The Dam Busters

By Iain Murray (12 November 2002)

Introduction

My expectations for Just Flight's version were for moderate historical coverage of the subject matter, and good quality flightsim representations for the aircraft, scenery and missions included in the package - oddly, the reality was the opposite; I found excellent historical coverage in the breadth, depth and detail of the topic, but the flightsim elements were ultimately rather disappointing in some respects.

The Just Flight Package is nicely presented, and includes a comprehensive manual.

Historical Perspective

After the Dams Raid proved Wallis' theories, his "big bomb" concept was re-awakened, the now-proven Lancaster being capable of carrying initially a scaled-down 6-ton version (Tallboy) and eventually (with further modification) the full 10-ton version (Grand Slam).

617 Squadron, which had been formed specially for the Dams Raid and instantly gained legendary status as "The Dambusters", became a special duties squadron and when Wallis' new bombs became available, were the primary means of delivering them - which they did to great effect against targets as varied as tunnels, docks, secret weapon sites, U-boat pens and capital ships; many of these targets would have been virtually impregnable to conventional bombs.

See the end of this article for suggestions for further reading on Wallis and "The Dam Busters".

First Impressions

The CFS2 graphics are modified to the Dambusters' theme

FS2000/FS2002

Overall, if I was a user of only FS2000 or FS2002 and had bought this package, I would be enormously disappointed with it, as it offers so little. Perhaps it would have been better to label the package as purely for CFS2 users - or to add a bit more into the FS2000/FS2002 version of the package.

Looks like the Möhne Dam, but this is actually the Eder; the surrounding terrain is too flat (FS2002).

CFS2

Aircraft

Firstly, we have the Vickers Wellington, equipped with a spherical test bomb. Next we have three different versions of the Lancaster - a basic B.I as used for squadron training, the B.III equipped with the cylindrical Upkeep mine, and the B.I "Special" which carried the ten-ton Grand Slam bomb. All versions of the Lancaster look absolutely fabulous, capturing the essence of the aircraft very well; the engine start-up sequence is great, and the wonderfully atmospheric sound effects make the flying experience complete.

Two versions of the Upkeep Lancaster are included - one with a rotating bomb, and one with a non-rotating bomb (rotating the bomb enabled it to bounce further, but the Sorpe Dam was attacked along its length and the bomb was not to bounce). This is a rather pedantic difference - the bomb was a smooth cylinder so the fast rotation (~500 rpm) was barely noticeable, and the bomb was only rotated on approaching the target - in the simulator, the bomb is rotating all the time which is rather odd - it also rotates very slowly just so you can see that it is! The famous spot lamps for determining the height of the aircraft over the water are featured and functioning; the classic error is there too - they shine virtually straight down below the aircraft, where they would have been impossible to see by the crew (on the real aircraft, the beams were angled out to the side by around 30° so the spots of light were roughly under the starboard wingtip)! However, they do offer the opportunity to actually use the lamps to judge height, if you are brave enough to pilot the Lancaster from spot plane view (no pun intended) on the approach to the dams.

All the aircraft in the package are visually excellent - here the Upkeep-equipped Lancaster flies over RAF Woodhall Spa (FS2002)

Surprisingly omitted altogether from the package is the special Lancaster version which carried the Tallboy bomb - this had bulged bomb-bay doors to go round the large girth of the bomb; in the simulator, the Tallboy is carried by the B.I "Special", although in reality this was only used for the Grand Slam (the bomb bay doors were removed altogether, and other changes, most noticeably the removal of two of the gun turrets, were made to save weight).

Finally, a Mosquito is included; this was used by 617 Squadron for precision low-level marking of targets (a technique pioneered by 617, originally with Lancasters), which would then be bombed by the Lancasters from high level. Eventually, 617 used an even more manoeuvrable Mustang for this job, but this aircraft is not included in the package. However, having included a marking Mosquito and already stretched the 617 theme by including the test drop Wellington, it would have been a nice "extra" to have included a 618 Squadron Mosquito, which was equipped with the anti-ship version of the "bouncing bomb", known as Highball. Although not used in combat (though it very nearly was), it would have been a great addition to this package, perhaps with an extra mission to attack the Tirpitz (which is already included), one of the primary targets for Highball.

The panels are excellent too - here the Lancaster; the yoke can be turned off for a better view of the instruments

In terms of performance, all the aircraft seem reasonable (not being a pilot of real aircraft, especially WW2 warplanes, I can't speak definitively!) and fly as is to be expected from the specifications. The Lancasters are nicely manoeuvrable (the real plane was famed for its almost fighter-like handling), though (even heavily loaded) seem able to "leap" off the runways (still, this is true of most sim aircraft) but conversely when returning from missions lightly loaded, seem enormously sluggish in the air!

Scenery

As in the FS2000/2002 version, we have RAF Woodhall Spa, and here we also get RAF Scampton (with a pavement runway, although it had only a grass runway when 617 Squadron was in residence - this was one reason for moving the squadron and its increasingly heavy payloads to an airfield with a proper runway); Yagodnik in Russia is also included, as it was used a temporary base for the first attack on the Tirpitz. All of these bases appear on the airfield menu in Free Flight mode, so you can go directly to them. The bases are reasonably simply presented (perhaps for frame rate reasons), but I would have hoped for a bit more detail (even as an option).

As well as the bases, the minimal "target" scenery to be expected is just what has been delivered - one of the English dams used for testing, the three primary target dams in Germany (the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe) as well as many of the "big bomb" targets. Given their importance in the scenarios, the dams scenery is generally pretty poor. The curved Möhne and Eder dams are both simply represented by three straight segments, which is really unacceptable - I managed to make a curved Möhne dam for FS98 with the tools available then, so this level of detail in a commercial release is just not on! Worse is the fact that both dams are the same, the Eder being a copy of the Möhne - superficially the real dams are similar, but differentiating details are surely to be expected in this package. Other landmarks around the reservoirs, such as the bridges across the Möhne lake, and Waldeck Castle near the Eder (which was used as an important visual reference on the raid), are conspicuous by their absence from the scenery. It would also have been a nice idea to improve the rather too flat (and treeless) default mesh terrain around all three major dams, and to attempt to blend the dams into the mesh terrain a bit more convincingly. Several minor dams in the Ruhr area were identified as secondary targets for 617 to attack on the same night (one of these was actually attacked by one of the reserve aircraft), but none of these dams are included in the package.

Some of the scenery (e.g. the dams) does appear outwith the missions, so you can visit it in Free Flight mode, but this is not true of all (for instance, the Tirpitz appears only within the missions). Notable as the most accurate of the target scenery items, the Tirpitz is very well rendered and detailed. In their defence, the scenery items will normally been seen during missions, when they will either be quite distant or in low light, so perhaps their low visual quality is of lower importance.

The fine model of the Tirpitz, which you may briefly see as you follow your Tallboy down to its target.

Weapons

On then to the big bombs. Visually, the Tallboy and Grand Slam were virtually the same, the latter really just a scaled up version of the former. The representation of both in the simulator is pretty basic. Both appear slightly too thin, and have a blunt tail (rather than a point), tail fins which are too small and inaccurately appear in two-tone grey (the real bombs were two-tone green). Wallis offset the tail fins by a few degrees, causing the bombs to spin about their long axis as they fell, giving gyroscopic stability for a smooth transition through the sound barrier - this is shown on the bombs, but it is angled to the wrong side! The bombs don't actually spin nor head particularly nose-down as they fall, but this is can be put down to CFS2 itself.

Missions

The bomb-aimer's view on the approach to the Möhne Dam - note the "sixpenny bombsight"

After the test drop of the "bouncing bomb", there are two missions over the Derwent Reservoir in the unconverted Lancaster to practice flying precise speed and height. Then you are ready for the real dam missions - either the Möhne or Sorpe can be selected (very curiously, there is no mission to attack the Eder, the most challenging of the dams). Also surprisingly, given the general attention to historical detail, your wingmen in the missions all have fictitious names - it would have been nice to have flown alongside the real men who accomplished these exploits! In the outward flights, the missions are straightforward and accurate, involving essentially a series of course changes punctuated by some heartstopping moments avoiding patches of flak and searchlights, as well as electricity pylons. The Sorpe was attacked later in the night when mist had closed in, and this is nicely depicted, as is the already breached Möhne which is flown past en route to the Sorpe.

Approaching the Möhne, the pilot can set up a smooth approach at the right speed and height, then switch to the bomb aimer's view, complete with the famous "sixpenny" bombsight made from wood and a couple of nails - when these lined up with the towers on the dam, the moment to drop the bomb had arrived. If all three factors are correct, then the dam is breached - the explosion seems to come a long time after the attack (even a while after the status message says the dam is destroyed) but a fly-around over the broken dam is an enormously satisfying experience! The breach effect is not particularly sophisticated (there is a cloud of spray and a change in the wall, though the power station below the dam is not demolished) but it does the job!

"It's gone!" - the Möhne is breached and the deluge has started - very satisfying!!

After a couple of missions using 12,000lb blast bombs (these appear not to have been modelled - your bomb bay appears empty on these missions), we move on to Wallis' big bomb missions, and (after a couple of training missions) we have the opportunity to take out some unique targets. These include three battleships - Tirpitz, Lützow and the French Gueydon (to stop the Germans using it as a blockship), two V-weapon sites, two U-boat pens, the Bielefeld Viaduct, and Hitler's hideout in the Bavarian Alps (617's last wartime mission).

These later missions do become a bit repetitive - warping away from base, you arrive pretty much lined up on the target, drop your bomb (following the bomb down in Bomb View is almost mandatory on these missions!), then just warp home again! A couple of missions have you marking (dropping flares) for the main force in the Mosquito, which does offer a bit of a change.

The nicely rendered BI "Special" Lancaster carrying a rather poorly represented "Grand Slam" bomb

The most blatant historical error I found in the package was the first Tirpitz raid from Yagodnik, to attack the ship in Alten Fjord ... but on this mission, the ship is actually in Tromsø Fjord, just as (correctly) in the later raid when she was sunk! This raid is also foiled by the weather, rather than (as on the real mission) the smoke generated artificially around the ship by the Germans. It's a shame too that the detailing on the Tirpitz can't be appreciated from 15,000ft!

I noticed that a FW-190 fighter is included in the list of AI aircraft, though I've not yet met this in combat! Towards the end of the war as the might of the Luftwaffe waned substantially, even in daylight, 617 were often unchallenged on their attacks, but I would have liked to see some enemy fighters in the simulation, even just to break the monotony in the missions. They were famously unchallenged on the Tirpitz raids, even though a squadron of Me-109s was assigned to protect the warship (for various reasons, they always failed to appear at the right time!) ... surely this simulation would have been a great opportunity to see what "might have been"?

The bomb-aimer's view on the approach to the Bielefeld Viaduct - can you see the join?

A couple of other missions which would have made good additions to the package are less well-known dambusting missions. 617 mounted a successful mission to destroy the Kembs Dam on the Swiss border - this 1944 mission unusually saw Tallboys dropped at low level (there was no time to train new crews to use Upkeep), and so would have made a novel mission for this package. Another dam busting mission using Tallboy was a return visit to the Sorpe Dam in October 1944 - this was unusually undertaken by 9 Squadron alone (many missions, including the Tirpitz raids, were undertaken by 617 and 9 Squadrons together - 9 Squadron were the only other users of Tallboy) which probably accounts for it being less well known, and although the dam was actually hit by several Tallboys, it was not breached.

Summary

Suggestions For Further Reading

http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/irmurray/wallis.asp

Iain Murray
irmurray@computing.dundee.ac.uk