Footage from "The Dambusters" in "War in the Air"

I enjoyed the recent free DVDs of the “War in The Air” documentary series which came with the “Daily Mail”. On viewing the episode entitled “Round the Clock” I noticed that the “Dambusters” raid is featured using some archive footage and also what appears to be unused footage from “The Dambusters”. There are some shots of what are clearly the film aircraft with the fake wooden and plaster bombs (looking like large cheeses) under the bomb bay. Unlike similar shots in the film there are no tracer/flak effects (which were added in post production).

What is even stranger is that “The Dambusters” was filmed in the Summer of 1954 and premiered in 1955 but “War in The Air” was shown from November 1954 onwards. There is nothing unusual about feature film footage being used in a documentary but it very strange for excerpts from a feature film to appear in a documentary before that film has had its cinema release.

Colin