large cylindrical bombs rotate backwards at a high speed, making them jump along the water surface when they are thrown, all the way to the bottom of the dam.

It is not easy to blow up a dam. The film introduces in detail the design process of the bomb designer and the process of the British military adopting this scheme (because it sounds like a fantasy at first glance). This movie doesn't look boring at all, even exciting. The film was nominated for Best Effect at the 28th Academy Awards and Best Film, Best British Film and Best Screenplay at the 9th British Film Academy.

Code-named "disciplinary action"

Ruhr area is located in the west of Germany, which is an important industrial and agricultural area. The Germans built many dams here, and once the dams were blown down, it would deal a heavy blow to the industrial and agricultural production of the Third Reich.

On the evening of May 1943, the Royal Air Force Command in Scampton, England held a pre-war mobilization meeting attended by all pilots of the 6 17 squadron.

Lieutenant Colonel Guy Gibson of the Royal Air Force announced that the target of tonight's bombing was the most important dam in West Germany, and the operation code was "Disciplinary Action".

Then he introduced Barnes wallison, a British bomb design expert, to the people present. As early as 1942, the gray-haired old man designed a special bomb specially used to blow up concrete arch dams, named "ricochet". The bomb was dropped upstream of the dam. Before it was released, its speed on the bomb rack was 500 rpm. After dropping the bomb, it will jump forward many times on the water like a child playing with stones, and it can also cross the bulletproof net laid in front of the dam. When it touches the dam, the bomb uses its own rotation to go deep below the waterline of the dam and blast a big hole below the waterline. Once the arch dam is blown up at the supporting point, the strong water pressure will make the dam burst immediately. Cork Leonard, deputy commander-in-chief of the Air Force, immediately delivered a pre-war mobilization speech. He demanded that the details of the new weapon be kept strictly confidential, and finally said: "Now, you are about to set out to carry out an air strike that can cause great damage, and your actions will go down in history." His prediction finally came true.

Embark on a dangerous journey

Gibson will personally lead the first formation to bomb two important targets-Murne Dam (target X) and Edel Dam (target Y), and cooperate with the second formation to bomb another important target-Solper Dam (target Z) as much as possible. The remaining secondary targets, such as Lister dam (target D), Enneper dam (target E) and Dimer dam (target F), are under the responsibility of the third formation.

The first formation consists of three planes in each of the three fleets. These nine planes will fly from Scampton along the southern line, cross the North Sea, enter the European continent at the Kart estuary between Fran Island and Sven District in Naugle, the Netherlands, and then fly to attack the Murne Dam until it is convinced that the dam has been completely destroyed. Subsequently, the surviving aircraft that carried out the first attack will carry the remaining bombs and bomb the Eder Dam. After the Murne and Edel dams were destroyed one after another, the remaining bomb planes will go to the Solper dam to carry out bombing missions.

At 2 1: 00 in the evening, Gibson led the first attack group of the first formation to fly along Walsh Bay, and then crossed the British coastline to the south in the southeast. In order to avoid the German radar, the plane skimmed the sea at low altitude over the North Sea and kept radio silence strictly. After passing the Dutch coastline, continue to fly in the direction of Monnet Dam. In the meantime, it was attacked by ground air defense fire from time to time, and the strong light of searchlights made the driver unable to see the objects on the ground at all. Lancaster bombers flew over these areas at a height close to the treetops. Gibson recalled flying at low altitude and said, "Our flying altitude was too low. The pilot hissed at me more than once and told me to be careful of high-voltage wires and trees."

Five attacks on the dam on a moonlit night

At 00: 26 on May 17, the first formation of eight bombers headed by Gibson arrived over Murne Reservoir, except one plane that crashed due to hitting a high-voltage power tower. When flying to Mount Ruhr, the pilot saw Lake Murne, and then the reservoir. In the moonlight, the dam lurks quietly there, looking huge and invincible.

Gibson dived above Murne Dam and found 12 anti-aircraft guns scattered in the sluice, dam and surrounding fields. Gibson immediately called the rest of the planes into their respective attack routes. Subsequently, Gibson's plane descended to the designated descent altitude18m, and maintained an attack speed of 370km. In the bright moonlight, the steep dam is more and more clearly visible, and an anti-aircraft gun fire net full of jumping fireballs is coming towards them.

Gibson dropped a bomb on the upstream of the reservoir, quickly pulled up the plane and roared low over the dam wall. Seen from the turret behind, the bomb jumped on the water three times and then hit the dam. The big bang made a huge circular water column soar. However, to the crew's surprise, the dam still existed after the water level subsided. The crew immediately reported to the headquarters, "The bomb has exploded, but it failed to destroy the dam." Gibson immediately called Hopgood for a second attack. However, when Hopgood was 90 meters away from the dam and ready to drop the bomb, the ground anti-aircraft gun fire hit two engines of the plane. In the chaos, the bomber Fraser arrived late, and the bomb crossed the dam and blew up the power plant under the dam. Hopgood tried to control and pull up the plane, but the plane exploded in mid-air and crashed.

Seeing two defeats, Gibson ordered Martin to start the third attack. In order to disperse the ground fire, Gibson's plane flew over the dam a little ahead of Martin's bomber. The bomber on Martin's plane successfully dropped the ricochet. A few seconds later, a huge explosion stirred the lake again, but when the water level subsided, the dam remained as steady as Mount Tai.

Then it was Ding Haiyang's turn. His bombing also hit the dam accurately, but the dam still seems to be "unmoved".

Gibson had to call David Maltby, the pilot of No.5, to prepare for the attack. When Maltby approached the target, he found that the dam had actually been exploded by the bomb dropped by Ding Haiyang's crew. But Maltby's bombers dropped bombs. After four jumps, the bomb hit the dam and exploded, and a 305-meter-high white flashing water column rose into the sky. Perhaps he had lost confidence in ricochet, but before the bombing result was determined, the ship's radio operator Sergeant Si Tong reported to the headquarters that "the bombing failed again".

When Gibson was ready to organize the next attack, he was dismayed to see that the surging water had begun to gush out from the dam break. In the end, the explosion and the current tore a hole more than 70 meters wide on the dam, and the flood surged down and roared into the Ruhr Valley. Gibson sent a "victory" signal to the headquarters, which was quickly confirmed by the call back from the headquarters.

After a brief joy, Gibson immediately led the first formation to fly to the next target-Edel Dam. A perfect attack blasted a hole with a diameter of 25 meters, and the Edel Dam burst. In addition, the bombs dropped by the second formation bombers also successfully hit the Solper Dam. Because the dam is a concrete trapezoidal gravity dam, although a gap was blasted, it did not collapse. Only this gap made the Germans have to release the water from the reservoir, lower the water level to build the dam, and lose the water that is vital for power generation. In addition, the third formation responsible for bombing secondary targets failed in the end.

Summary of offensive and defensive experience

Although the Solper Dam was not destroyed, the attack was a great success. About 270 million cubic meters of water were released by the two dams that burst, and the downstream area 160 km was flooded. Coal mines and factories were washed away and bridges collapsed. More than 1500 workers were drowned. When the flood receded, many villages and towns downstream of the dam had no water available and hydropower generation was interrupted. Although the dam was later repaired, the industrial and agricultural production in Ruhr area was seriously damaged.

Everything has advantages and disadvantages, and so does the dam. Despite the danger of military attack, today, with peace and development becoming the mainstream of the world, the economic and social value of dams is more favored by people. As long as we are more careful and forward-looking in dam design and safety protection, we can resist foreseeable dangers.