Night Bombers - 1945 Colour Documentary about Lancasters

[GliderRider]

Supposedly the only documentary about operational Lancasters filmed in colour. The quality isn't great, but if you've ever wondered how they maintained aircraft in the war this gives some insight.
The location is RAF Hemswell, where many of the ground scenes for 'The Dam Busters' were filmed nine years later.

Night Bombers

Edited by GliderRider on Friday 2nd June 18:01

Edited by GliderRider on Friday 2nd June 20:05

[Riley Blue]

It's 'Hemswell' and is now a large antiques centre that is well worth a visit as many of the WW2 buildings are little changed. IIRC some of the aircraft filmed there for 'The Dam Busters' were Lincolns.

Info here:

https://www.hemswell-antiques.com

https://www.hemswellcourt.com/history/

[Eric Mc]

First shown on TV by the BBC back in 1979. I still have my Radio Times copy from that week. It was the featured front cover artwork. They showed the film back to back with the original "The Memphis Belle" 1943 documentary.

[GliderRider]

Riley Blue said:

It's 'Hemswell' and is now a large antiques centre that is well worth a visit as many of the WW2 buildings are little changed. IIRC some of the aircraft filmed there for 'The Dam Busters' were Lincolns.

Info here:

https://www.hemswell-antiques.com

https://www.hemswellcourt.com/history/

Thanks Riley Blue. Now corrected.

[Simpo Two]

I was pondering only today that back in those days, one year you could be a teenager living with you parents, and a year later, living in a freezing Nissen hut in nowhere and flying over enemy territory in a noisy shaky bomber getting shot at.

[Ayahuasca]

I happened to be in Hannover in northern Germany last week. A local church in the city centre is preserved in a roofless bombed-out state. Discovered that Hannover had been hit by the RAF in 1943 with thousands of civilian deaths. A bit sobering to contemplate being on the other side of a Lancaster raid.

RIP to the brave bomber crews, and also to the civilians on whom some of their bombs inevitably fell.

[anonymous-user]

Ayahuasca said:

I happened to be in Hannover in northern Germany last week. A local church in the city centre is preserved in a roofless bombed-out state. Discovered that Hannover had been hit by the RAF in 1943 with thousands of civilian deaths. A bit sobering to contemplate being on the other side of a Lancaster raid.

RIP to the brave bomber crews, and also to the civilians on whom some of their bombs inevitably fell.

Similar to Coventry, then.

[Mark V GTD]

A fascinating piece of film. Made by Air Commodore H I Cozens (then station commander RAF Hemswell).

Some of the mission footage was taken inside a Lancaster fuselage in a hangar but much of it is the real thing.

Cozens had earlier been the CO of 19 Squadron at Duxford and was in charge in July 1938 when 19 became the first RAF unit to receive the new Spitfire monoplane fighter.

Edited by Mark V GTD on Sunday 4th June 16:27

[Simpo Two]

JB99 said:

Ayahuasca said:

I happened to be in Hannover in northern Germany last week. A local church in the city centre is preserved in a roofless bombed-out state. Discovered that Hannover had been hit by the RAF in 1943 with thousands of civilian deaths. A bit sobering to contemplate being on the other side of a Lancaster raid.

RIP to the brave bomber crews, and also to the civilians on whom some of their bombs inevitably fell.

Similar to Coventry, then.

“They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”

By the way I don't recall Churchill having to send all his Instagram messages to a judge afterwards to see which bits he got wrong.

[DodgyGeezer]

JB99 said:

Ayahuasca said:

I happened to be in Hannover in northern Germany last week. A local church in the city centre is preserved in a roofless bombed-out state. Discovered that Hannover had been hit by the RAF in 1943 with thousands of civilian deaths. A bit sobering to contemplate being on the other side of a Lancaster raid.

RIP to the brave bomber crews, and also to the civilians on whom some of their bombs inevitably fell.

Similar to Coventry, then.

And Dresden, and Hamburg (if you're ever there St. Nikoli memorial is worth a visit), and... well you get the idea. It was tragic but a sad fact of modern warfare. As for how the poor buggers in bomber command fared (which, whilst horrific, is still not as bad as u-boat crew)...

Edited by DodgyGeezer on Sunday 4th June 14:13

[Yertis]

Simpo Two said:

“They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”

By the way I don't recall Churchill having to send all his Instagram messages to a judge afterwards to see which bits he got wrong.

That quote was Harris’s IIRC. Although I think maybe biblical in origin

https://youtu.be/uJB4hbGUjw4

And re bombed out churches - Bristol also, now haunted by junkies.

Edited by Yertis on Sunday 4th June 14:26

[Simpo Two]

Yertis said:

That quote was Harris’s IIRC

'Twas indeed. I love the matter-of-factness about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ujzVqwJnB0&ab...

Basically, each side bombed the crap out of each other as much as the could. Germany's mistake was perhaps in not developing/deploying heavies - because they thought the war would be over before needed - and in fighting every other country all at the same time.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

I recall my late father talking about hiding in their shelter as a kid in Hull listening to the bombs drop, and them getting nearer.

The worst he said were the V1s as you could here them coming for a long time, then the motor cut and everyone in the shelter went quiet and waited for the bang.

My gran was a nurse... She saw some horrible horrible things and would take great delight in recounting them to me as a child in the late 70s and early 80s. Looking back, I suspect it helped her process what she saw.

Carpet bombing cities is a truly awful thing to do.

[Simpo Two]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

The worst he said were the V1s as you could here them coming for a long time, then the motor cut and everyone in the shelter went quiet and waited for the bang.

My aunt said the same. And my father had a close shave with a V2 that fell at the end of his road.

[LotusOmega375D]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

I recall my late father talking about hiding in their shelter as a kid in Hull listening to the bombs drop, and them getting nearer.

The worst he said were the V1s as you could here them coming for a long time, then the motor cut and everyone in the shelter went quiet and waited for the bang.

This surprised me as I thought the V1 range was insufficient to reach Hull, so I did a bit of Googling and discovered that the Luftwaffe fitted V1s to some of their He111 bombers. Indeed on Christmas Eve 1944, they launched such a V1 attack on Manchester and released the missiles from over the North Sea, near to the Humber estuary.

Hmm, launching stand-off cruise missiles against major civilian population centres from distant bombers. That would never be allowed to happen again…

[Eric Mc]

First thing I assumed when the city of Hull was mentioned. They even had plans to launch V1s from Arado 234 jet bombers.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

LotusOmega375D said:

This surprised me as I thought the V1 range was insufficient to reach Hull, so I did a bit of Googling and discovered that the Luftwaffe fitted V1s to some of their He111 bombers. Indeed on Christmas Eve 1944, they launched such a V1 attack on Manchester and released the missiles from over the North Sea, near to the Humber estuary.

Hmm, launching stand-off cruise missiles against major civilian population centres from distant bombers. That would never be allowed to happen again…

Thanks for posting that... If I'm honest I've never given it any thought about where they would be launched from... Just a family story.

But of course, when they were deployed, the static launch positions would be a long way east.

[Eric Mc]

The land based V1 launch sites were mostly in the Pas de Calais part of Northern France and the main intended target area was Greater London.

The range of the V1 was set by a small windmill attached to the nose. This operated a screw jack which, when it had rotated "X" number of times, cut the fuel supply to the motor and pitched the elevators to a "nose down" pitch position to ensure the bomb went into a dive. It was very crude system and not very reliable. The V1 had limited guidance. It was effectively "aimed" in the direction the launch ramp was pointing. It had no ability to turn or bank once airborne. That was why it was relatively easy to tip one over by flying a fighter plane (usually a Spitfire, Tempest or Meteor) very close and using your wingtip to flip the V1.





This is my attempt at modelling such a scenario -

[Yertis]

Wasn’t the intention to upset the airflow over the V1 wings, rather than physcally flip it over? Mosquitos, Mustangs and the high-powered P47M also used to intercept V1s.

[Eric Mc]

Yes - there was usually no need to make physical contact wingtip to wingtip. Mosquitoes and Northrop P-61 Black Widows also brought down some V1s.
The vast bulk of them failed due to technical issues or were brought down by anti-aircraft fire.