大象传媒

I was home from school with mumps .My bedroom window looked across a field to Staines reservoir. While aircraft activity was common in those days ,low flying bombers certainly were not and there was one flying very low across the reservoir at regular intervals .It did not take long to notice that it was dropping something on every trip . As soon as it was gone a group of men would go out on to the reservoir and retrieve whatever the aircraft had dropped.
I did not realize until long after the war ended ,when reading a book about the dambusters , that the original development work of Barnes Wallis鈥檚 bouncing bomb . This was being carried out at Vickers at Brooklands at Weybridgeand Staines reservoir was the original dropping zone before the trials on the Thames estuary.
It seems the entertainment I had while suffering from mumps was the opening scene to the dambusters. breaching the Mona dam . I am fairly certain that the aircraft dropping the experimental bombs were Wellingtons and not Lancasters as used by 617 sqadron.,remembering in those days that 12 year old boys were experts at aircraft recognition.
The tailpiece to this was that after raid on the dam the reservoir was surrounded by antiaircraft guns .After a short time every other one was removed and replaced by a pole at 45 on them, this was repeated at regular intervals until all that was left were poles and steel helmets and tents.
During the 70s ,I was a member of a N.Wales aircraft society and had the honour and pleasure of meeting several of the dambuster aircrew.

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