Dam Busters

[Mutley]

Today being the anniversary of the raid, thought it was enough of an opportunity to post this:

http://www.dambusters.org.uk/docs/recordbook.pdf

a rather detailed account of the raid, and the life of 617 squadron

[andymadmak]

I have an autograph album, left to me by my late mother.
Browsing though it this week I spotted one that made my heart leap.

Guy Gibson VC

I'm so proud to have it

[jmorgan]

Forgot about this. Got his signature? Wow. Hang on to that.

Hats of to the young lads.

[dictys]

I hear on the big budget remake they are having problems with what to call the dog without offending anyone! muppets, the dog was called what the dog was called!

[speedtwelve]

Went to see the original Dambusters film on the big screen recently after it was remastered.

The first surprise was that the pictures were absolutely chocca; amazed that so many people had turned-up to watch. Second surprise was the audible gasp that filled the place when Gibson first called on his mutt; surprised partly at the lack of awareness of history, and also at the extent that PC indoctrination had got a hold of the younger generation in their cosy world.

It's a great film BTW, has really stood the test of time, crap SFX aside. Hope the remake isn't some fluffy PC-fest.

"It's Strangely Brown, sir. I'm afraid he's been run over. The driver didn't even stop."

Edited by speedtwelve on Wednesday 20th May 22:39

[Eric Mc]

dictys said:

I hear on the big budget remake they are having problems with what to call the dog without offending anyone! muppets, the dog was called what the dog was called!

Debated to death on PH already.

The main problem is not the dog so much as the fact that then actual Code Word used to indicate that a dam had been breached was "N-I-G-G-E-R", tapped out in Morse Code. In the old film Wallis and the staff back at base are seen jumping around shouting ", " when the message comes through.

Ironically, the previous post about PC ness seems to be accompanied by an ad showing what used to be called "Ayres Rock" but isn't anymore for PC purposes.

Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 20th May 22:59

[Mr E Driver]

There is an item about this on BBC1 Look North Freeview channel 804 starting at 18.30 for those of you in other parts of the country

[dr_gn]

Plenty of aerial acion over and around Sheffield recently. Saw Look North tonight and apparently it was all in aid of this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/sto...

A twin engined plane and a single engined plane in *very* close formation flew over the Howden, Derwent and Ladybower dams. Might have been a Beechcraft twin and a Piper something. Martin Shaw was in one of them.

[El Diablo]

Surely they will just change it to Digger wont they. It's PC friendly and only one letter away from being correct, comprimise for the purists.

I do think that they shouldn't change the name but when the film gets released I fear that the black labs name would over shoddow the heroic story. the media would have a field day with it!

[dr_gn]

El Diablo said:

Surely they will just change it to Digger wont they. It's PC friendly and only one letter away from being correct, comprimise for the purists.

Mmmmm, they could even use "Digger" and pretend everyone using the word had a cold at the time. Problem solved.

[Simpo Two]

N*gger was used in those days simply to describe the colour black. My father's boyhood paintbox had 'n*gger black' in it in just the same way we have 'sky blue' and 'pea green'. It's simply a descriptive.

And then of course the noisy leftwing (mostly white) 'offended-by-proxy' brigade turned up...

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 26th May 13:16

[Mutley]

And was also/has been used in an insult towards coloured people, hence why it became a 'banned' word

[andymadmak]

Simpo Two said:

N*gger was used in those days simply to describe the colour black. My father's boyhood paintbox had 'n*gger black' in it in just the same way we have 'sky blue' and 'pea green'. It's simply a descriptive.

And then of course the noisy leftwing (mostly white) 'offended-by-proxy' brigade turned up...

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 26th May 13:16

wasn't it a bdisation of the word Negro?

[Simpo Two]

Could well have been.

And there are many insults, why not ban them all?

Spotty
Smelly
Short
Fat

etc

And then when you say in a shop 'Have you got some meat without much fat on it?' everyone will go 'OOH, YOU CAN'T SAY THAT' and go red and look shocked. I don't want to live in that world.

[Eric Mc]

Is it not possible to discuss The Dambusters WITHOUT a major debate about the name of the dog - about the least significant part of the mission.

[Simpo Two]

The rest of the mission is beyond dispute

[5150]

andymadmak said:

Simpo Two said:

N*gger was used in those days simply to describe the colour black. My father's boyhood paintbox had 'n*gger black' in it in just the same way we have 'sky blue' and 'pea green'. It's simply a descriptive.

And then of course the noisy leftwing (mostly white) 'offended-by-proxy' brigade turned up...

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 26th May 13:16

wasn't it a bdisation of the word Negro?

The word '' is actually derived from the latin 'niger' - meaning . . . . . black!