Dambusters – The legendary Bomb Sight

I went to the prep school which was Hydneye house in the mid fifties. The then headmaster Gerald Brodribb had recently taken it over from David Maltby’s father, Ettrick.

The entrance hall had a huge (well it seemed huge at 7 years old!) marble memorial to the Dambusters and particularly the crew of AJ-J. The school also had a small museum with all the usual fossils etc and the Dambusters items. The school was bought with a compulsory purchase order in the 1960s because the cretinous local council (Aren’t they all) decided that the only place they could possibly build a ghastly secondary modern school was on that site so they demolished the beautiful building that was there. It was in the early throws of being demolished when I revisited it for the last time in the late sixties and Gerald gave me the items because I had been fascinated by them when a pupil. I also picked up a lump of the Dambusters memorial which the “people” (for want of a better word) who were demolishing it had smashed to pieces. It has been one of my fondest possessions ever since.

I noticed that Charles Foster had written a book on his uncle David Maltby and contacted him as I thought he would be interested.

Anyone in the Taunton area at any time is more than welcome to see it all

David

David,

May I be the first to say “You lucky, lucky, luckyetc etc etc”. To say that I am green with envy is the understatement of the year.

Incidentally, regarding my tangent above, during last week I came across the the gravestone of the parents of the Maltby on our local war memorial, easily identifiable as it listed all their children… and not a David amongst them. So I can safely put that one down to youthful enthusiasm getting carried away.

Adrian

Hi, I,m the guy who has the above bomb aiming sight from AJ-J.

If anyone is interested it is on my website; www.astrocollection.com (go to pioneers, inventors, aviation, war then War, Atomic bomb then Dambusters)with some other Dambusters stuff. The website is largely Space orientated but I also love aviation particularly things that “were there”.

David

I have been know to partake of the odd lager myself.

The author has spotted this thread and contacted me with a request to post this.

David was born in Baldslow, near Hastings, and lived there until he joined the RAF in 1940. The family house was a boys’ prep school, Hydneye House School, and it was evacuated to Germansweek in Devon in 1940, so he used to go there on leave in the war. In 1942, he married Georgina (Nina) Goodson whose family came from Wickhambreaux in Kent, in St Andrew’s church in the village. His funeral was in the same church in September 1943, and he is buried in the churchyard.

Hope this is of interest.

I’m happy to pass any other queries onto him, or post them here, I’m sure he’ll pop back from time to time.

Moggy

Beyond this we will probably never know more.

Moggy

Cheers moggy…didnt see the bit about varnish…must get better glasses:rolleyes:

I’d better stick to what I know about… ie good quality continental lagers:D

cheers baz

I have a feeling that there is one of those wooden bomb sights in the Barnes Wallis Collection at Elvington but it may be a replica rather than one that was used on the Dams raids. I remember one of the staff showing me how it was used during the op.

Regards
Linzee

If you chase up Moggy’s website and click on the crews, then click on David Maltby, there’s a fair bit in there, where did your distant cousin live, presumably no-where near Sampford!!
I thought you might get your hiking boots out and meet us at Strines, more chance of getting a better pint up there than our last effort in the Fox!!

Nothing wrong with that pint – you paid! :p

All the connections seem to be Kent, so I’m fairly sure that it’s just youthful enthusiasm getting carried away. I don’t think it’s worth bothering the author, somehow!

Adrian

Indeed.

It is a trip for the C47 to commemorate the Airlift, though I see one of the fighters is going with it.

Top cover in case the Russians send a Mig?

Moggy

Just looked on the BBMF website as a result of this thread.

End of May they are going to Berlin.

But not taking the Lancaster

What can they be thinking of? :diablo:

Moggy

I’ve heard that this is a ruse, currently efforts are being made to desperately make Just Jane airworthy and the CWH Lanc is secretly being flown over here for positioning. The plan is for the three of them to over fly the Brandenburg gate at low level firing blanks.
C’mon,would this have been good idea, are the survivors of Berlin going to appreciate this, the past can’t be forgotten with so many survivors and memories from either side, we have to let it go, presumably, it will be simply the BBMF Dak celebrating the Berlin Airlift, lets leave it at that.

Just looked on the BBMF website as a result of this thread.

End of May they are going to Berlin.

But not taking the Lancaster

What can they be thinking of? :diablo:

Moggy

😀

Many used their own makeshift systems for working out the release points, with pieces of string and chinagraph marks on the perspex blister

{ snip }

The metal plate was obviously added later when the sight went on display. The varnish was probably also applied at this time

Beyond this we will probably never know more.

Moggy

Indeed, “totally useless” is the phrase that springs to mind.

Alternatives are mentioned in the article

Moggy

Indeed moggy,but does anybody know how many crews actually used the ‘official’ sight,it might also give problems in a crosswind(the bomb aimers optically flat panel is fairly narrow).
If I were a bomb aimer I would rather have a fixed pair of datum lines than a dodgy looking mobile device.
Also how many practice runs did this crew do?The ‘sight’ looks almost pristine,I know you might say it could have been refurbished !!
But it is a genuine question on my part…does anybody actually know how many crews used the official ‘sight’?

cheers baz

Just looked on the BBMF website as a result of this thread.

End of May they are going to Berlin.

But not taking the Lancaster

What can they be thinking of? :diablo:

Moggy

First off, apologies for a slightly bizarre tangent!

This reminded me. On visiting a distant cousin who grew up during WW2, he said to me something about “the house where the Dambuster lived”. Further prying brought out the fact that apparently the “last name on the chalkboard” in the film was the person concerned.

Whether there is any basis in fact or not, I don’t know, or whether it was just an impressionable lad getting carried away. I just wonder, though, whether anyone knows where David Maltby’s family lived, as I know there was a family of that name in the village at the time. I know he’s buried at Wickhambreux, Kent, but don’t know whether that’s where he’d lived re-war or not.

Any assistance you can offer in proving or disproving this would be greatly appreciated!

Adrian

If you chase up Moggy’s website and click on the crews, then click on David Maltby, there’s a fair bit in there, where did your distant cousin live, presumably no-where near Sampford!!
I thought you might get your hiking boots out and meet us at Strines, more chance of getting a better pint up there than our last effort in the Fox!!

All very interesting, however where is the chap saying in a marked Australian accent –

“This is bloody dangerous!”

Absolute height of the film when I saw it as a child 😀

but might not be so good with a crosswind(ie aircraft ‘crabbing’)

Indeed, “totally useless” is the phrase that springs to mind.

Alternatives are mentioned in the article

Moggy

As a few of us have said on here before,I believe that not all crews used the official ‘sight’,potentially the easiest ‘sight’ would be vertical lines on the fwd window since presumably the sight was to estimate the distance from target.
Lines on the window would not be so susceptible to turbulence etc,but might not be so good with a crosswind(ie aircraft ‘crabbing’)

cheers baz

Not sure if anyone else has seen it but a well known High Street Newsagent/Stationers has an exclusive magazine out on the raid.
It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a collection of articles written elsewhere but is an interesting brief read for £6.99.

In the movie the ring at the back actually rested against the bomb aimers cheek.

Moggy

Perspective

Nice find Moggy. But I’m puzzling (thinking aloud so to speak) about the hand held nature of the device.

Wouldn’t the relative position of the dam towers shift as you moved the sight closer or further from the eye? Put that another way, you would need to determine and maintain a fixed position (distance from bomb aimer’s face) to have consistent results?