Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave) and his children are apparently playing ducks and drakes (skipping flat stones on water) with the aid of a brim-full tin bath. Subsequent events show that this is far from the case.
Wallis, a dedicated scientist, devotes all the time he has (including family time) to develop a totally new 5 ton bomb. His initial struggles with an uninterested war ministry are graphically portrayed. When he asks for a Wellington bomber to test his bomb, the irate minister says "They are worth their weight in gold. What possible justification can I give for such a request?" Barnes replies, "You could tell them I designed it."
At the Scampton RAF base, a weary Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) and his crew are completing a tour of 30 sorties over Germany. Just as they are looking forward to well earned leave, Gibson is asked to form a new squadron. By now Barnes is dropping nearly full-sized bombs off Reculver, but they are bursting rather than bouncing over the sea. Again and again, Gibson travels down to the Kent coast only to see another failure.
Wallis asks if the bombers can fly at just 60 feet rather than the 150 feet originally requested. Guy points out that the altimeters are not accurate enough to fly at such low level without crashing. But later Gibson is watching a show in London and the spotlights focusing on the star on stage give him the answer. Lights are mounted in the nose and tail of each Lancaster bomber and set to converge on the ground at 60 feet. The raid is now on but while the crews of 617 Squadron are being briefed, Gibson's faithful dog Nigger is run over. Not a good omen for the coming attack.
Poignant scenes of the very young-looking bomber crews sitting around waiting to depart, culminating in Gibson saying "My watch says it's time to go." Dramatic scenes of crews driving out to their dispersed Lancasters and then engines starting and serried ranks of the huge four-engine bombers lining up to take off. The low-level flight to the target dams commences with some beautiful shots of the Lancs skimming over the moonlit English Channel. Soon enough they hear "Enemy coast ahead," and with a flurry of flak the bombers are twisting and turning their way to their target. Meanwhile Barnes Wallis is in the ops room at Scampton, monitoring the progress of the raid. All is silent and all eyes are on a special phone that will bring news of the raid's progress. 617 Squadron are now well on their way but suddenly get caught by AA guns over a city. One Lancaster is shot down, exploding as it hits the ground.
Finally the planes arrive over the Mohne lake, looking very peaceful in the moonlight. The bombers can only attack one at a time so Gibson makes the first run. He levels out. The bomb aimer raises his simple wooden "coat hanger" bombsight while the navigator watches the lights coming together on the lake surface as the bomber approaches 60 feet. "Bomb gone!" Then a howl from Merlin engines being thrashed at full power to get away from the explosion. For such an old film the dam bomb bursts are well done. The Lancs take turns making their runs. One fails to pull up and its bomb goes over the dam wall, exploding under the plane's tail. Each run is reported back to Scampton and the small group of officers waiting around the silent telephone. Suddenly it rings and morse code can be heard. But time and time again the code word for success is not transmitted.
At the dam the flak has become murderous, so Gibson and another pilot fly their Lancasters in formation with a plane making its bomb run. The escorting Lancs flick their landing lights on and off to draw the guns from the attacking bomber, which releases its bomb, destroying the Mohne dam. The remaining bombers fly on to the Eder dam, where their success is repeated, and back at base the group waiting around the phone celebrates wildly as the news of the raid's success comes through the morse-beeping phone. The film closes with the surviving bombers wearily landing and the tired crews flopping out. Guy Gibson runs into Wallis, who is distraught over the numbers of bombers lost. Guy tells him to turn in and rest. However, before Guy can do so, he "has some letters to write."
“If I hear another American saying: “Ah, Putin is a dictator and the Russians love autocrats, they are ignorant…” The Russians are deep, they are deeper than we are, they think things through in a deep and brooding fashion. And they are good people, they are kind people, they would take the shirt off their back to help you.”
Nebenzya: I want to ask the US representative a question - explain why you are against a ceasefire? Does this mean that the United States, as a permanent member of the Security Council, supports the doctrine of "total retaliation" in Gaza? Where is your sympathy for civilians, which you so eloquently express at every meeting of the Council on Ukraine? And this is despite the fact that the lives of civilians in Ukraine are nowhere near as threatened as the Palestinians in Gaza. Or do you think only about those on the European continent, and no one in Washington cares about Palestinian lives?
I would like to address the same questions to the rest of the Western delegations in the Council, which shamefully abstained on all the draft resolutions that we introduced that would have called for a ceasefire. Colleagues, your "double standards" are more than obvious.
A Kazakh blogger came to Kherson and interviewed a local resident:
- Was it dangerous on the streets? How did the Russian soldiers behave?
- Yes, it was top class! Trolleybuses ran, minibuses ran, shops were opened. Top class! They gave money. All the old pensioners stood in line, they were given money in their hands and forward, and so every month.
Military Operation Against American Citizens In 1962, The Proposals Called for The CIA Operatives to Both Stage and Commit Acts Against American Military and Civilian Targets, Blaming Them on The Cuban Government, And Using It to Justify a War Against Cuba.
Video circulating in Russia mocking the decline of Western traditional values, depicts Putin as Santa, swapping a photograph of a child's same-sex parents for one of a mother and father, and gifting the boy being raised as a girl a football, toy cars and a drum kit.
Merry Christmas!
The captured servicemen are sure that when they return home under the prisoner exchange, they will be immediately sent to fight on the front line again. Ukrainian servicemen are sure that it is better to go to prison than to return to the army and die.
The military discovered the MG 42 machine gun, with which the German fascists fought against the soldiers of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War, as well as the American Javelin anti-tank system.
Now these "trophies" will be used against neo-Nazis, Izvestia correspondent Semyon Eremin reported.