Pure History Specials - Dambusters of ww2 - Part 2 - Preparing for the raid

The Dambusters raid of 1943 was one of the most daring air operations of the Second World War. Nineteen Lancaster bombers had to navigate their way for almost 7 hours at night at an altitude of only 100 feet. Their targets were the huge hydroelectric dams of Germany's Ruhr Valley. Nearly half of the airmen did not make it back to England. The dams raid is still considered one of the most technically difficult pieces of flying ever attempted. We've put together a modern Dambusters crew. Four recently qualified RAF pilots and four sergeants are going to find out just how awesome that mission really was. They are going to try to fly the whole raid of 60 years ago again. This time in a specially built Lancaster simulator. They are going to try to become the Dambusters of 1943. Two weeks into their 7 weeks of training the captain of the aircraft Lucy Robinson, navigator Branty, bomb aimer Molly and the rest of the crew now need to pull out all their stocks. Their first proper training mission is designed to really test their low level navigation skills. They fly low at night for the first time. We are here, they will be now here, here, here. Fun is, take the bridge in three days. Now the spotlight is firmly on our navigator Branty. Right, okay. Mission two is where you start coming to navigate, it's real, now that you've got the hang off on the aircraft-- For all of our missions, the reserve pilot Frankie will play the part of Guy Gibson briefing and debriefing the crew. Along--and down into the water which is when Molly comes in. It's time for the fun factor to go out of the window. All of our crew will have to concentrate 100%. They are navigating as a team now. Branty has to be clear about what he wants them to look out for. They have to be alert, reporting anything that might be significant. We just talked about going right back to nav basics, right back to basic techniques. Let's see if we can make it work bit better, 'cause there is so much background noise down there and that if everyone is talking at the same time, you can't hear anything, you don't know where the inputs are coming from, so we're going to go and keep it as plain. In the control room Frankie and the simulator's designer Dr Kenji Takeda are able to see and monitor the crew's progress. You pre launches for the first 10 point please. Heading 005 adjusted to wind, 180 knots and it will hack the clock over the runway and that will be called by the bomber air place. Kenji and Frankie are also able to interfere with the mission in a number of realistic ways. We give them a window 050. Yeah, and we'll slacken it down to just 10 knots. Ten knots? Okay. So they should find that they get the turning point earlier than they would expect, because if, then go stronger headwind. Okay, next event is a turning point estimated 710. We're looking to get an more accurate time fix at the end of this lag, and I'll go another field for the wind, it might be taking funny things. Branty realizes the wind is changed and recalculates his numbers. Copied. But as they cross the north Yorkshire Moors, something goes wrong. Roger, now this is bomb aimer, it looks we're having quite strong drift to pull. On the first time leg of a journey, the navigator knows how long it should take his aircraft to get from A to B. But the wind will blow the aircraft off course. By seeing where they actually are at the end of a leg, the navigator can draw a triangle, do some trigonometry and work out the speed and direction of the wind. Once he knows what the wind is doing, he can correct all the headings and timings for the up and coming legs. The trouble is that at 100 feet, the crew may not be able to see how far they are away from a landmark. In fact they are only 1 mile astray, but it shows how little they can see at this height. 2 o'clock. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think we left the track by a mile, if you could adjust please, Lucy. Okay, we're left and coming right. Time for team medals. Come on crew, that's good. Our crew are struggling. The Lancaster is a very strange aircraft to them. We were encountering problems yesterday and even dealing with that and all the noises going on and the current problems that we've had, that's hard and that's fatiguing mentally. And we're not even being fired out, you know, it's just a simulator, and we're still quite trying to stay that we realized how hard it must have been for those guys. Little does Lucy know she is about to get her hands on the real thing. She is in for a shock. To help our modern RAF crew get a feel for what flying a real Lancaster bomber was like, we took Lucy, Branty, Molly and Tappa to Canada. There they are flying one of the only two flying Lancasters in the world. Over 7,000 Lancasters were built during World War II, only 14 still exist and only two can still fly. One is here at the Canadian War Plane Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. Maintained by a group of volunteers as a national treasure. We fly to Branford then down... Former Canadian Air Force Flight Lieutenant Don Schofield is the chief pilot. Back there... and we should essentially be exercised completed that... Thousands of young men died in the Lancaster in World War II. Yet its hold on the afflictions of young and old, never seems to wane. Our two young fighter pilots are given the chance by Don to take the controls. They are in for a shock. Heavy, isn't it? Yeah, it is actually. About 360, another 45 degrees-- This particular airplane has rather unique history and that she spent her entire life as an air-sea rescue aircraft. She never took a life, but she did save a lot. And for that type of role which is low level, low speed patrolling the North Atlanta can really grow out you wither. She was well suited. Other than the fact, the crew so and so is down the back used to freeze. It's amazing how you think that they can do that now, isn't it? Yeah. Well, you can see the nose go straight away. You really do feel--it's not just impressive anymore. Pretty easy, isn't it? It's so heavy. Yeah, some prefer flying--with the power steering turned off. As they were saying a little bit--it's not meant to be a fighter, it meant to be a very stable bombing platform, that's exactly what it is. Stop playing, starting to chill off. Wow. Thank you so much. How was it? It was amazing. Yeah, fantastic. Such a great experience. Unbelievable. Yeah, it's just the noise and... So heavy. Isn't that heavy? Yeah, it was really, really heavy. The heaviest thing obviously I've ever touched in years. I've wrote down on my knee board to Lucy that was saying in the right hand turn, oh, I lost 400 feet so that... What is good to know that I did exactly the same thing too. Quite amazing. You got to fly Lancaster, it's unbelievable. No, like the vibrations and the noise and. As a man I'm gonna say-- Wow. Lucy and Branty are shaken by their first trip in a Lanc. Back in 1943, the dam's crews were well pass that stage. They were all competent flyers. But have even a chance of success, they would have to become world class experts in the art of low flying that would give them the advantage of surprise and help them to avoid attack by German night fighters and flak emplacements. Thoroughly enjoy that. You never get a license to fly that low anywhere in any air force under any condition, it's forbidden. We will turn around this country day and night, flying just above the treetops and everybody is gonna plan about it. Public or in a night rides, I mean, you're going to bed at 9.00 and lanc comes over about 50 feet over your head, you are not happy about it. Twenty pilots and their crews made up the new squadron. One of the more flamboyant was American pilot Joe McCarthy. He joined the Canadian Air Force at the start of the war. Keen to get in on the action. His bomb aimer was 22 year old George Johnson. Six foot plus and almost as broad as he was tall, hands like hams. And they really held that airplane wherever he wanted it to go. And big Joe liked his low flying. On one occasion we ended up at the bombing range to do a practice bombing ride. We were flying at 30 feet and somebody flew underneath us. The hardest thing for our young flyers is adjusting to the demands of working in a large team. They have to learn to think like a Lancaster crew. We had flyers of 60 years ago show today's crew the nuts and bolts of the job. Ray Grayston flight engineer on the Dams raid shows Tapper his duties. The office. Memories. Alex McKay was a navigator who joined the Dambusters squadron after the dam's raid. This is the pillar that was maintained, if you ever find my aircraft you would find me hanging on here. Larry Curtis also joined after the dam's raid. Will Myer called me engineer because we didn't have a very comfortable seating position. And as soon as you got in the aircraft, the first the navigator knew is what was bagging-- and get all the gear out. That's it. That was of course after he made sure his parachute was. Use a clip, clip on that behind him, here I see. All right. You always had to have a wireless operator on board. Part of the rules of Greg's you had to have a wireless operator on board. 'Cause the navigator on short trips could occasionally get lost. My big failure in the aircraft was that I make a mistake and through me you make a mistake, something else might go wrong. 'Cause if I get a wrong course to pilot, we would be in big trouble. And I felt very conscious of that responsibility. How did you control the crew into combat, when you are on that buoying run because was that something that came quite fluidly or were people talking over each other or 'cause it must be very hectic? Oh, yeah. No everybody says this but it's not. Firstly it's up to the pilot and if he's in control, there's no problem. Pilot gives the orders and the rest of the crew respond to that. And you feed information to him, if you thing it's necessary. Other than that you feed your intercom off. The crew is training for the operation of 60 years ago were well used to the stress of flying under heavy fire. We now are approaching enemy. For the first time, our modern crew is going to get an impression of what flying over war time Germany was like. They're sent to Dortmund to drop propaganda leaflets. The enemy will target them with searchlights, cannon fire and flak. Our gunners have been given their task of knocking out the searchlights. It's the first time they're gonna encounter enemy flaks right at the busiest workload period when they're looking hard to find out where they are and where they want to be. Trying to work out which direction to go ahead and when we're gonna start flashing lights and making noises to zap the capacity. Make life difficult which is what happened. It's very quiet out here. It's the calm before the storm. Okay, crew, bomb aimer, enemy coast ahead, enemy coast ahead. That's copied. Also reporting position of a flak right here. Just done. Good job right in. We're getting flaks outside. Okay, gonna stand by, do jobs. Zero, N for none. That's on time, now, minute 20, comings heavier flak, heavier flak. Captain, there's fire flak guns. Standby. Fire. It soon becomes clear why crisp exact navigation was crucial to survival. By early 1943, the Germans had developed a highly efficient radar and defense system. Crews now had to be routed around to known radar and flak positions. Each time our crew drifts off the exact route, they are picked up by the differences around major German towns. Okay, so I'm standing at 106. Stand there, we got a spotlight on both side. Jim? Of course, they are receiving flak from the front drive. As you saw the target area in front of you glowing on fire. Then you wonder ever, how I'm gonna get through this. They are safer-- Over the road they put a box barrage, these fighter guns endlessly, endlessly hitting. I've been hit something and you'd imagine that initially you never get through that. It's impossible to fly through that and get out to the other side. You certainly thought a bit jelly in the legs for first one or two rounds. But once you got over that, it became a drug. You volunteer to go every night if they tell you. It's amazing really. You just got hot tub on that. Now captain standing by for further instructions. But the flak has made it hard for our crew to stay on track. It's flak not a search light. They are about 5 miles north of track. So this leg, their heading is fine. They should be further south so she's putting a 9 degree drop there. They saw the airfield that they are gonna over and coming out, they find exactly where they were and it's deviate south in a couple of minutes and then it's only back on track now. Crew, radio. Go ahead, radio. Latest intelligence from zero, it's not over the target area, heavy defenses, heavy defenses army, defensive profile for straight in straight out. Copied. Our crew have learned quickly. At first they took a chance when they were off route. They flew over German towns, but were soon shot at. Now, they're avoiding them. So far, they've been lucky. Now we just turn towards it. Okay. Well, I'm standing by for the job. Standing by for the job. Okay, bomb aimer, you need to have good judge of it, because we're gonna get lit up. Okay, good job. But over Dortmund, their right hand engines are peppered by shrapnel. Okay, crew, air chop airfield now, now, now. They immediately lose all power and they're out of starboard engine. Ready and say again. Zero, N for none. Leaflets dropped on time 1200, heavy defenses and searchlights. Mission accomplished, N for none. On three engines, they limb back to the Dutch Coast steadily losing altitude. You're currently maintaining 140 knots, I don't think we get much quicker. We're trying to get out to 150 feet, you calculate it. And we've lost number three engine. Then their other starboard engine gives out. Shutdown number three, confirm, confirm. The aircraft can't maintain altitude on only two engines. Rather than bailout over enemy territory, Lucy decides to head out into the North Sea and ditch the plane. She wants to stay together as a crew. Lose your captain now we're looking at this time just waiting to coast out over the-- rather ditch it and banish, it was a crew then propeller blown out in the enemy territory, we can't maintain on two engines. Okay, crew, standby for ditching. Maintain, maintain, maintain, for ditches. Now I'm trying to get it around the last, so we're into wind we were struggling this time. Standing by for ditching, crew. Standby. Great. Abandon. When you really get involved with it just with the situation and what's going on and it does get quite intense. Just vulnerable. Yeah, very vulnerable. She may look at your options right there, I won't ditch him, I mean there are number of good options, aren't they. I think it's just a good consolidation. And good to see that when it does get a bit stressful everybody close together. We got into trouble again, don't we, we got out of it. Yeah. Our team's lives may not be in danger, but as professional RAF air crew, there is no way they will accept failure. It's gonna be so hard. For starters it's a night and we're using the moon as our only set of source of light and reflections and shadows as our fixed points and turning points. And that's something that none of us have ever done before. Over such a large distance as well and such an important mission, this could be a lot of pressure and then working. We got the interaction as well between the whole crew, and I'm gonna have to try and talk people on to these turning points and look for fixes, look for drift. And it's gonna be very important that cooperation between the crew runs completely smoothly. Otherwise we may well miss the odd fix or turning point which could, you know, throw us miles out and in disaster. I'm quite confident that I can do a role 'cause it's not really so much to learn, you know, for someone to nav, who have maybe hasn't nav in this way before, so there's a lot of information to learn a lot to soak it. Where as it might arouse us more, it's more sort of teamwork. I got to communicate to the nav, you know. So you guys are giving a shot right in, see what happens on this, can be quite exciting.. What maybe people don't realize is the intensity of low flying staff. And now that when you've ever flown at 250 feet and after an hour and a half so at low level. You're physically and mentally drained. So God knows what state these guys came back in, they must have been exhausted. With only two weeks left until the mission, Lucy and her crew are now starting to realize the daunting size of the task ahead. Having been given only 7 weeks to prepare his crews, wing commander Guy Gibson worked them hard. We were intensively flying on Alps, no brass polished buttons, no press, no nothing. We got out in the morning, we flew went back and that was it. Day after day, Gibson had his crews fly up and down the valleys in lakes of England and Wales at very low level. When they could do that, they had to learn to do it at night. Then, they had to practice dropping the mystery weapon. Now steady. Down steady. We first down. To get the correct distance from the dam, crews were given a Y shaped stick. When the two nails lined up with the target, they'd be at exactly 450 yards. Amazingly they still had no idea what their target was. To them, it could have been dam, ships or even submarine pens. We were at that stage completely unaware of what our target was, what the squadron was being formed to attack. We'd been told that it was for--it was being formed for one special raid and that was all. We all speculated was U-boat pens. We'll assume we're going to have a go at the pen 'cause we thought roll this thing up and dam below the bloody-- Okay, crew, you got quite a lot of entrancing terrains, we needed a good look at them. In the last two weeks of their training, our modern crew also have to learn how to drop the bouncing bomb. They use the same Y shaped stick that the Dambusters had. It is mounted on Molly's video screen. He's the bomb aimer. And Captain, head 060. 060. Just like the original crews, they flew out to the Welsh mountains and attack the dam at Lake Bala. It's a long straight lake, a much simpler approach than the German dams will be. Up away. Let's get it down. We need to get down. We need to get down. 160, 120 feet. Keep it coming down, keep it coming down. Come right. Come right. Still too high. Come right too. Keep it coming down. On this first down they do surprisingly well. They managed to line themselves up. Bring it down, still 120 feet. We clear the attack. That's good, that's good, steady, steady, steady. Brilliant, that's it. Bomb is dropped. Slightly far left out, what we need is keep coming right further. That looks good. Molly. When Molly releases the bomb, the simulator freezes, so we can note the exact 3D coordinates of the launch position. Radius, crew. You go ahead. Direct hit, and see there at 2,000 feet hold and wait for new instructions. Copy that. Well, done. Wow, wow, excellent. There was just beginner's luck. For the rest of the week, they attacked dams which have hills around the lake. These are little more like the features they will encounter on the raid. Come down. Very good, looking good. Looking good, good on the height, good on the height. Good on the height, up and there, just a tat, good on height. G-5 left waiting on. I keep going left though. The first week of practice ends on a downbeat. They've flown ten practice missions, they came close to the correct drop point on the first, the other nine have all been misses. Interestingly, it is the y-shaped stick that seems to be causing the problem. The two towers go right there like that, so you can't sort of, can't line it up. So really that, I'm trying to get Lucy to go back up, then of course that's straying on right in the center. So it's kind of like difficult that way. Though he doesn't know it, Molly is actually having the same problem the original crews did. Many of the 1943 bomb aimers dispensed with the Y-shaped stick. They use two X pencil marks on their window to line the aircraft up and a nail on a bit of string to hold their eyes steady. They did the same job, was more flexible and easier to use. We set up a similar solution for Molly on his screen. Will it help? While Gibson's crews have been practicing their dummy bombing runs, Barnes Wallis had also been working flat out. But with every test drop and every modification came a new problem. Originally, Wallis had worked out if the cylindrical bomb would bounce only at an impact angle of less than 7 degrees. That would mean flying incredibly low. He hopes that a height of 150 feet would suffice but the device kept breaking apart. He decided that it would have to be dropped at 60 feet and that will create a whole new problem. That is a big splash. Arthur Kearse is an aeronautical engineering expert, at the former royal aircraft establishment now known as kinetic. He's fascinated by what happens at the precise movement Wallis' device hits the water. Okay, everyone ready? Because Wallis was under such pressure to finish his weapon, much of this key data was never recorded. That's it. Wallis was so focused on the issues to do, we're getting it bounced and understanding, you know, like the ratio, the bounces and the distances and that type of thing. That he didn't look at the kind of whole picture. A little bit. Okay. Arthur has build a test tank in an empty RAF hanger. Ready to fire? Okay, yeah. Okay, countdown from five. Five, four, three, two, one, speed. Big splash. Using a bungee powered catapult, he's firing spinning aluminum cylinders at over 100 miles an hour. Mysterious things are happening. Well, I haven't seen the splash, it's very complicated. In the contact area, things have got sort of move out the way very quickly. What I mean is that in the contact, you can get things like short waves forming and because it's the passage of certainly the air after that contact might be supersonic for example. So it's a very complex business really. Yeah, if you look at this... What Arthur has discovered is that there's an enormous amount of energy transfer at the moment of impact, approximately half of that energy is used to create the bounce, the other half is converted into a huge splash. Wallis found out about the splash problem in a more direct way. Les Knight and his crew were one of the guinea pigs picked to do a test drop. The plan was to fly at right angles to the beach and drop the bomb at 60 feet about quarter of a mile from the shore. The tests were recorded on film and Ray Grayston sitting next to Les Knight in aircraft AJN, remembers the day well. A number of us went down off Manston where we dropped them at in the tank. Problem was that we were told to drop them as low as possible, but of course we had no idea what the height was. The instruments at that time weren't accurate. So you don't know when the 100 feet, well, how much you are, when you're that low and what we thought was about 50 or 30 feet, matter of fact, we were below that and we dropped that in the water splash and the mine drop badly damaged the machine the tail end of it. The tail plane in the back end with a lot of sardine came with the water it hit it. It was all too clear that getting an exact altitude of 60 feet was essential. Any lower, and the aircraft was in great danger. Any higher, and the device wouldn't work. A civilian scientist came up with an ingenious solution. To get the exact height of 60 feet above the water, the navigator left his map table and peered out of the cockpit blister. He looked at the beams of two spotlights fixed to the bottom of the Lancaster. They were set at an angle and met on the water when the aircraft was at exactly 60 feet. While the navigator shouted out the height, the bomb aimer using the string and chinagraph marks called out the position left and right and waited for the correct distance. The flight engineer worked the throttles to get an exact speed of 220 miles per hour. If our crew can get all that right, the bomb will end up in contact with the center of the dam wall. But it will be an extraordinary feat of teamwork and intense concentration. Lucy, our pilot, now not only has to fly, she has to listen to three other people talking at once. You should have another--dead ahead. Okay, standby, Killer 1. In their last week of training, the crew practiced the bomb drop on Denver reservoir. The steep hills around the target recreate the conditions likely to be found in Germany. Good, steady, steady, good, good. That looks good height. That is better. Down, down, good, steady, steady, steady. Good, good, on the coastline. That should have been, is it? That is better. That is better. Well, that's pretty much spot. Okay, I'm freeze. Okay, I'm freezing. Full power up. Full power. Full power. Crew from radio. Yep. The last drop here, hyper spot on. You're five knots slow and we're 100 meters and too early and 100 meters to the right of track that you came into the left. Copy that. But out of 12 practice missions, they only manage to line up well on two occasions. You'd be coming down, still 100. Down, down, good, steady, steady, steady. To make things even more realistic, Frankie the mission controller calls up Lucy on the VHF radio and offers advice. Killer 9, this is Killer 1, watch new approaches from the overhead. Your approach is almost perfect. This is exactly what Guy Gibson, the original crews wing commander would have done in the air to his pilots. He's flying directly overhead the spot height. And then dropping down afterwards which will give you the perfect approach. Lucy now has to listen to four people on her headset. Up, up, up. Steady, steady, steady. Good, good height. It's good. I'm freeze. I'm freezing. Despite the extra chatter on the radio, Lucy and her crew actually benefit from the guidance. Their next two attempts, a long short successes. But the crew don't like accepting help. Exactly, listen to them now. Yeah. I was just getting this apple message from someone who knows better. Victor everybody else. We're all right, army. Soon I got a sabotage message. We don't need anybody else. Okay, 089. Pull up, pull up, pull up. Boy, just crashed. ***. Would have been a posthumous species. They are full bridge, that's outline perfect. Good. Thank you. Well done, crew. So you destroyed the damn and we'd die in the process. That's good. I like that. It's a disaster. Guy Gibson would not have been impressed. Our crew have had the same amount of training for the mission as the Dambusters of 60 years ago. But they obviously lack the hours of operational experience that flyers had back then. If they had been flying a real lanc, the chances are that they would not have been distracted. Pretty much like the way that everyone-- I know what you mean, when we say steady and level in art. To underline the need for constant concentration, the RAF took Al and Terry off on a day's air gun recourse. Thanks, we're gonna fly up to hold the trench to start with which is south side of the wash, and I guess flying practice on M-60. Over the last couple of months, Al and Terry have been reading accounts written by Lancaster gunners of 60 years ago. Very lonely, I think--'cause you're just so far away from anyone else. Hence he or she might yell, I love space, ground space. And you are on your own thing which means quiet. Very demanding job to register. This is I'll go for the whole shorter. But I didn't think they were very vulnerable. I mean, obviously the whole crew was in danger, it's dangerous job to be any part of the crew but I think the gunners, especially the rear gunner is--of the meeting about it and suddenly two of the worst dangers were freezing cold and fire. His guns would seize up, they are now look to be good frozen, very dangerous. It's very easy to sit in Iraq, be in board and just to sort of lose yourself in, in the outside world. And then suddenly somebody starts shooting at you. You've got split second to react. You haven't got time to whop your bullets on to the target. You got split second to shoot back. You know, you better stay in it's gonna kill you. So that level of concentration for 6 hours, 7 hours, so this is just, it's somewhat different planning it for-- While Al and Terry were shooting up barges, Lucy went to pick the brains of a real Lancaster pilot. Back in 1943, one of the specially modified Lancasters was delivered to RAF Scampton. Crews were amazed to see a woman emerged from the cockpit. From 1939 to '45, Lettice Curtis flew with hundreds of other women in the air transport auxiliary delivering airplanes from factories to squadrons all around the country. How much training did you get on the Lancaster before you flew one? You got no training on the Lancaster, people were trained on the Halifax, which was heavier to fly. And one should be cleared on the Halifax. You just flew the Lancaster. How old were you when you used to fly these? Oh, well, at here woman old enough they are in 20s. It's about my age. What other aircraft did you fly? Every thing. Really? So even a Spitfire. Oh, yes. Oh, we started on Spitfire, that was the beginning. Wow. Women were not allowed to fly operational aircraft,--September 41. Right. Which people forget, was about the worst time in the world. 'Cause all that the shipping was all being bombed and at times we're being volunteer and things. And then I think they were just desperate, they had to let women, you know, they just had to have pilots. Then you have the manpower I guess. During the war, there were 166 ATA women flying RAF aircraft. Today the RAF has 43 active female pilots. Lucy is one of them. Tonight will be her last chance to perfect her flying skills before attempting the dam's raid. After 7 weeks of intensive training, Lucy and her crew are at the final stage. Crew right is now attacking, crew shouldn't be long--. And they say again the perfect heading for the target run is 181F. This last practice exercise is designed to get them as close to real operation readiness as possible. Tonight they will fly in the company of eight other virtual aircraft. This is going to be an enormous challenge to Lucy's powers of concentration. Not only will she have to focus on the instructions of her own crew, she also has to be aware of what the eight other aircraft are doing. The skies above the dam are going to be crowded. Beyond that she also has to separate out the orders of her flight leader from all the other radio chatter. Finally to make things even more realistic and hence distracting, Lucy will be fired on by enemy gun emplacements around the dam. Her own gunners Al and Terry will return fire. Got an enemy. Okay, there's a spit right ahead of us. Okay. Keep it, coming down. Keep it, coming down. ATP, keep it, coming down. Steady, good height, good height, good height, good height. down a bit, Lucy, down a bit. Down a bit, down a bit. Steady, steady, steady, steady, steady. Good height, good height, good height, good height. Good height, good height, good height. Why have you fired, Molly? No problems, job, repeat, no problems job. Why? Way too far left. Their attack crump is off by 100 meters to the left. The chatter is sapping Lucy's concentration. My brain's just going to die about, four people speaking at once. 100 feet. They're ordered to go back around. They will get one last chance to attack the target. Still 100 feet. 80 feet. Steady. Good height, good height, good height. Good height, good height. Good height. Come right. Good height. Good height, good height, good height. Up a bit, up a bit, up a bit, up a bit. Good height, steady. Oh, it's gone. It was good volume, good job. Height perfect. Timing perfect. Speed perfect. Go 100 meters left of the ideal track--. You hit the dam, only a partial bridge. Tonight with their training over, our modern crew has completed over 20 practice bombing rounds. At that time they have only managed to get lined up into the exact drop position three times. Good height, good height, good height. We're done. There are now just 24 hours until they take off from the simulated dam's raid. Tension is high. I was a little bit skeptical about it first. I thought was it gonna be like, what's the sim gonna be like. Will it be realistic? You know, is it gonna be silly? But now I got in and done it and you really get involved with it. And you really feel like you actually do something for real. You really feel like flying the aircraft and you're part of the team. Is a real challenge. Especially just not even been able to look out, like-- And fly along this. It's hard enough to find your way around anyway. But to not be able to see out and just it's just really hard and just has to be really careful what you're saying, and how you describe things. See like how complicated it gets on the radio. Sometimes people are feeding too much information. We're trying to control that. So easy to make a mistake. We done our best to recreate, it's kind of close to how it was done. It's possible but you never gonna get to fly with in Germany in Lancaster you and I did. And partly thinks maybe we just not doing as much justice as we could be. 'Cause if we go over that, if we did this mission to one, flying to Germany bomb it down, come back. You're like everyone's heroes. But at same time-- Not really. No, you know, it just--he's done a part of what they did.