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| Red Arrows at RAF Scampton |
Lincolnshire has very few hills. It is flat and largely arable, making it ideal terrain for locating airstrips and aerodromes. Hence it is no surprise to discover that Lincolnshire became an important hub for RAF operations in the Second World War, and remains a prime location for the RAF to this day.There are jump-jets based in the south of the county and the famous Red Arrows display team is based at Scampton, a few miles north of Lincoln. Back in the WW2 days of Hurricanes, Spitfires and Lancasters, RAF Scampton achieved renown as the base from which Wing-Commander Guy Gibson led Operation Chastise, the
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| The Möhne dam breached by the raid |
successful bouncing bomb raid on the Möhne and Edersee Dams that were seen as crucial in supplying hydro-electric power to the industrial heartland of the Ruhr.
There was something quintessentially British about Barnes-Wallis, the eccentric boffin who conjured up the idea of the bouncing bomb. When this character was teamed up with the Brylcreem and moustachioed glamour of the heroic RAF "few," there was material for an Elstree blockbuster, "The Dambusters," that was the Britain's biggest box-office hit in 1955. The film was broadcast again over the Christmas film-fest, and I found myself transported back to my childhood.
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| Wing-Commander Guy Gibson (centre) |
It's a film I well remember, because it was my birthday treat in 1955, especially memorable for one incident. At one point, one of the airmen SWORE. It was in the sequence when the crews are practising low-level flying over Derwent Water and the navigator exclaims: "This is bloody dangerous!"
We four 11-year olds hooted and brayed. The character had said "bloody" - loud and clear, for everyone to hear in the film. "Bloody" was a totally unacceptable swear-word in 1950s Britain (bloody being a mediaeval abbreviation of By Our Lady) It was shocking; and while we and all the other children in the audience collapsed with roars of laughter, the parents sucked their teeth and tutted audibly. How times have changed!
A different part of the script failed to make any impact in 1955 Britain, but was carefully dubbed for US distribution to avoid possible offence. The word in question was the name of a pet dog. Guy Gibson went everywhere with his beloved black Labrador, affectionately called Nigger. This was deemed inappropriate for American audiences and dubbed as Trigger. It is a sad sign of the times that one of the main talking points surrounding Peter Jackson's plans to shoot a remake of the film is what to call the dog. (The Lancasters needed for the film have already been built, but Jackson is currently seduced by The Hobbit trilogy.) Scriptwriter Stephen Fry proposes Digger while Executive Producer David Frost prefers Guy Gibson's nickname for his pet: Nigsy. Whatever happened to historical accuracy?
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| A Lancaster bomber flying over Lincoln Cathedral |
This part of Lincolnshire relishes both past and present Air-force connections. The Battle of Britain Flight is now just one Lancaster, one Spitfire and one Hurricane, but I recall many occasions as a child, watching several of these WW2 stalwarts in flypasts.
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| Richard Todd in the role of Guy Gibson |
Today, while computerised drones do the lethal work of eliminating targets without risk to the attacker, films of the Second World War depict a very different technology.
It came as a shock in the film to see the cumbersome leather and metal helmet that incorporated the microphone and headphones for the crew in the Lancaster cockpit. In another shot I was brought back to earth with the sight of the navigator using a slide rule to calculate position and time to destination. It is much easier to think of these people as war heroes than it is to admire a man in a bunker with a screen and a computer.
There is a growing debate over the use of drones, but I doubt whether intellectual outrage will change anything for the better. If war can be waged purely with technology, with very little human involvement, then most people living in the land of the aggressor will happily turn a blind eye.
Drone warfare is probably another step towards Totalitarianism and clandestine operations. There will be no more war heroes, but maybe that's no bad thing.
