Dam Busters behind the scenes film pictures

As a comparative youngster I was converting onto the Canberra at Cottesmore in 1972. One of the nav instructors told me he was one of the navs used flying the Lancs in the film, and, though he enjoyed the flying, said what a tight fisted outfit the producers were. As a thanks to the real aircrew involved they put on a barrel of beer in the Officer’s mess at Hemeswell. This was because the Mess at Scampton had changed, and they used clips from this party in the film itself.

Great pictures! thanks for sharing them. Once I looked at them there are good links too, to the Telegraph videos – one of the cockpit view from the Lanc on the 70th anniversary fly past. Wonderful!

Some more behind the scenes for you

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Fantastic! Thanks for posting. Oh, more please.

Some more behind the scenes for you

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Another view of the dressed up wing “damage”

Lancasters used in the film were Mk 7s NX673, NX679 and RT686 as the “dambusters” and Mk 7 NX782 as the standard Lancaster of 106 Squadron.

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The attached has appeared on the iPad version of today’s Daily Telegraph, but doesn’t seem to be on the website version. 3 “Dambusters” Lancs, plus the one in 106sq markings.

Yes, hunterxf382 that’s the one. The article in the magazine said that 3 Lancs were drawn from storage and converted to look like the Upkeep aircraft. One more was left as original to be used i.e for the opening sequence. The RAF charged the film company £100 per engine hour! 40 per cent of the films cost! 4 RAF pilots flew them.
mmitch.

Some more behind the scenes pictures on the DM website today.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324297/Behind-scenes-The-Dam-Busters-How-crews-created-scale-models-targets-flew-real-Lancasters-make-classic-war-film.html

Outstanding photos, thanks for sharing the link…

In response to mmitch:

This one? http://dambusters.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/2012_04_25_14_06_470001.jpg

Interesting. Could that be Barnes Wallis standing on the ‘bridge’ in photo 6?
There are some more in the LLA ‘Memorial Flight’ Spring magazine.
mmitch.

Most certainly is the great man himself.

In the LLA magazine I mentioned before, in an interview Richard Todd stated that with an RAF pilot crouching out of sight he taxied a Lanc fast enough to ‘get its tail up’. There is also a photo of the three Lancs with their ‘prop’ bombs still fitted, flying wing tip to wing tip over a crowd at what looks like an ‘At home day’ after filming had finished.
mmitch.

This is the group of pilots that flew the Lancaster during the making of the film

Really?

Looks like three pilots, three flight engineers and one other to me.

Brilliant images though, thanks for posting them.

Moggy

I seem to remember an article in Flypast or aeroplane saying 3 I think?

How many Lancasters were available to the film makers for use in the film Dambusters?

Brilliant! Haven’t seen these before. Thanks for posting. For me the most epic war film of all time. There was talk that Richard Todd Actually taxied the Lanc in a film scene. One thing I feel sure of, they could not re produce any thing so good as this portrayal of the Dambusters today. Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave and all the crew just perfect.

Interesting. Could that be Barnes Wallis standing on the ‘bridge’ in photo 6?
There are some more in the LLA ‘Memorial Flight’ Spring magazine.
mmitch.